1-179 - New Directions in the Study of Family Context and Children’s Internalizing Symptoms

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Internalizing problems are the most common mental health problem in childhood and forecast children’s later adjustment (Bayer et al., 2011). Contemporary models have identified multiple risk factors, among which experiences in the family environment (e.g., insecure attachment, more controlling and less accepting parenting, presence of parental psychopathology) are most consistently linked to internalizing problems (Drake & Ginsburg, 2012; Rapee, 2012; Restifo & Bogels, 2009).
Despite this progress, there are gaps in our understanding. Many studies examine individual risk factors in isolation, often at a single time point. Consequently, we know little about mediating pathways between family context and internalizing symptoms, or how experiences in the family may be linked to continuity or changes in child internalizing symptoms over time.
This symposium advances the field by addressing these limitations. Two papers use the NICHD Early Childcare data set to explore how aspects of family context in early or middle childhood are related to internalizing symptoms in adolescence. These papers show that changes in parental adjustment forecast later child internalizing symptoms, and that in some cases these effects are explained (mediated) and altered (moderated) by the quality of children’s relationships with their parents. There has been recent attention to the idea that fathers may play a special role in the development of internalizing symptoms, and indeed two papers show that father-child attachment is linked to internalizing symptoms. The final paper complements these findings by showing that coregulation of negative affect within the parent-child dyad is related to internalizing problems in youth.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chairs

• Laura E Brumariu, Adelphi University

• Kathryn A Kerns, Kent State University

Individual Presentations

• Maternal Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms Across Development: Impact on Adolescent Anxiety and Depression - Presenting Author: Laura E Brumariu, Adelphi University; Michael T Moore, Adelphi University; Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Harvard University

• Modeling the Roles of Fathers and Mothers in Child Anxiety - Presenting Author: Kaela Stuart, Kent State University; Kathryn A Kerns, Kent State University

• Is the relation between attachment insecurity and anxiety mediated by reflective functioning? - Presenting Author: Sonja Breinholst, Department of Psychology; Barbara Hoff Esbjørn, Department of Psychology; Monika Walczak, University of Copenhagen

• Context-dependent mother-adolescent emotion covariation: Relations to youth internalizing symptoms - Presenting Author: Kathryn Rulon, Miami University, Ohio; Aaron Luebbe, Miami University of Ohio