Co-Development of Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors across Childhood at the Within-Person Level: Heritable and Rearing Environmental Influences

• In Event: Using Intensive Longitudinal Approaches to Understand Child Development

Abstract

The co-occurrence of externalizing and internalizing behaviors is prevalent among children. However, previous work on the co-occurrence has mainly focused on between-person or amalgam of between- and within-person associations, thus confounding between-person differences (e.g., whether individuals who are high in externalizing are also high in internalizing) from evolution of these behaviors within individuals over developmental periods (e.g., whether toddlers “outgrow” elevated – but subclinical – levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors during childhood; and whether one type of problem behaviors drives subsequent changes in the other type of problem behaviors). This study aimed to address the gaps in the literature by examining the co-development of externalizing and internalizing behaviors at the within-person level from ages 1.5 to 8 years. Moreover, we examined whether heritable risk for psychopathology and overreactive parenting moderated the within-person co-development of externalizing and internalizing behaviors using 561 children adopted at birth, their adoptive parents (AP), and birth parents within a prospective longitudinal adoption study.

Dynamic structural equation modeling (Asparouhov et al., 2018) was used to examine the multilevel cross-lagged associations and contemporaneous correlations between externalizing and internalizing behaviors over time (see Figure 1). The analysis was based on occasion-specific residuals after removing age-related trends of externalizing and internalizing behaviors, respectively. Child externalizing and internalizing behaviors were assessed 6 times using AP ratings on Child Behavior Checklist preschool 1.5-5 years and school-age 6-18 years versions (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). Latent confirmatory factor analysis models with common/anchor items were used to integrate the 1.5-5 year and 6-18 year versions of the CBCL over time. Child heritable risk for psychopathology were estimated from birth mother’s lifetime psychiatric diagnoses through Diagnostic Interview Schedule (Robins et al. 1981) and Composite International Diagnostic Interview (Kessler & Üstün, 2004). AP’s overreactive parenting was assessed based on combined mother and father ratings on their own parental discipline “mistakes” from 9 to 27 months using the over-reactivity subscale of the Parenting Scale (Arnold et al. 1993).

Findings identified the co-occurrence of externalizing and internalizing behaviors at each occasion (r = .03, with 95% CI = [.02, .04]). At the within-person level, increases in externalizing behaviors led to subsequent decreases in internalizing behaviors (γs21 = -.22, with 95% CI = [-.34, -.09]) and similarly increases in internalizing behaviors led to subsequent decreases in externalizing behaviors (γs12 = -.05, with 95% CI = [-.09, -.002]). Children exposed to higher levels of overreactive parenting showed negative within-person effects with externalizing influencing subsequent internalizing behaviors (β = -.23, with 95% CI = [-.44, -.03]). Specifically, on occasions when children showed higher levels of externalizing behaviors relative to his or her typical age-related trend, children with more overreactive parents exhibited lower levels of internalizing behaviors at the next occasion, compared to children with lower overreactive parents. However, heritable risk for psychopathology was not a significant moderator of the cross-lagged associations. The findings support the direct effects model that externalizing and internalizing behaviors have direct associations on the development of one another, providing new insights into the co-development of externalizing and internalizing behaviors.

Authors

• Chang Liu, George Washington University
  Presenting Author

• Sy-Miin Chow, The Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ginger A. Moore, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Koraly Elisa Perez-Edgar, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leslie D. Leve, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jody M. Ganiban, George Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

• David Reiss, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Misaki N. Natsuaki, University of California - Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jenae M Neiderhiser, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author