Poster #97 - Intrusive Parenting and Externalizing Behaviors across Early Childhood: The Antecedents and Consequences of Child-driven Effects

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Starting from the second year of life, some children begin to exhibit increasing externalizing behaviors, such as disruptive, defiant, or aggressive behaviors. Most of these behaviors diminish over time and may not be pathological for children’s later development or adjustment (Broidy et al., 2003; Miner & Clarke-Stewart, 2008). Instead, how parents respond to these early occurrences of externalizing behaviors may influence the developmental course of behavioral problems (Bates, Pettit, Dodge, & Ridge, 1998; Dix, Stewart, & Gershoff, 2007). In response to children’s externalizing behaviors, some parents may engage in intrusive and over-controlling practices in order to “correct” children’s behavior. Existing studies based on cross-lagged models have illustrated the bidirectional associations between children’s externalizing behaviors and their parents’ parenting practices (Pinquart, 2017). However, it is unknown whether the strength of child-driven effects—the likelihood that parents may react to children’s externalizing behaviors with intrusive parenting—may shape the trajectories of children’s behaviors in the long-term.
Thus, as part of the current investigation, we used data from 1,364 families who participated in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) to address these gaps in the developmental literature. We operationalize child-driven effects in a novel way by using a multi-level model to (a) examine mothers’ intrusive reactions to children’s externalizing behaviors within each family dyad across the early childhood years and then (b) estimate their implications for children’s behavioral development across middle childhood and early adolescence (see Figure 1). As part of this effort, we also sought to understand the antecedents of these child-driven effects. We found that, from 24-months to 7 years of age, children’s externalizing behaviors predicted increases in mothers’ intrusive parenting behaviors. These child-driven effects were particularly salient for non-White children and mothers who were at risk socioeconomically. Importantly, these elicited changes in mothers’ intrusive parenting as a result of children’s externalizing behaviors during early childhood, in turn, predicted children’s externalizing behaviors through age 15. When taken together, these findings suggest that children have the potential to shape their own development in the long-term by initiating changes in their home environment. Accordingly, interventions designed to mitigate children’s behavioral problems may need to address, not only general parenting practices but also specific and efficient parenting strategies in response to children’s behavioral problems.

Authors

• Ni Yan, Southwest University
  Presenting Author

• Arya Ansari, The University of Virginia
  Non-Presenting Author