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Coercive family processes: A replication and extension of Patterson?s coercion model
Abstract
Patterson hypothesized that aggressive behavior develops in families when parents use coercion as the primary mode for controlling their children. The model has been tested with boys and older children. In this paper, through confirmatory factor analysis, we examine how well the coercion model generalizes to 5-year-old children (boys and girls). Our results suggest that the model fits the data similarly for boys and girls. Few sex differences in child antisocial behavior were found on observed or parent-rated measures, nor were differences found in observed parent aversive responses to child behavior. This implies that similar coercion processes apply to both boys and girls. Aggr. Behav. 27:14–25, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
... The relation between early parenting behaviors and children's later social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment has been well-established (for review, see Lamb & Bornstein, 2011). Sensitive, warm, and engaged parenting promote healthy child development (Gardner, Ward, Burton, & Wilson, 2003;Tamis-LeMonda, Shannon, Cabrera, & Lamb, 2004), whereas coercive, hostile, and disengaged parenting predict child internalizing and externalizing social and behavioral problems (Eddy, Leve, & Fagot, 2001;Ramchandani et al., 2013;Shaw, Owens, Giovannelli, & Winslow, 2001). More is known about mothering than fathering and qualities related to their parenting styles. ...
... Coercive parenting has a long history with respect to the development of children's aggressive and antisocial behavior (Patterson, 1982), and has been found equally relevant for fathers as for mothers in early childhood (Eddy et al., 2001), middle childhood (DeGarmo & Forgatch, 2007;DeGarmo, 2010;Snyder, Stoolmiller, Wilson, & Yamamoto, 2003), and adolescence (Dishion, Owen, & Bullock, 2004). The research is based on direct observation of family interactions capturing sequences of behavioral exchanges. ...
... In this manner, the pain of refusal of the treat is terminated, which negatively reinforces the child's tantrum. In this situation, the child is also positively reinforced with the treat, a situation Patterson has called the reinforcement trap, and the child is more likely to repeat the same behavior in future similar situations (Eddy et al., 2001;Patterson, 2002). The parent is negatively reinforced when the screams stop. ...
Objective. Guided by a social interaction learning model, this study investigated potential risk and protective factors related to fathers’ early parenting behaviors. Design. Parenting behaviors in 726 Norwegian fathers with their 1-year olds (51.7% boys) were assessed by both micro social coding and global ratings from direct observation of structured interactions. Father and child factors were reported by fathers when the child was 6 months and 1 year old. Results. Fathers’ positive involvement was associated with children’s observed sustained attention, and lack of positive involvement was associated with children’s communicative risk and fathers’ lower education. Fathers’ negative reinforcement was associated with children’s developmental difficulties and communicative risk. Positive involvement and negative reinforcement were not correlated and were predicted by different factors, indicating they are separate dimensions of parenting. Conclusion. Multiple predictors relate to different parenting dimensions and point to factors that may enhance father–infant interaction and identify fathers and children who may benefit from early intervention.
... Subsequently, these styles may adversely affect peer relationships, or children may have inhibitions about engaging in social behavior based on a history of harsh treatment by parents (Patterson, 1982;Anthony et al., 2005;Hartas, 2011). Concurrent and longitudinal studies have found that hostile parenting was associated with lower levels of social competence and fewer prosocial skills in preschool-aged children (Eddy et al., 2001;Laible et al., 2004;Anthony et al., 2005;Hartas, 2011;Walker and Mac Phee, 2011). Overall, this literature finds that responsive parenting and hostile/ overreactive parenting shape children's level of social competence. ...
... Specifically, we found both a child-driven pathway (i.e., child anger proneness at 18 months was associated with lower levels of social competence at 4.5 years through adoptive mother overreactivity at 27 months) and a parent-driven pathway (i.e., adoptive mother overreactivity at 18 months was associated with less social competence through child dysregulation at 27 months). These indirect pathways support previous non-genetically informed work exploring the unfolding of a coercive cycle between children and parents (Patterson, 1982), but provide new insights into its implications for social competence during early childhood (Shaw and Bell, 1993;Eddy et al., 2001;Smith et al., 2014). More specifically, these findings along with prior work (Eisenberg et al., 1996(Eisenberg et al., , 2010Fabes et al., 2001) provide evidence that these coercive cycles between mother and child could be detrimental to children's early social competence. ...
Identification of early promotive and risk factors for social competence is important for fostering children’s successful social development; particularly given social competence is essential for children’s later academic and psychological well-being. While research suggests that the early parent–child relationship, genetics, and prenatal influences are associated with social competence, there is less research considering how these factors may operate together to shape children’s social competence in early childhood. Using a genetically informed sample from the Early Growth and Development Study (N = 561), we examined multiple levels of influence (i.e., genetic, prenatal, parenting, and child characteristics) on children’s social competence at 4.5 years old. Results from structural equation models showed adoptive mother overreactivity at 18 months was positively associated with child dysregulation at 27 months, which, in turn, was associated with lower levels of social competence at 4.5 years. Also, child reactivity at 18 months was independently associated with higher levels of adoptive mother overreactivity at 27 months, which, in turn, was associated with lower levels of social competence at 4.5 years. Finally, we found an evocative effect on adoptive fathers’ overreactivity at 18 months such that prenatal birth mother distress was negatively associated with adoptive fathers’ overreactivity at 18 months. Overall, this study found evidence for genetic influences, and bidirectional associations between parent and child in toddlerhood that are related to lower levels of social competence when children were 4.5 years old. We also found that the prenatal environment was associated with parenting, but not with child behavior directly. This study’s ability to simultaneously examine multiple domains of influence helps provide a more comprehensive picture of important mechanisms and developmental periods for children’s early social competence.
... To date the PDR-T has been used infrequently (exceptions include : Eddy, Leve, & Fagot, 2001;Fagot & Pears, 1996) relative to the PDR for older children.The present investigation sought to demonstrate the psychometric properties of the PDR-T with the hope to promote its increased use in future studies. Considering the importance of assessing child behavior in the psychological literature, as well as the aforementioned advantages of the PDR compared with currently established measures, the PDR-T may provide a feasible, psychometrically sound alternative to clinical interviews, lengthy questionnaires, and observational measures. ...
... Thus, item-level data for each assessment time were collapsed across the three days to create a new dichotomous variable for each item where 0 ¼ the behavior was never displayed at this assessment time and 1 ¼ behavior was displayed on at least one day of reporting at this assessment time. We used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to assess the dimensionality and extract scales from the PDR-T because, while several studies have been published using the PDR (e.g., Chamberlain et al., 2006;Fisher et al., 2011;Leve et al., 2005), very few studies have been published using the PDR-T (Eddy et al., 2001;Fagot & Pears, 1996;Kavanagh, 1986) and none of them included a rigorous testing of the measure's factor structure and dimensionality. Therefore, there was no predetermined a priori factor structure to test and the measure was not created with an explicit factor structure in mind. ...
The present study examined the psychometric properties of a brief parent-report daily checklist of toddler behavior (Parent Daily Report—Toddler Version; PDR-T). Data were collected from three groups of 18–36 month-olds who were followed longitudinally for approximately one year: (a) internationally adopted children (N = 156); (b) children placed in foster care due to child maltreatment (N = 79); and (c) community comparison children raised by their biological families (N = 80). An exploratory factor analysis of this measure resulted in three factors, measuring aggressive/noncompliant, positive, and distress behaviors. While there were estimation issues with the positive and distress factors, the aggressive/noncompliant factor exhibited invariance across time and groups, and partial invariance between genders. Significant correlations were observed between this factor and measures of externalizing behavior and inhibitory control (r = 0.26–0.56), but not shyness, fearfulness, or negative affect. This provides support for both convergent and discriminant validity. Reliability of this factor was adequate to good across time and group. Results provide preliminary support for the utility, reliability, and consistency of one factor of the PDR-T as an easy parent-report tool to assess daily patterns and changes in child aggressive/noncompliant behavior over time.
... Literature has explored the bidirectional influence between parenting characteristics and child characteristics. Difficulties, behavioural problems, and vulnerabilities in the child can consolidate dysfunctional parenting practices, thereby strengthening so-called coercive family processes (Eddy et al., 2001). Indeed, controlling parenting practices increase internalizing and externalizing problems in children, which in turn, induce parents to use psychological control as a strategy for managing child behaviour (Pinquart, 2017;Scharf & Goldner, 2018). ...
The parent-child relationship can often be punctuated by moments of friction and discom-fort. Being a parent can be an arduous task, parenting strategies adopted are in fact critical for children's development, sometimes becoming risk factors for unhealthy children's out-comes. Self-determination theory has postulated the existence of three basic psychological needs whose satisfaction can be a guarantee of well-being and also seems to be associated with the adoption of more functional parenting strategies. The present study, which targets a sample of mothers with typically developing children and mothers with atypically develop-ing children, aims to investigate the use of psychological control and the relation with the basic psychological needs satisfaction. Results are discussed in light of their implications for improving services for families with typical and atypical development.
... The authoritative style is characterized by warmth, responsiveness, consistency, and enforcement of boundaries; the authoritarian style is characterized by detrimental coercive and harsh discipline (Baumrind, 1967). Physical discipline, yelling, expressing disappointment, and shaming are hallmarks of authoritarian parenting (Smetana, 2017) and coercive discipline (Eddy et al., 2001). Multiculturally, quality mother-child interactions predict balanced positive parental discipline and vice versa (Pastorelli et al., 2016). ...
The randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of a personalized remote video feedback parenting program to improve parenting and child behavior outcomes. Ninety-two mothers of 2-6-year-old children were randomly allocated into the intervention group (n = 50) and waiting-list control group (n = 42). The Strengthening Bonds preventive program was performed to improve positive parenting. The mothers participated in one in-person group session. During six weeks, the mothers received, via smartphone, remote personalized video feedback about their mother-child interactions in a play situation. Parenting was the primary outcome, and child behavior was the secondary one. Pre- and post-intervention assessments were performed. The generalized estimating equation analysis showed no significant results in the intention-to-treat (ITT). In the treatment-on-the-treated (TOT), there were statistically significant effects of the intervention decreasing mothers’ coercive parenting practices and child behavior problems. The structural equation model analysis showed that the intervention-induced reductions in children’s behavior problems were mediated by improvements in coercive practices. There was a direct effect of the intervention to improve the parental sense of competence. Despite the null findings in the ITT analysis, the TOT analysis showed promising results to strengthen positive parenting behaviors and beliefs and reduce child behavior problems.
... This research suggests that parents who are autonomy-supporting (Bernier, Carlson, & Whipple, 2010) and positively engaged with their children (Rhoades, Greenberg, Lanza, & Blair, 2011;Robinson, Burns, & Davis, in press) in the first few years have children with stronger executive function. In contrast, research has generally found that more parental control is detrimental to the development of executive function (Eddy, Leve, & Fagot, 2001;Karreman, van Tuijl, van Aken, & Deković, 2006). For example, one study found that controlling and coercive parenting was Preschool executive functions and family risk 6 related to lower executive function (measured as self-control) through a child's aggressive behavior (Walker & MacPhee, in press). ...
... Fathers' intrapersonal dysregulation likely affects child adjustment via their interpersonal emotion dysregulation (i.e., coercive parenting behaviors). These ineffective parenting behaviors may, in turn, reinforce children's aversive behaviors as a way to terminate coercive parent-child interactions (Eddy et al., 2001). Military culture and the demands of war likely reinforce coercive interpersonal approaches and emotional suppression. ...
The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake.
... Les comportements parentaux, appelé s é galement pratiques parentales, repré sentent les mé thodes employé es par les parents afin d'augmenter les comportements approprié s et de diminuer les comportements inapproprié s [36]. Il est largement é tabli que les comportements parentaux né gatifs des parents (comportements coercitifs, intrusifs ou inconsistants) sont associé s à la pré sence des comportements agressifs des enfants entre 3 et 6 ans [11,19,47], alors que les comportements parentaux positifs (niveau é levé de soutien, implication active, expression d'é motions positives) sont des facteurs protecteurs associé s à la diminution des comportements agressifs des enfants entre 3 et 6 ans [10,33,47]. Les pratiques parentales inadapté es entraînent l'escalade et/ou le maintien des comportements agressifs et antisociaux des jeunes enfants, et leurs modifications ont pour effets un changement dans les comportements agressifs des jeunes enfants [8]. ...
Résumé
Introduction
Les comportements agressifs des enfants ont un important impact sur le devenir de l’enfant et de sa famille. Parmi les déterminants des comportements agressifs chez l’enfant entre 3 et 6 ans, la littérature scientifique souligne une place importante du trouble déficitaire de l’attention/hyperactivité, ainsi que les comportements parentaux positifs et négatifs. Par ailleurs, notons que nous retrouvons également une influence bidirectionnelle entre le TDAH et les comportements parentaux positifs et négatifs. Toutefois, la plupart des études se centrent sur des populations cliniques âgées de plus de 6 ans, avec une approche catégorielle du TDAH sans distinction des difficultés d’attention et des comportements d’hyperactivité.
Objectif
L’objectif de notre recherche est d’étudier l’influence conjointe des comportements parentaux positifs et négatifs et de la symptomatologie du TDAH (difficultés d’attention et comportements d’hyperactivité), sur la présence des comportements agressifs chez les enfants de 3 à 6 ans.
Résultats
Menées auprès de 160 enfants en population générale, nos analyses montrent que la symptomatologie du TDAH et les comportements parentaux négatifs sont associés aux comportements agressifs. Les comportements parentaux positifs ne sont pas associés aux comportements agressifs. Les analyses en régressions multiples montrent qu’il y aurait une médiation partielle.
Conclusion
La présence de comportements agressifs chez les enfants semble en partie expliquée par les comportements parentaux, mais elle est d’autant plus expliquée lorsque l’enfant a des symptômes d’hyperactivité et d’inattention. Enfin, ces résultats montrent qu’il est important pour un clinicien de tenir compte de la présence d’une symptomatologie du TDAH, même en deçà d’un diagnostic d’un TDAH, lorsqu’un jeune enfant présente des comportements agressifs et aussi et surtout de tenir compte des pratiques éducatives dans le cadre d’un travail thérapeutique engagé auprès de l’enfant et de sa famille.
... Fathers' intrapersonal dysregulation likely affects child adjustment via their interpersonal emotion dysregulation (i.e., coercive parenting behaviors). These ineffective parenting behaviors may, in turn, reinforce children's aversive behaviors as a way to terminate coercive parent-child interactions (Eddy et al., 2001). Military culture and the demands of war likely reinforce coercive interpersonal approaches and emotional suppression. ...
Military parents’ combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been linked to poor parenting and child maladjustment. Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties are thought to underlie PTSD symptoms, and research has begun to link parental ER to parenting behaviors. Little empirical evidence exists regarding whether fathers’ ER is associated with child adjustment and what may be the underlying mechanism for this association. This study investigated whether deployed fathers’ ER was associated with child emotional and behavioral problems, and whether the associations were mediated by coercive parenting behaviors. The sample consisted of 181 deployed fathers with non-deployed female partners and their 4- to 13-year-old children. Families were assessed at three time points over 2 years. ER was measured using a latent construct of fathers’ self-reports of their experiential avoidance, trait mindfulness, and difficulties in emotion regulation. Coercive parenting was observed via a series of home-based family interaction tasks. Child behaviors were assessed through parent- and child-report. Structural equation modeling revealed that fathers with poorer ER at baseline exhibited higher coercive parenting at 1-year follow-up, which was associated with more emotional and behavioral problems in children at 2-year follow-up. The indirect effect of coercive parenting was statistically significant. These findings suggest that fathers’ difficulties in ER may impede their effective parenting behaviors, and children’s adjustment problems might be amplified as a result of coercive interactions. Implications for the role of paternal ER on parenting interventions are discussed.
... These treatments-which include parent management training and parent-child interaction therapy-are conducted primarily with parents, who learn how to implement contingent reinforcement of desired behaviors and eliminate reinforcement of the undesired disruptive behaviors (Mabe, Turner, & Josephson, 2001). BPT relies on social learning theory and the model of coercive family processes (Eddy, Leve, & Fagot, 2001) to conceptualize the development of children's disruptive behaviors. From this perspective, maladaptive behaviors in children are formed and established through observed modeling, which is then negatively reinforced by caregivers in their environment. ...
There is a need for empirically informed play therapy approaches for children with oppositional and disruptive behaviors. Regulation-focused psychotherapy for children (RFP-C) is a manualized intervention rooted in the longstanding tradition of nondirective, psychodynamic play therapy. It builds on this history by emphasizing concepts drawn from the psychodynamic construct of defense mechanisms and contemporary research on emotion regulation. By using systematic interventions that target children’s defense mechanisms against unpleasant feeling states, RFP-C promotes the development of improved implicit emotion regulation capacities and increases children’s ability to tolerate painful emotions that were previously masked by the disruptive behaviors. An overview of this play therapy approach, along with several clinical illustrations drawn from a recent pilot study and ongoing randomized controlled trial of RFP-C as a treatment for oppositional defiant disorder, is provided in order to demonstrate some of the principles of defense interpretation, parent work, and addressing the meaning of disruptive behaviors.
... These behaviors have been related to early difficulties with socioemotional development, particularly theory of mind and effortful control (Olson, Choe, & Sameroff, 2017), as well as later academic problems, delinquency, substance abuse, and relationship difficulties with friends and family (Broidy et al., 2003;Campbell et al., 2010;Hinshaw & Lee, 2003). Bidirectional models also show escalation over time between a young child's behavior problems, irritability, or defiance, and parenting behavior such as harsh discipline (Eddy, Leve, & Fagot, 2001;McQuillan & Bates, 2017), which may be in part due to complex gene-by-environment interactions (Lytton, 2000). For parents, children's behavior problems can be a major source of strain and parenting stress (McQuillan & Bates, 2017), with some research demonstrating stronger effects of child behavior on parents than vice versa (Burke, Pardini, & Loeber, 2008). ...
Parenting stress and children's behavior problems have frequently been linked, with bidirectional relations spanning from early childhood through adolescence. However, this association has not been well studied in infancy or toddlerhood, and prospective mediators have not been thoroughly explored. This prospective, longitudinal study utilized two transactional models to examine bidirectional relations between parenting stress and children's behavior problems and explore perceived family conflict and parental supportiveness as potential mediators. Data were taken from the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Study, where 835 parent-child dyads were assessed at 1, 2, and 3 years. Parenting stress and behavior problems were measured at all 3 time points, while family conflict and observed parental supportiveness were measured at ages 2 and 3. Results indicated that parenting stress and children's behavior problems were relatively stable over time and had bidirectional or cross-lagged associations. Family conflict mediated the relation between children's behavior problems at age 1 and parenting stress at age 3, while parental supportiveness mediated the relation between parenting stress at age 1 and behavior problems at age 3, suggesting both "child" and "parent" effects that function through two different mechanisms. These findings suggest that early prevention programs should focus on both children's behavior and parenting stress in the first year and work to reduce family conflict and increase parental supportiveness in order to disrupt this negative cycle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
... Over time, repeated and escalated parent-child conflicts shape behavior such that highly aversive behaviors and labile expressions of emotion are reinforced, whereas prosocial behaviors are not. This model has gathered considerable empirical support over the years (Compton, Snyder, Schrepferman, Bank, & Shortt, 2003;Eddy, Leve, & Fagot, 2001). Conversely, a warm and close child-parent relationship and positive parenting are described as important protective proximal and contextual factors (e.g., Kawabata, Alink, Tseng, van Ijzendoorn, & Crick, 2011). ...
Adolescents with externalizing behaviors are at risk for multiple social and health impairments that may persist into adulthood. Although empirically supported treatments are available for teenagers with severe externalizing behavior and their families, only a few parenting programs have been evaluated for adolescents with subclinical levels of behavior problems. In the present randomized controlled trial (N = 75), we examined the feasibility and efficacy of the Parent-Web, a new Internet-based parenting program for parents of teenagers. Participants reported high satisfaction with the program, 74% completed all five modules and dropout was only 14%. Generalized linear mixed models showed short-term (8 weeks) improvements in parent-reported teenager externalizing behaviors, family conflicts, and family warmth compared to a waitlist control condition. Receiving the Parent-Web was also associated with more improvements in parent-reported teenage emotional symptoms and peer problems, as well as parental stress and depression. No differences regarding parenting behaviors between the two groups were found. Those in the intervention group maintained their posttreatment gains on primary outcomes at the follow-up assessment, 6- to 9-months after the program. Although limited by relying solely on parent report, and by a relatively small sample size, we conclude that our study contributes some preliminary evidence for the utility of supporting parents of adolescents at risk of developing behavior problems through an Internet-based intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
... Sie wurden als ursächlich dafür nachgewiesen, dass sich externalisierende Verhaltensprobleme bei Jungen im Kindesalter später zu einem aggressiven Verhaltensmuster verfestigen können (Patterson, Reid & Dishion, 1992). Ein durch den coercive family process ausgelöstes Verfestigungsrisiko von externalisierendem Verhalten wurde auch bei Mädchen gefunden (Eddy, Leve & Fagot, 2001 (Liel, 2013b). Möglicherweise funktionieren etablierte Selbstberichtsverfahren bei Vätern anders als bei Müttern (Liel et al., 2018 -Brown et al., 2015) verfolgt einen zugehenden, direktiven und technologiebasierten Ansatz, bei dem sozial benachteiligten Vätern im häuslichen Umfeld Erziehungstechniken angeleitet werden sollen. ...
Der Staat hat die Aufgabe, Eltern bei der Wahrnehmung ihrer Erziehungsverantwortung zu unterstützen und Kinder vor innerfamiliärer Gewalt zu schützen. Wenn in der Forschung und Praxis des Kinderschutzes von Eltern gesprochen wird, sind damit implizit weit überwiegend Mütter gemeint. Väter sind nur selten Gegenstand der Forschung als auch Adressaten von frühen Präventionsangeboten oder Hilfsmaßnahmen zur Abwendung einer möglichen Kindeswohlgefährdung. Dies ist verwunderlich, weil Väter positiv wie negativ zur Entwicklung des Kindes beitragen können und deshalb differenzierte Beachtung verdienen. Die Arbeit betrachtet die Überschneidungen von Gewalt gegen über Kindern und zwischen den Eltern und widmet sich der Rolle von Vätern. Der Autor untersucht, welche Eigenschaften von Vätern verglichen mit Müttern die Entstehung von familiärer Gewalt in der frühen Kindheit begünstigen und deshalb Aufmerksamkeit bei der Prävention verdienen. Am Beispiel von etablierten Behandlungsmaßnahmen bei Partnergewalt werden wissenschaftlich gestützte Vorschläge gemacht, wie Fachkräfte das Rückfallrisiko von bereits gewalttätigen Vätern beurteilen können. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie erfolgsversprechend solche Programme aus der Sozialen Arbeit hinsichtlich der Verringerung des Rückfallrisikos von Partnergewalt und des Risikos für Kindesmisshandlung sind. Durch die Verbindung von Gewalt- und Väterforschung leistet die Arbeit einen längst überfälligen Beitrag in beiden Forschungsfeldern und setzt Väter auf die Agenda im Kinderschutz.
Das Buch ist verfügbar als Printversion (https://readbox-unipress-bookstore.de/sachgebiete/psychologie/4786/vaeter-und-familiaere-gewalt) und Open-Access (https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:19-229432).
... Considering these two theories, Endendijk et al. (2016), conducted a meta-analysis of 126 observational studies, involving 15,034 families to examine parental differences with their sons and daughters. They used 'autonomy-supportive strategy' in parental behavior, that is, child-centered responding and promoting autonomy through support, conceptually similar to the construct of parental sensitivity as formulated within Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1969(Bowlby, /1982Ainsworth et al., 1978) and controlling strategies, similar to parenting practices described within Coercion Theory (Patterson, 1982;Eddy et al., 2001). Contrary to their expectations, no overall gender-differentiated effect was found in autonomy-supportive strategies, and they found very small effects (d = 0.08) of child gender on parents' use of control after excluding outlying effect sizes by which parents used more controlling strategies with boys than with girls. ...
This study aimed to investigate the influence of parental gender on their interaction with their infants, considering, as well, the role of the infant’s gender. The State Space Grid (SSG) method, a graphical tool based on the non-linear dynamic system (NDS) approach was used to analyze the interaction, in Free-Play setting, of 52 infants, aged 6 to 10 months, divided into two groups: half of the infants interacted with their fathers and half with their mothers. There were 50% boys in each group. MANOVA results showed no differential parenting of boys and girls. Additionally, mothers and fathers showed no differences in the Diversity of behavioral dyadic states nor in Predictability. However, differences associated with parent’s gender were found in that the paternal dyads were more “active” than the maternal dyads: they were faster in the rates per second of behavioral events and transitions or change of state. In contrast, maternal dyads were more repetitive because, once they visited a certain dyadic state, they tend to be involved in more events. Results showed a significant discriminant function on the parental groups, fathers and mothers. Specifically, the content analyses carried out for the three NDS variables, that previously showed differences between groups, showed particular dyadic behavioral states associated with the rate of Transitions and the Events per Visit ratio. Thus, the transitions involving ‘in–out’ of ‘Child Social Approach neutral – Sensitive Approach neutral’ state and the repetitions of events in the dyadic state ‘Child Play-Sensitive Approach neutral’ distinguished fathers from mothers. The classification of dyads (with fathers and mothers) based on this discriminant function identified 73.10% (19/26) of the father–infant dyads and 88.5% (23/26) of the mother–infant dyads. The study of father-infant interaction using the SSG approach offers interesting possibilities because it characterizes and quantifies the actual moment-to-moment flow of parent–infant interactive dynamics. Our findings showed how observational methods applied to natural contexts offer new facets in father vs. mother interactive behavior with their infants that can inform further developments in this field.
... In this model of family interaction, a child receives reinforcement for negative behavior by the response of the parent to this behavior. If this interaction occurs often, the family process might deteriorate to the point where the child receives more negative reinforcement for maladaptive behaviors than positive reinforcement for preferred behaviors and a coercive family process might become the norm (Eddy et al., 2001). A central aim of most PMT programs, such the Triple P Positive 1 programs (Sanders, 1999) is to alleviate or eliminate this coercive process. ...
This meta-analysis determined the effects of parent management training (PMT) on disruptive behaviors in children with a developmental disability. Parent management training programs, based on behavioral theories of psychology, are commonly used in addressing disruptive behavior in children. Eleven studies met inclusion criteria with a total of 540 participants, with 275 in experimental groups and 265 in control groups. The effect of PMT on the disruptive behavior in children with a developmental disability was significant (g=0.39). The moderator effects of type of PMT, delivery type and setting, and administrator level of education were also significant. The moderator effects of child age, and session number and duration were not significant in this meta-analysis.
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Background
Implementation strategies can help support the adoption and implementation of health interventions that are appropriate for a local context and acceptable to decision makers and community members. Implementation strategies should be designed to handle the complexity of the multi-level, dynamic contexts in which interventions are implemented. Systems science theories and methods explicitly attend to complexity and can be valuable for specifying implementation strategies. Group Model Building (GMB) combines research partner engagement strategies with systems science to support researchers’ and partners’ learning about complex problems and to identify solutions through consensus. This paper specifies how GMB can operationalize implementation strategies — methods for supporting evidence implementation in real-world practice — and describes how GMB can aid in selecting and tailoring both health interventions and implementation strategies. A case study in child maltreatment prevention planning is provided to illustrate how GMB was used to specify the “actions” — strategy activities — for three implementation strategies (conduct local consensus discussions; build a coalition; model and simulate change) during the earliest implementation phases, with the goal of supporting intervention selection decisions. Examples are provided of generalizable research products that can be produced concurrently through GMB, in addition to contextually-driven implementation support.
Methods
Participants (n = 8) were engaged over four sessions using tailored GMB activities. Participants generated a qualitative system dynamics model that described their theory of change for how to prevent child maltreatment in their communities. This theory of change reflected a dynamic understanding of the interconnected determinants of child maltreatment.
Results
GMB was acceptable to participants and resulted in products that could be used for implementation planning (e.g., to model and simulate change) and future research. GMB fostered trust and idea sharing between participants.
Conclusion
GMB can facilitate learning about which outcomes are (or are not) impacted by interventions, which resources and approaches are required for quality implementation (e.g., implementation strategies), and tradeoffs in outcomes and resources between interventions. GMB also provides a structured, effective process to generate a shared implementation vision amongst participants. Lessons learned include methods for developing trust with and between participants, and the need for researchers to tailor GMB actions for participant and project needs.
tAttention Deficit Disorder with or without Hyperactivity (ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder which affects the day-to-day functioning of children and adults with this condition. Pharmacological treatment can reduce the symptoms associated with ADHD, but it has some limitations. The objective of this symposium is to determine the effects of non-pharmacological approaches on ADHD symptoms. Results indicate that the following intervention are promising approaches: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT),mindfulness-based interventions (MBI), yoga, cognitive and metacognitive intervention, neurofeedback and parental training programs. Current research advocates multimodal approaches in conjunction with school or work accommodations integrating innovative technologies.
This systematic review examined studies on interventions for parents and their children with learning disabilities to offer an overview of interventions (psychological and psychosocial therapies) for mental health problems associated with learning disabilities and the risk factors for mental health problems in children with learning disabilities and their parents. CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubMed, MEDLINE, Child Development & Adolescent Studies, APA PsycArticles, ProQuest, Embase, Social Sciences Citation (Web of Science) were searched for scholarly studies published between 2010 and 2021 on psychosocial interventions, and psychological therapies for learning disabilities, and related developmental disorders. Ten papers involving parents and their child with a learning disability were relevant to the review question and the objective of the review as they looked at a variety of interventions namely, cognitive behaviour therapy, problem solving and assertiveness training, individual and group counselling, emotion regulation, stress management, resilience training, and relaxation therapy. These studies demonstrated support for the assertion that parents and their children with learning disabilities present mental health problems including anxiety and depression. Yet, the review revealed that there are few interventional studies addressing the risk factors for mental health problems among parents and their children with learning disabilities. As such, adopting a socio-ecological or contextual approach to identifying the risk and protective factors for psychopathology in families of children with learning disabilities is especially important to the development of interventions to improve behavioural control as well as the motivational and socio-emotional aspects of challenging behaviours exhibited by children with learning disabilities.
The disruptive, impulse control, and conduct behavior disorders (DICCBDs) of childhood comprise attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), kleptomania, pyromania, intermittent explosive disorder, and conduct disorder (CD), (APA, 2013). These conditions are among the most commonly treated in mental health settings, with epidemiological studies suggesting that between 3% and 16% of all youth meet the diagnostic criteria for at least one, if not two or more, of these conditions. These disorders begin in childhood or adolescence and are more common in males than females. Several factors make it more likely that a person will exhibit a DICCBD, including harsh parenting, physical or sexual abuse, or parents with a history of addiction or problems with law enforcement. This chapter defines each of the DICCBDs, offering insights into the diagnostic process and course as it relates to resilience and stress hardiness. Rather than taking a deficit approach, the authors review variables that insulate or protect those youth with a DICCBD as they transition into adulthood.
Background
The Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS-IV) is a widely used observational instrument that assesses Parent-child interaction (PCI) quality. However, studies specifically examining its psychometric properties published in peer-reviewed journals are scarce. The present study aimed to provide evidence on the discriminative validity of the DPICS-IV to identify indicators of parent-child interaction among clinical mother-child dyads compared to non-clinical.
Method
Participants were 177 mother-child dyads with children aged 4 to 8 years: (1) a clinical sample of 80 dyads where mothers experienced significant difficulties managing their children's behavior problems and identified by Child Welfare and Child Protection Services as at risk for child maltreatment or with substantiated reports, and (2) a non-clinical sample of 97 dyads from the general population.
Results
DPICS Negative talk factor showed high discriminant capacity (AUC = .90) between samples, with a cut-off score of 8 that allowed mother-child dyads to be classified with a sensitivity of 82% and a specificity of 89%.
Conclusions
Findings of the present study suggested that the DPICS-IV Negative Talk factor is a robust indicator of dysfunctional PCI patterns of families involved with the Child Protection Services. Further research is needed to confirm these findings and to test the accuracy of the cut-off score with a representative sample of the general population.
Background:
Early Positive Approaches to Support (E-PAtS) is a co-produced and co-facilitated group programme that aims to provide early years support to family caregivers of children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Method:
Thirty-five caregivers who had attended E-PAtS groups took part in individual interviews or focus groups. Caregiver experiences concerning attendance of E-PAtS were explored, in relation to process variables and perceived outcomes. Interviews were thematically analysed.
Results:
Three major themes were identified: our group, evolving emotions, and positive approaches. Being with and being supported by other families was very important to caregivers. Families reported increased confidence and greater realisation of the need for self-care. Children were reported to show fewer behaviours that challenge and increases in adaptive skills. Findings corresponded to mechanisms and outcomes in the E-PAtS logic model.
Conclusion:
E-PAtS shows promise as one way families and children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities can access early years support.
Through the lens of the Treatment Foster Care Oregon Model, this chapter will be a challenge to the traditional thinking of foster care and what in home placement of youth with specialized treatment needs looks like. How treatment can be accessed in a home setting and how communities can use inclusionary practices to embrace children and their families; while remaining responsive to culture, trauma, and attachment needs by taking an evidence-based strength-centered individualized approach to treatment.
Restorative justice may be effective because it is a street-level meta-strategy that is responsive and relational. Nonresponsive, nonrelational strategies that are enacted from desks are less likely to be effective; best-practice strategies may be less likely to be effective than wisely sequenced meta-strategies. Responsive regulation is conceived as a strategy of moving among strategies, as opposed to selection of any best strategy. Restorative justice is a way of selecting strategies to heal the hurts of injustice. Empathic empowerment of stakeholders who take turns to speak in a circle is at the heart of its strategy for strategy selection. Restorative justice can complement responsive regulation; at their best, they are mutually constitutive. Responsive regulation may work best when restorative justice is a first preference at the base of a pyramid of strategies. Responsive regulation involves listening and flexible deliberative choice among strategies arrayed in a pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid are more frequently used, noncoercive strategies of first choice. Despite encouraging evidence that restorative and responsive regulation can work better than less dynamic top-down enforcement, the effectiveness of restorative justice and responsive regulation depends mainly on the efficacy of the interventions that are responsively chosen. It is time to redirect research and development to improving the quality of restorative-responsive strategy selection and the quality of the diverse strategies on offer.
The six-step social information processing (SIP) model (Crick & Dodge, 1994) describes how children respond to difficult social situations, but little is known about the underlying cognitive abilities that support the individual SIP steps. Given excu executive function’s (EF) association with behavioral displays of competent and aggressive responses to provocation, the current study examined how three EF components (i.e., response inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility) relate to four SIP steps (i.e., encoding, interpretation, response generation, and response evaluation). In addition, the current study looked at how attributions made about the transgressor in the first two SIP steps affect processing in the later SIP steps. Seventy-two 4- to 5-year-old children completed one EF task for each component and were given a structured interview that assessed four steps of the SIP model. Working memory and age were related to encoding (fact recall and emotion attributions), response generation, and response evaluation. Cognitive flexibility was only related to response evaluation. The individual contributions of EF and age, as well as early SIP steps, differ for each step. The specific processes by which working memory may relate to each step are discussed, as well as how the encoding step provides a foundation for adequate processing in later steps. The results of the current study provide novel information about how cognitive processes contribute to the development of SIP.
Parent-adolescent conflict has been studied both as a precursor of long-term macrolevel developmental risks and as an outcome of microlevel, moment-to-moment interaction patterns. However, the family-level processes underlying the maintenance or regulation of conflict in daily life are largely overlooked. A meso-level understanding of parent-adolescent conflict offers important practical insights that have direct implications for interventions. The present study explores day-to-day reciprocal processes and carryover in parents' and adolescents' experiences of anger and conflict. Daily diary data provided by parent-adolescent dyads (N = 151) from two-caregiver households (adolescents: 61.59% female, mean age = 14.60 years) over 21 days were examined using a multivariate Poisson multilevel model to evaluate the circular causality principle in parents' and adolescents' daily conflict and anger. Findings offer empirical support for the theory, suggesting that parents' and adolescents' anger and conflict exist together in a feedback loop wherein conflict is both a consequence of past anger and also an antecedent of future anger, both within and across persons. Increased understanding of the daily interaction patterns and maintenance of parent-adolescent conflict can guide more informed, targeted, and well-timed interventions intended to ameliorate the consequences of problematic parent-adolescent conflict sequences.
© 2019 Family Process Institute.
In line with family systems theory, we examined patterns of hostile interactions within families and their associations with externalizing problems among early-adolescent children. Using hostility scores based on observational data of six dyadic interactions during a triadic interaction (n = 462; i.e., child-to-mother, mother-to-child, child-to-father, father-to-child, mother-to-father, father-to-mother)—latent profile analysis supported three distinct profiles of hostility. The low/moderate hostile profile included families with the lowest levels of hostility across dyads; families in the mutual parent-child hostile profile scored higher on parent-child hostility, but lower on interparental hostility; the hostile parent profile showed higher levels of parent-to-child and interparental hostility, but lower child-to-parent hostility. Concerning links to youth outcomes, youth in the mutual parent-child hostile profile reported the highest level of externalizing problems, both concurrently and longitudinally. These results point to the importance of examining larger family patterns of hostility to fully understand the association between family hostility and youth adjustment.
While ineffective discipline can be attributed to authoritarian and permissive parenting styles, little research has examined the role of gender in the association between parenting style and early childhood behavioral problems. Thus, this study aimed to clarify the effects of authoritarian and permissive parenting on children’s externalizing and internalizing behaviors during the preschool-to-elementary-school transition according to gender in Japan. A sample of 1668 Japanese children (853 boys and 815 girls) were followed longitudinally over one-year intervals, and assessed based on parenting styles (the Parenting Scale), children’s behavioral problems (the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), and family characteristics. Multivariate analyses revealed that, when analyzed by gender, authoritarian discipline influenced externalizing problems in boys (β = 0.048, p = 0.047) and girls (β = 0.067, p = 0.023), while permissive discipline influenced externalizing problems in boys only (β = 0.049, p = 0.038). The results document the relationship between family processes and the development of disruptive behavior disorders in children. Support for parents employing such child-rearing styles in early childhood may be effective in reducing school maladjustment.
The current study compared parents’ emotion regulation (ER) in clinical (those with a child with externalizing behavioral problems) and low-risk comparison families. Additionally, mediation models were explored with parent ER predicting child behavior problems through child ER. Participants were 60 families with children (71.7% boys; 73% Caucasian) ages 2 through 8 years (M = 4.62; SD = 1.69) from a rural population in the United States: 34 clinical families referred for parent training and 26 nonclinical families. A blocking design was used to balance the two groups on key demographic characteristics. Parents’ and children’s ER was assessed using parent-report surveys and structured behavioral observations. Analyses indicated higher rates of parental emotion dysregulation (specifically, more difficulty when upset with achieving goal-directed behaviors, p = .01, d = 0.67; controlling impulses, p = .01, d = 0.64; limited use of ER strategies, p = .02, d = 0.62; and more negative verbalizations to their child during the observed task, p < .01, d = 0.73) and child emotion dysregulation (specifically, more difficulty as reported by parents, p < .01, d = −2.42) in the clinical group. Mediational analyses indicated there were indirect paths from parental ER to children’s behavioral problems through child ER. Findings from this research suggest a need to measure and target ER in both parents and their children when working with families who are referred for treatment of child behavior problems.
Cadre de la recherche : L’étude de l’impact respectif des pratiques parentales des deux parents laisse entrevoir que les pratiques parentales des pères tout comme celles des mères contribuent positivement à l’adaptation sociale de l’enfant. Cependant, les pratiques parentales peuvent également être liées à la présence de difficultés d’adaptation, notamment de problèmes de comportement extériorisés. À une époque où les deux parents s’investissent dans l’éducation de leurs enfants, il est pertinent de se pencher sur l’influence mutuelle des pratiques parentales des deux parents sur les problèmes de comportement extériorisés de l’enfant et ainsi, déterminer des facteurs de modération possibles de la coparentalité au sein d’une même famille.
Objectifs : La présente recherche 1 vise à vérifier : 1) si les pratiques parentales positives du père modèrent la relation entre les pratiques parentales négatives de la mère et les problèmes de comportement extériorisés de l’enfant et 2) si les pratiques parentales positives de la mère modèrent la relation entre les pratiques parentales négatives du père et les problèmes de comportement extériorisés de l’enfant.
Méthodologie : L’étude est transversale et porte sur un sous-échantillon de 626 enfants (âge moyen de 5,6 ans) et leurs deux parents. Les données ont été recueillies par questionnaires auprès des pères et des mères séparément.
Résultats : Les résultats d’analyses de régression multiple démontrent l’effet simple des pratiques négatives des deux parents sur les problèmes de comportement extériorisés de l’enfant. On remarque un effet modérateur des pratiques parentales positives de la mère sur les pratiques parentales négatives du père, mais pas l’inverse.
Conclusions : L’étude révèle l’importance de s’attarder aux pratiques parentales négatives, autant pour les mères que pour les pères. De plus, il apparait que l’effet combiné des pratiques des deux parents pourrait avoir un impact aussi important que les pratiques parentales individuelles sur le développement de l’enfant.
Contribution : De nouvelles connaissances dans le domaine du co-engagement parental sur le développement de l’enfant sont présentées dans cette étude, en considérant l’effet modérateur des pratiques parentales positives dans cette relation.
This chapter provides an overview of key resilience concepts, controversies, and perspectives. It delineates a variety of types of research models that examine resilience processes over time, including person-focused, variable-focused, and hybrid models focused on understanding developmental pathways and trajectories. The importance of qualitative and quantitative approaches to understanding the human capacity for adaptive responses to challenges is emphasized. Resilience is conceptualized within a dynamic, embedded, ecological systems framework, encompassing interactions across multiple levels, from genes, to person, family, community, and cultural group. The importance of a life-span ecologically informed perspective is illustrated through highlights from the past half century of research on diverse pathways to resilience.
The current study sought to advance our understanding of transactional processes among maternal depression, neighborhood deprivation, and child conduct problems (CP) using two samples of low-income families assessed repeatedly from early childhood to early adolescence. After accounting for initial levels of negative parenting, independent and reciprocal effects between maternal depressive symptoms and child CP were evident across both samples, beginning in early childhood and continuing through middle childhood and adolescence. In addition, neighborhood effects were consistently found in both samples after children reached age 5, with earlier neighborhood effects on child CP and maternal depression found in the one exclusively urban sample of families with male children. The results confirm prior research on the independent contribution of maternal depression and child CP to the maintenance of both problem behaviors. The findings also have implications for designing preventative and clinical interventions to address child CP for families living in high-risk neighborhoods.
Although various theories describe mechanisms leading to differential parenting of boys and girls, there is no consensus about the extent to which parents do treat their sons and daughters differently. The last meta-analyses on the subject were conducted more than fifteen years ago, and changes in gender-specific child rearing in the past decade are quite plausible. In the current set of meta-analyses, based on 126 observational studies (15,034 families), we examined mothers’ and fathers’ differential use of autonomy-supportive and controlling strategies with boys and girls, and the role of moderators related to the decade in which the study was conducted, the observational context, and sample characteristics. Databases of Web of Science, ERIC, PsychInfo, Online Contents, Picarta, and Proquest were searched for studies examining differences in observed parental control of boys and girls between the ages of 0 and 18 years. Few differences were found in parents’ use of control with boys and girls. Parents were slightly more controlling with boys than with girls, but the effect size was negligible (d = 0.08). The effect was larger, but still small, in normative groups and in samples with younger children. No overall effect for gender-differentiated autonomy-supportive strategies was found (d = 0.03). A significant effect of time emerged: studies published in the 1970s and 1980s reported more autonomy-supportive strategies with boys than toward girls, but from 1990 onwards parents showed somewhat more autonomy-supportive strategies with girls than toward boys. Taking into account parents’ gender stereotypes might uncover subgroups of families where gender-differentiated control is salient, but based on our systematic review of the currently available large data base we conclude that in general the differences between parenting of boys versus girls are minimal.
Coercive parent-child interaction models posit that an escalating cycle of negative, bidirectional interchanges influences the development of boys’ externalizing problems and caregivers’ maladaptive parenting over time. However, longitudinal studies examining this hypothesis have been unable to rule out the possibility that between-individual factors account for bidirectional associations between child externalizing problems and maladaptive parenting. Using a longitudinal sample of boys (N=503) repeatedly assessed eight times across 6-month intervals in childhood (in a range between 6-13 years), the current study is the first to use novel within-individual change (fixed effects) models to examine whether parents tend to increase their use of maladaptive parenting strategies following an increase in their son’s externalizing problems, or vice versa. These bidirectional associations were examined using multiple facets of externalizing problems (i.e., interpersonal callousness, conduct and oppositional defiant problems, hyperactivity/impulsivity) and parenting behaviors (i.e., physical punishment, involvement, parent-child communication). Analyses failed to support the notion that when boys increase their typical level of problem behaviors, their parents show an increase in their typical level of maladaptive parenting across the subsequent 6 month period, and vice versa. Instead, across 6-month intervals, within parent-son dyads, changes in maladaptive parenting and child externalizing problems waxed and waned in concert. Fixed effects models to address the topic of bidirectional relations between parent and child behavior are severely underrepresented. We recommend that other researchers who have found significant bidirectional parent-child associations using rank-order change models reexamine their data to determine whether these findings hold when examining changes within parent-child dyads.
Objective: To review empirical findings on oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). Method: Selected summaries of the literature over the past decade are presented. Results: Research on ODD and CD during the past decade has addressed the complexity involved in identifying the primary risk factors and developmental pathways to disruptive behavior disorders (DBD). In some domains, research is entering an entirely new phase because of the availability of new technologies. In others, larger data sets and more complicated methodological and statistical techniques are testing increasingly complex models. Yet questions remain regarding the most useful subtyping systems, the identification of the most significant risk factors, and the relationships between risk factors from multiple domains. Conclusions: Convincing evidence of causal linkages remains elusive. Research has questioned the notion that CD is intractable, especially when multiple domains of risk and impairment are the targets of intervention. It is apparent that there is not one single causative factor; thus it is not likely that one single modality will suffice to treat CD. Future steps will involve the restructuring of diagnostic criteria to capture adequate subtypes and indicators, clarification of the neurological underpinnings of the disorder, and refinement in the models available to explain the varied pathways to DBD.
From a traditional viewpoint, fathers are seen as the main disciplinarian in the family. However, recent studies suggest that these traditional family role patterns may have changed. In this study, we observed discipline strategies of mothers and fathers toward their sons and daughters. Participants included 242 families with two children (1 and 3 years of age). Findings revealed that parental discipline varied by the age of the children, but that mothers disciplined their children more often than fathers. Fathers, conversely, showed more laxness in response to child non-compliance. Gender of the children was only related to physical interference, with mothers using more physical interference with boys than fathers, irrespective of birth order. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of parent gender for parent–child interactions in early childhood, but also suggest that child age should be taken into account as important explanatory factors.
Adversity early in life can disrupt the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axes and increase risk for negative health outcomes. The interplay between these axes and the environment is complex, and understanding needs to be advanced by the investigation of the multiple hormonal relationships underlying these processes. The current study examined basal hormonal associations between morning levels of cortisol, testosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone in a cohort of adolescents (mean age 15.56 years). The moderating influence of childhood adversity was also examined, as indexed by self-reported trauma (at mean age 14.91), and observed maternal aggressive parenting (at mean age 12.41). Between-person regressions revealed significant associations between hormones that were moderated by both measures of adversity. In females, all hormones positively covaried, but also interacted with adversity, such that positive covariation was typically only present when levels of trauma and/or aggressive parenting were low. In males, hormonal associations and interactions were less evident; however, interactions were detected for cortisol-testosterone - positively covarying at high levels of aggressive parenting but negatively covarying at low levels - and DHEA-cortisol - similarly positively covarying at high levels of parental aggression. These results demonstrate associations between adrenal and gonadal hormones and the moderating role of adversity, which is likely driven by feedback mechanisms, or cross-talk, between the axes. These findings suggest that hormonal changes may be the pathway through which early life adversity alters physiology and increases health risks, but does so differentially in the sexes; however further study is necessary to establish causation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 9999: XX-XX, 2015.
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to present a rationale for increasing initiatives for early intervention of emotional and behaviour difficulties.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors draw on existing literature regarding rates of emotional and behavioural difficulties together with risk factors and processes related to the development of such difficulties.
Findings
– Rates of emotional and behavioural difficulties amongst children with learning and developmental difficulties are high. A combination of factors relating to the child, the family system, and wider social contexts is likely to account for this.
Research limitations/implications
– Increased attempts to provide early intervention to children with learning and developmental disabilities together with their families are warranted. Recommendations are made regarding how the development of such supports might best be taken forward.
Originality/value
– Whilst drawing on pre-existing literature, the value of this paper is the way in which this has been drawn together to provide an overview of risk and development of behavioural and other difficulties amongst children with learning/developmental disabilities.
In this study, the author compared the educational practices of fathers and mothers of children who present exteriorized behaviour problems with those of parents whose children do not (n = 626 children, average age : 5.6 years). She also examined the relationships between the level of the behavioural difficulty experienced by the children and the educational practices of their parents, taking into account the gender of both parent and child. The results indicate that a feeling of insufficient parental competence is interconnected with the difficulties experienced by the children, irrespective of the gender of parent or child. The results also show a differentiated linkage, more particularly that of the improper use of discipline, especially as concerns boys and that of a low level of paternal commitment, especially as concerns girls. The discussion brings out the possible spin-off from a differentiated approach to the two parents.
The family environment has consistently been linked to childhood conduct problems and the development of serious delinquent behavior among youth. This chapter provides a brief overview of longitudinal evidence linking aspects of family structure/functioning (i.e., early motherhood, family size, single parenthood, caretaker changes, family socioeconomic status), caregiver characteristics (i.e., parental criminality, substance use/dependence, internalizing problems, and inter-parental conflict) and parenting practices (i.e., parental attachment/bonding, parental warmth, positive reinforcement, harsh/rejecting parenting, inconsistent discipline, parental control/monitoring) to the development of youth antisocial behavior. Several examples of how research related to family factors has been used to inform the creation of effective prevention and intervention efforts aimed at reducing youth delinquency are provided. A set of key methodological and theoretical challenges associated with conducting research on family factors is then discussed, including examining gene-by-family environment interactions, considering reciprocal parent-child influences, and integrating information collected using multiple methods/informants when assessing parenting practices. The chapter concludes by providing some recommendations for future studies designed to further advance our understanding of how family factors influence the early emergence and persistence of delinquent behavior from childhood into early adulthood.
The Nurtured Heart Approach to parenting (NHA; Glasser & Easley, 2008) is summarized and evaluated in terms of its alignment with current theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence in family studies and developmental science. Originally conceived and promoted as a behavior management approach for parents of difficult children (i.e., with behavior disorders), NHA is increasingly offered as a valuable strategy for parents of any children, despite a lack of published empirical support. Parents using NHA are trained to minimize attention to undesired behaviors, provide positive attention and praise for compliance with rules, help children be successful by scaffolding and shaping desired behavior, and establish a set of clear rules and consequences. Many elements of the approach have strong support in the theoretical and empirical literature; however, some of the assumptions are more questionable, such as that negative child behavior can always be attributed to unintentional positive reinforcement by parents responding with negative attention. On balance, NHA appears to promote effective and validated parenting practices, but its effectiveness now needs to be tested empirically.
Objective. This study examines the relations between multiple measures of parenting attitudes and behaviors and to child development in a sample of low-SES rural Appalachian European American families. Design. Seventy mothers completed questionnaire measures of parenting attitudes and behaviors, described their parenting behaviors in open-ended interviews, and were observed interacting with their child in the laboratory. Children were assessed with measures of mother-reported behavior problems, kindergarten teacher ratings of social competence, and standardized language scores. Results. Very limited convergence was found between parenting measures. These relations were more evident among measures with common source variance (parent-report) or those with more specific and concrete operational definitions of behavior. Rural Appalachian parenting, observed in the laboratory and described by mothers in interviews and questionnaires, accounted for significant variance in child social and language development, even when contextual predictors and child sex were taken into account. Negative parenting was more predictive than positive. Conclusion. In this little studied group, multiple methods identified individual differences in parenting behaviors, which related to behavior problems, language ability, and social competence in young children. The utility of semi-structured parent interviews was validated.
This article discusses the effectiveness of a multicomponent intervention designed to disrupt developmental pro- cesses associated with conduct problems and peer rejection in childhood. Compared with 41 children randomized to a wait list control condition, 45 children in an intervention condition received a social skills training program. At the same time, their parents participated in an in-home family intervention. Compared with control group children, inter- vention children demonstrated significant improvements on five of six outcome measures. Differences between the experimental and control groups suggest the programs strengthen children's prosocial behavior, promote their ability to regulate emotions, and increase social contact with peers. Intervention also was associated with significant improvements in classroom comportment and decreases in relational aggression, a measure of coercion in peer rela- tionships. The findings are consistent with those of other programs effective in interrupting risk processes associated with conduct problems in childhood and early adolescence.
Analyses addressing 2 sets of hypotheses were examined. First, it was hypothesized that the number of parenting transitions would define a continuum that would covary with the magnitude of the adjustment problems experienced by boys in the family. Intact, single-mother, stepfather, and multiple-transition families were selected from 206 predominantly lower- and working-class families in the Oregon Youth Study and compared on a comprehensive measure of boys' adjustment at Grade 4. Boys who had experienced multiple transitions showed the poorest adjustment. This relationship was still significant after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) and per capita income. In the 2nd set of analyses, the hypothesis that maternal antisocial behavior (MAB) contributes directly to relationship transitions and indirectly to child adjustment problems was tested in a structural equation model. A mediational model including MAB and parenting practices was used to predict child adjustment measured 2 yrs later. Number of transitions was highly related to MAB. The antisocial mother was most at risk for transitions and unskilled parenting practices, which in turn placed her son at risk for poor adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested a structural model (Patterson, 1986) of the effects of parental discipline on child coercive and antisocial behavior using a sample of 65 recently separated single-mother families with 6- to 8-year-old boys. Previous tests of this model used older boys and samples that allowed family structure to vary. The replication model produced acceptable fit, χ–2(61,
N = 65) = 70.6,
p = .188, and explained 11% of the variance in antisocial behavior. Five alternative models were tested on this sample and are discussed briefly. The significance of generalization to this sample is discussed for the model's clinical usefulness, and further improvements to increase explainable variance are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study investigated the reliability and validity of a 34-item parent daily observation and reporting measure that allows for repeated assessments of child problem behaviors. Normative data are presented, and influences on parental reporting (i.e., social desirability) are examined. Parent observation data were found to have substantial temporal stability and interparent reliability for the occurrence of previously targeted problem behaviors. A cluster analysis yielded two primary factors with good internal consistency (i.e., aggression and immaturity) and two secondary factors with moderate internal consistency (i.e., unsocialized and retaliation). Finally, parents' daily reports of targeted child problem behaviors correlated significantly with concurrent home observation data collected by independent observers. The clinical and research utility of this measure are discussed.
This article explored developmental and intervention evidence relevant to iatrogenic effects in peer-group interventions. Longitudinal research revealed that "deviancy training" within adolescent friendships predicts increases in delinquency, substance use, violence, and adult maladjustment. Moreover, findings from 2 experimentally controlled intervention studies suggested that peer-group interventions increase adolescent problem behavior and negative life outcomes in adulthood, compared with control youth. The data from both experimental studies suggested that high-risk youth are particularly vulnerable to peer aggregations, compared with low-risk youth. We proposed that peer aggregation during early adolescence, under some circumstances, inadvertently reinforces problem behavior. Two developmental processes are discussed that might account for the powerful iatrogenic effects.
The relation of parenting variables and attachment classification to peer relations was studied for 156 families with toddler children. Children were observed at 18 months of age in the home with their parents and from 18 to 24 months of age in peer playgroups. Playgroup teachers rated the children's ability to get along with their peers. Also when children were 18 months, they were assessed with their mothers in the Strange Situation, and an attachment classification was made. There were significant differences in peer reactions to children of different attachment classifications. Insecure-resistant children received fewer positive reactions to their positive behaviors, and both resistant and avoidant children received more negative reactions to their positive behaviors. Hierarchical regressions were computed to examine the contribution of observed parent-child interactions and the attachment classification to peer interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
With the acceleration of the divorce rate from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, the number of non-traditional families (such as single-parent families and reconstituted families) have increased relative to intact, first-time nuclear families. This article reviews empirical evidence addressing the relationship between divorce, family composition, and children's well-being. Although not entirely consistent, the pattern of empirical findings suggests that children's emotional adjustment, gender-role orientation, and antisocial behavior are affected by family structure, whereas other dimensions of well-being are unaffected. But the review indicates that these findings should be interpreted with caution because of the methodological deficiencies of many of the studies on which these findings are based. Several variables, including the level of family conflict, may be central variables mediating the effect of family structure on children.
This study examines the effects of marital disruption on children's behavior, accounting for variations in postdisruption living arrangements and the effects of parent-child relationships and marital conflict. The study is based on a 1981 national sample of 1,400 children aged 12-16. Disruption was associated with a higher incidence of several behavior problems, negative effects being greatest with multiple marital transitions. The negative effects are lower if the child lives with the same-sex parent following divorce or maintains a good relationship with one or both parents. High, persistent conflict in intact families is also related to behavior problems.
the social context in which the development of viable prevention programs must be developed and evaluated / life-course development and prevention / a developmental model of antisocial behavior / preventive interventions across the life course / interventions that target the prenatal and early childhood environment / interventions that target the family environment / interventions that target the school environment or simultaneously target multiple environments (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
An iterative, bootstrapping strategy is described in which assessment devices are evaluated on the basis of their reliabilities and validities, usefulness in the formation of nomological networks, and eventual adequacy as part of a hypothesized process mode. A study was conducted to replicate and extend previous research by the present authors and T. J. Dishion (see record
1985-25219-001) and the 1st author and Dishion (in press), which was aimed at defining the process through which young boys learn to use antisocial behaviors at home and at school. The parents of 103 4th-grade boys completed a structured interview, 6 brief telephone interviews, and the Child Behavior Checklist. The boys also completed the structured interview and the phone interviews and were observed at home during 3 1-hr periods. The children's teachers rated them on the Checklist. 14 indicators that defined the 4 latent dimensions (discipline, monitoring, coercive child, and antisocial) in the model were analyzed. According to the model, inadequate parental discipline leads to coercive child behaviors, which in turn produce antisocial acts at home and at school and further difficulties in disciplining. Parents who lack good discipline skills appear to be less aware than other parents of their children's whereabouts and activities; these poor monitoring skills lead, in turn, to further antisocial acts. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In this paper, both longitudinal and treatment studies relevant to conduct disorder (CD) are reviewed, and a developmental approach to its prevention is presented. Outcome studies for the treatment of CD and antisocial behavior are first reviewed to demonstrate that, although none have been entirely successful, many interventions have powerful effects on various symptoms that comprise the disorder, highly predictive antecedents, and risk factors. Second, the development of CD and the potency and interrelationship among antecedent and mediating variables is traced through the preschool and early elementary school years. Third, an attempt is made to synthesize the developmental and treatment research findings to suggest possible integrations of interventions that are promising for future preventive trials in the preschool and elementary school periods. It is concluded that, whereas before the entry to school preventive interventions targeted entirely in the family setting may prove successful, after the transition to school multisetting interventions will be essential. Finally, three examples of new and multisetting prevention trials are briefly described.
Antisocial behaviors in females may differ from more prototypically “male” patterns of aggression, violence, and criminality that dominate criteria for conduct problems in diagnostic systems. This raises questions of how to define and investigate conduct problems in females as well as how to identify differential childhood antecedents. A developmental psychopathology perspective is advanced as one useful approach to understanding adaptive and maladaptive social patterns in males and females that may lead to different developmental trajectories and influence the forms of psychopathology that develop. The utility of de-emphasizing serious physical aggression as one important criteria for conduct problems is questioned. Recommendations that particular forms of deviance in females be considered as markers of their antisocial patterns (e.g., somatic complaints, friendlessness, underachievement) are also called into question. Rather than adopt sex-specific criteria to assess conduct problems, it is necessary to expand and broaden the diagnostic categories to include serious externalizing problems regardless of whether they occur in males or females.
In recent research a relationally oriented form of aggression has been identified that, in contrast to overt aggression that harms others through physical means (e.g., hitting), harms others through damage to their peer relationships (e.g., angrily retaliating against a peer by excluding her from one's play group). The goal this research was to assess the role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type (relational vs. instrumental) in children's relationally aggressive behavior. A total of 252 third- through sixth-grade children participated as subjects. A hypothetical provocation instrument was used to assess children's intent attributions and feelings of distress for ambiguous relational and instrumental provocation situations. Results showed that, as hypothesized, relationally aggressive children exhibited a hostile attributional bias and reported significantly higher levels of distress than did their nonaggressive peers for relational provocation situations. In addition, girls reported significantly higher levels of distress than did boys for relational provocation situations. Further, a comorbid group of relationally plus overtly aggressive children also exhibited a hostile attributional bias; however, their bias was evident for instrumental provocation situations only.
A discussion of gender and conduct disorder must first answer the basic questions of whether or not there are any differences in prevalence, symptoms, and correlates of conduct disorder by sex. Several epidemiologic studies have found no difference in the prevalence of conduct disorder in adolescence by sex. Correlates of conduct disorder in girls are similar to those in boys (including aggression and internalizing disorders), once base rates of the correlates are accounted for. A major problem in studying conduct disorder in girls is the lack of appropriate criteria; the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (3rd ed., rev.) criteria are not appropriate for girls. A case is made for sex-specific criteria for conduct disorder that take into account known differences in male and female childhood cultures and base-rate differences in aggression and criminality. Until basic issues of diagnosis and prevalence are resolved, other issues such as risk factors and developmental pathways cannot be successfully addressed.
A model was presented describing the reciprocal influence of disruptions in parent discipline practices on irritable exchanges between the target child and other family members. Disrupted parent discipline and irritable microsocial exchanges within the family were hypothesized to provide a basic training for aggression that generalizes to other settings such that the child is identified by peers, teachers, and parents as physically aggressive. Physical fighting was thought to lead to rejection by the normal peer group, which was hypothesized to feed back to further exacerbate fighting.Multilevel assessment including interview, questionnaires, laboratory studies, and home observations were carried out with the families of 91 preadolescent and adolescent boys. Nine indicators from the assessment battery were used to define the constructs Inept Parental Discipline, Negative Microsocial Exchanges, Physical Fighting, and Poor Peer Relations. Structural equations (LISREL VI) were used to describe the relations among the constructs. The t values for the path coefficients were significant. A chi-square analysis showed an acceptable fit between the model and the empirical findings.The findings were interpreted as being consistent with the hypothesis that under certain circumstances, family interaction may serve as basic training for aggression. In the present study, interactions with siblings in the home seemed to serve a pivotal role.
Two longitudinal studies of marital interaction were conducted using observational coding of couples attempting to resolve a high-conflict issue. We found that a different pattern of results predicts con-current marital satisfaction than predicts change in marital satisfaction over 3 years. Results suggest that some marital interaction patterns, such as disagreement and anger exchanges, which have usually been considered harmful to a marriage, may not be harmful in the long run. These patterns were found to relate to unhappiness and negative interaction at home concurrently, but they were predictive of improvement in marital satisfaction longitudinally. However, three interaction patterns were identified as dysfunctional in terms of longitudinal deterioration: defensiveness (which includes whining), stubborness, and withdrawal from interaction. Hypotheses about gender differences in roles for the maintenance of marital satisfaction are presented.
Children's traits, such as antisocial behavior, are embedded in a matrix that is changing over time. Although the trait score is stable, there are changes in the form of antisocial acts. There can also be subgroups of boys who show systematic increases in mean level of antisocial behavior. Latent growth models were used to demonstrate both changes in form and systematic changes in mean level for a subgroup of boys. The analyses included measures of covariates that were thought necessary to cause these changes. There are also qualitative changes brought about by the presence of the antisocial trait itself (e.g., academic failure, peer rejection, and depressed mood). Factor analyses carried out at three ages showed that, over time, both the changes in form and the addition of new problems are quantifiable and thus represent orderly change.
In a test of Patterson's Coercion Theory with young children, 156 children (82 boys and 74 girls) were studied to assess the extent to which parenting and child variables, assessed at 18 months, would predict teacher ratings of externalizing child behaviors at age 5. Child playgroup behavior, parent coercion during home observations, and marital status each emerged as predictors, whereas child temperament, attachment classification, and gender did not. At age 5, the correlates of externalizing behaviors differed for boys and girls. Boys rated higher on externalizing behaviors by the teachers presented many problems in the home and school, whereas externalizing girls did not. In fact, girls rated higher on externalizing behaviors performed better on an intelligence test, yet the girls perceived themselves as less competent.
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