Poster #145 - Longitudinal Relations between Child Temperament and Parenting and their Effects on Korean American Children’s Adjustment

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Little is known about mechanisms that contribute to young Korean immigrant children’s positive adjustment in the U.S., despite the benefits of understanding and intervening in potentially maladaptive developmental processes during the early years (McCabe & Altamura, 2011). Previous research has found that children’s temperamental inhibitory control and maternal warmth are negatively associated with children’s externalizing problem behaviors (Eisenberg et al., 2010; Yu et al., 2018). Moreover, maternal warmth was found to affect child temperamental inhibitory control during early childhood (Eisenberg et al., 2010). Although child development is known to occur through reciprocal transactions between child characteristics and the context within which the child develops (Hinshaw, 2008), bidirectional parent-child relationships are much less explored (Sameroff & MacKenzie, 2003), particularly in ethnic minority children. Thus, we examined pathways toward child externalizing behaviors by evaluating transactional and longitudinal relations between maternal warmth and child temperamental inhibitory control during the early childhood years in a sample of Korean immigrant families in the U.S.

Korean immigrant mothers (N=194; Mage=36.03, SD=3.70) and their preschool-aged children (Mage=4.32, SD=1.00; Girls=57.2%) in Maryland, U.S. participated in a 3-wave (W1, W2, and W3; 6 months apart) longitudinal study. Mothers reported on their family demographics (Bornstein, 1991), maternal warmth (Wu et al., 2002), and children’s temperamental inhibitory control (Rothbart et al., 2001). Teachers reported on children’s externalizing problems (Goodman, 1997).

A 3-wave autoregressive cross-lagged path analysis was conducted (Figure 1). Chi-square (χ2 (16, N=194) =24.72, p>.05), CFI (.98), TLI (.95), and SRMR (.06) indicated a good model fit. All the autoregressive paths were statistically significant in the positive direction, suggesting cross-time consistency in maternal warmth, child temperamental inhibitory control, and child externalizing problems over time. W1 child temperamental inhibitory control negatively predicted W2 child externalizing problems (β=-.19, p<0.05), and W1 child externalizing problems negatively predicted W2 child temperamental inhibitory control (β=-.16, p<0.05). W1 maternal warmth positively predicted W2 child temperamental inhibitory control (β=.13, p<0.05). W2 maternal warmth positively predicted W3 child temperamental inhibitory control (β=.18, p<0.05) and negatively predicted W3 child externalizing problems (β=-.21, p<0.05).

The significant transactional association between child temperamental inhibitory control and externalizing problems from W1 to W2 could be due to common genetic influences during the early years (Saudino, 2005). This transactional association was not significant from W2 to W3, but maternal warmth significantly predicted child temperamental inhibitory control across 3 waves and externalizing problems from W2 to W3. This finding suggests that differences in child temperament and behaviors may be strongly influenced by biological factors early in life but become more influenced by environmental experiences (e.g., parenting) over time (Shiner et al., 2012). Moreover, significant maternal influence on children but not child effects on parenting during the preschool period is likely due to young children’ greater dependence on their primary caregivers and socializing agent during earlier compared to later developmental stages (Eisenberg et al., 2005; Frick et al., 1999). Implications of these findings for intervention and prevention parenting programs for Korean immigrant families will be discussed.

Authors

• You Jung Seo, UMBC Department of Psychology
  Presenting Author

• Charissa S. L. Cheah, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  Non-Presenting Author

• Craig H. Hart, Brigham Young University
  Non-Presenting Author