A Longitudinal Path Model Examining the Transactional Nature of Parenting and Child Behavior Problems

• In Event: Externalizing Behavior Problems in Early Childhood: The Role of Parenting Behaviors and Temperament

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Externalizing behavior problems in childhood are associated with later impairment in health and functioning. Research highlights the importance of the reciprocal, transactional nature of parenting and child externalizing behaviors (CEB). Few studies have examined these relations among younger children using large, diverse samples; of those, most rely primarily on parental-report of parenting behaviors. The present study expands on existing research by leveraging a large, sociodemographically diverse sample and employing a 4-wave, repeated-measures longitudinal model to examine the transactional nature of objectively-assessed parenting quality and CEB during the understudied, sensitive period of development in early childhood. Further, we expand on traditional models by including salient family factors associated with both parenting and CEB (namely, parental psychopathology and parenting stress) in our analyses.

Method: The (Masked for Review) study is a large (1287 mother-child dyads), diverse (65% African-American), longitudinal pregnancy cohort from the (Southern metropolitan area). Information was collected during pregnancy and at child ages one-year (W1), two-years (W2), three-years (W3), and four-to-six years (W4). Three repeatedly-measured variables were utilized for the cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) design: parenting quality, completed by trained observers using the Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training Parent-Child Interaction Teaching Scale; CEB, measured via mother-report at W1 and W2 on the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment, and at W3 and W4 on the Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5; and a maternal wellbeing composite, comprising the Brief Symptom Inventory and the Parenting Stress Index. Covariates included maternal age, IQ, marital status, household income-adjusted-for-family-size, child gestational age, and child sex.

Results: See Table 1 for demographic information and Figure 1 for the full CLPM design. All autoregressive paths for parenting quality, CEB, and maternal wellbeing were significant. Transactional associations emerged at two timepoints. First, higher parenting quality at W1 predicted lower CEB at W2 (β = -0.06, p = 0.041). Subsequently, higher CEB at W2 predicted lower parenting quality at W3 (β = -0.10, p = 0.001). None of the cross-sectional paths between maternal wellbeing and parenting were significant, whereas all were significant between maternal wellbeing and CEB. Examination of potential differences by child sex showed that associations did not significantly differ between sexes, suggesting no moderation by child sex.

Conclusions: Findings from this large, diverse pregnancy cohort suggest that, across the early childhood years, in addition to evidence for the continuity of both parenting behaviors and child externalizing behaviors, both parent-driven and child-driven effects were present. Notably, these relations were significant even after accounting for other factors within the home environment – maternal psychopathology and parenting stress – which are often ignored in extant parent-child transactional research. Finally, the lack of moderation by child sex suggests sex-invariant associations across early childhood. Findings indicate that the reciprocal, transactional nature of the parent-child relationship starts very early in childhood and underscores the importance of early education and supports for parents, children, and families to minimize and prevent later child psychopathology.

Authors

• Shaikh I. Ahmad, University of California - San Francisco
  Presenting Author

• Kristen L. Rudd, University of California - San Francisco

• Danielle Roubinov, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Kaja Z. LeWinn, University of California, San Francisco

• W. Alex Mason, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Joyce Carolyn Graff, University of Tennessee Health Science Center

• Nicole R Bush, University of California - San Francisco