Poster #135 - Longitudinal Associations Between Temperament, Mother-Child Conflict and Externalizing Problems: A State Space Grid Analysis

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

How children learn to manage conflict affects their long-term wellbeing, including the development of externalizing problems (EP). A crucial setting within which this learning occurs is parent-child relationships (Cummings & Schatz, 2012). According to a dynamic systems perspective, development results from reciprocal patterns of interaction between parents and children (Fogel, 2009). Consequently, both parent and child characteristics (e.g., temperament) and behavior influence how their conflicts unfold. State space grid analysis captures the dynamics of interactions, by representing the behavior of two individuals over the course of an observed interaction in two-dimensional space, with each axis representing one individual (Hollenstein, 2013). Using state space grids, researchers have assessed “emotional flexibility” during conflict: the tendency of mother-child dyads to shift across a variety of dyadic emotion states (Granic & Lamey, 2002). Although a wider range of emotions appears beneficial for socioemotional development (Granic et al., 2007), the opposite may be true regarding range of verbal conflict behaviors: it may be more adaptive for dyads to limit themselves to a few common and effective strategies (e.g., disclosure, conciliation, listening) versus also resorting to less effective strategies (e.g., insults/blame, avoidance/withdrawal; e.g., Caughlin et al., 2004). The present study utilized state space grids and path analysis to assess whether flexibility in dyadic verbal conflict behavior during mother-child conflict mediates the relationship between child temperament and EP in adolescence.

Participants were 92 mother-child dyads at economic and/or psychosocial risk. At Time 1 (child age: 6-8 years), mothers reported on children’s temperament (EAS-2; Buss & Plomin, 1984). At Time 2 (child age: 9-12 years), dyads were observed at home while discussing topics they identified as causing conflict between them. Mothers’ and children’s behavior was continuously coded with a reliable system based on previous research (e.g., Sillars et al., 2004). Behaviors included listening, analytic (descriptive/disclosing), conciliatory, and confrontative remarks, disagreement, and avoidance/withdrawal. State space grids were used to assess flexibility in dyads’ verbal conflict behaviors by calculating dispersion values (number of states occupied, controlling for duration; Hollenstein, 2013; sample state space grids, Figure 1). At Time 3 (child age: 13-15 years), children’s self-reported symptoms of EP were assessed (ASEBA-YSR; Achenbach, 2001).

Results revealed that all dyads displayed some adaptive dyadic conflict states (e.g., conciliation/listening, analytic/listening). Dyads with higher dispersion (i.e., more flexible) were those who also resorted to maladaptive strategies (e.g., avoidance/withdrawal, confrontation). Path analysis (Figure 2) revealed that child temperament (Time 1) predicted dyadic dispersion (Time 2): higher activity predicted increased dispersion, whereas higher sociability predicted decreased dispersion. In turn, higher dispersion predicted increased EP (Time 3). Dispersion mediated the relationship between sociability and EP. While higher activity predicted increased EP, dispersion did not mediate this association.

Thus, dyads in which children are more dispositionally active and less sociable might develop patterns of interaction wherein both individuals resort to more maladaptive behaviors; over time, this process appears to be a mechanism by which temperament predicts EP. These findings underscore the bidirectionality of mother-child conflict and the importance of the process, as well as the content, of interactions.

Authors

• Saskia J Ferrar, Concordia University
  Presenting Author

• Dale M. Stack, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Arielle Orsini, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniel J. Dickson, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anne Baptiste, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lisa A. Serbin, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author