Dynamic Network-Based Analysis of Parent-Child Affective and Behavioral Dynamics

• In Event: Parent-Child Biobehavioral Synchrony at Multiple Levels of Analysis

Abstract

Parent-child interaction dynamics are vital for children’s adaptive self-regulation development. Previous research has demonstrated the influence of bidirectional and unidirectional parent-child interaction dynamics on adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation development (Kochanska & Murray, 2000; Lunkenheimer et al., 2011). However, the directionality from parent to child and child to parent and the positive and negative content and content of these dynamics are not yet clear. Thus, the current study employed a person-specific network model to capture directional interaction dynamics of parent-child dyads and the influences of parenting style during early childhood.
Dyads were part of a larger study (N = 150, 80 female children) investigating parent-child coregulation and oversampled for lower income, higher parent stress, and child maltreatment risk. Families were assessed at age 2.5 years (M=2.48, SD=0.15), 3 years (M =3.04, SD=0.11), and 4 years (M=4.00, SD=0.12). During the age 3 visit, dyads completed the Parent-Child Challenge Task (PCCT; Lunkenheimer et al., 2017), which captured parent and child behavior and affect, see Table 1. Parents reported their harsh parenting (HP) as psychological aggression at age 2.5 via the Parent-Child Conflicts Tactics Scale (Straus et al., 1998) and lax parenting at Age 3 and Age 4 on the Parenting Scale (Arnold et al., 1993).
Using person-specific network models (Beltz & Gates, 2017) and time series of dyadic partners’ behavior and affect, we investigated the directionality of dyadic connections. Additionally, we explored how HP was both predictive of and predicted by differences in the structure and characteristics of dyadic networks.
Results demonstrated that all dyads had at least one significant positive autoregressive path, suggesting that behavior and affect in the current moment are likely to carry over into the next moment. Four subgroups were then identified based on apriori-defined connection patterns, see figure 1. The Bidirectional group displayed connections from mother to child and child to mother (n = 30). The Mother-to-child unidirectional group showed connections from mother to child, with no connections from child to mother (n = 35). The Child-to-mom unidirectional group displayed child to mother connections with no connections from mother to child (n = 21). The Intraindividual group demonstrated connections only within individuals (e.g., mother to mother, n = 31).
Parents’ self-reported psychological aggression was related to group membership, F(3, 101)=3.35, p=0.02, such that that parents who displayed more psychological aggression at age 2.5 were more likely at age 3 to belong to the Intraindividual group than the Bidirectional group, t(98)=2.96, p=0.004. Additionally, lax parenting was predictive of future group membership F(4, 96)=22.56, p < 0.001, such that those in the Intraindividual group had lower lax parenting a year later than the Bidirectional group, t(98)=-2.03, p=0.045.
Overall, findings identified four parent-child interaction patterns characterized by cross-connections or lack thereof, which were associated with maladaptive parenting. This study provides unique insights into real-time parent-child dynamics and how reduced bidirectional connections between parent and child are linked to maladaptive parenting, which may hinder children’s self-regulation development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Sameroff, 2010).

Authors

• Kayla Melissa Brown, Advocates for Human Potential
  Presenting Author

• Nilam Ram, Stanford University

• Erika S. Lunkenheimer, Pennsylvania State University, University Park