Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

The Cross-Lagged Effects of Mothers, Fathers, and Children on Aggressive Behavior Over Time in Resident and Nonresident Families

Sat, October 6, 1:15 to 2:45pm, Doubletree Hilton, Room: Tempe

Abstract

Introduction: A mounting body of work has shown that father involvement is uniquely related to children’s wellbeing (Cabrera & Tamis-LeMonda, 2013). Yet with a few exceptions, these studies are unidirectional and do not account for the transactional nature of fathering, especially in the development of behavioral problems. Research shows that aggressive behaviors are predictive of lower academic achievement (Masten et al., 2005), worse school adjustment (Baker, 2006) and more juvenile delinquency (Brody et al., 2003). To date, transactional studies span a short period of development, do not cover early childhood, and rarely include mother and father involvement. We address these gaps.
Aims: Guided by transactional theory, we seek to examine the cross-lagged relations between father involvement, mother involvement, and child aggressive behaviors at ages 3, 5, 9, and 15. We also assess differences in the effects of child aggressive behavior on parental involvement by child gender. Because living in two-parent families is related to family stability compared to single-parent households, we examine transactional patterns separately for resident and nonresident families.
Method: Our sample includes n= 735 participants from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a national study following a cohort of children born in 20 U.S. cities. Mothers and fathers were interviewed about their involvement and child behavior problems at 5, 9 and 15. We tested the cross-lagged effects of parental involvement on children’s aggressive behaviors with structural equation models.
Results: In two-parent families, we found that 3-year-old children who exhibited aggressive behavior had both fathers and mothers who were less involved at age 5 and fathers’ and mothers’ involvement at age 5 increased each other’s involvement at age 9 (see Figure 1). The opposite pattern was observed for nonresident families. More aggressive 3-year-old children had more involved fathers at age 5 and 5-year-old children’s aggressive behaviors increased fathers’ involvement at age 9. There were no cross-parental effects for mothers’ involvement in nonresident families (see Figure 2). Additional analyses explored moderations by child gender. We will extend these models to include reports of aggressive behaviors at 15 years, which is newly released data.
Conclusions: This research extends the literature on the cross-lagged effects of parental involvement and child behavior across key developmental timepoints by including both parents and showing distinct patterns for different types of families. These findings may have implications for developing interventions that address the unique contributions each member of the family system has on children’s behavior.

Authors