Investigating Longitudinal Pathways to Dysregulation: The Role of Disrupted Parenting Behavior

• In Event: 3-190 - Correlates, Mediators, and Consequences of Disrupted Parenting Behavior within Atypical Populations

Integrative Statement

Disrupted parenting during infancy is a predictor of later emotional and behavioral dysregulation for children. However, research is mixed with regards to which forms of disrupted caregiving behaviors are most detrimental to children’s development (e.g., Lyons-Ruth et al., 2013; Main & Hesse, 1990). In addition, assessing the efficacy of interventions that were developed to improve disrupted parenting is a necessary step in ameliorating pathways to dysregulation. Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC; Dozier et al., 2011) is one evidence-based intervention that has been shown to improve parenting quality (i.e., increasing parental sensitivity, decreasing parental intrusiveness), although changes in more disrupted forms of parenting have not yet been empirically tested. ABC has also been found to improve attachment organization in children, such that in the current sample, a lower proportion of children whose parents received ABC were classified as having a disorganized attachment (32%) than children whose parents received a control condition (57%) (Bernard et al., 2012). Therefore, the current study aimed to: 1) assess whether ABC was effective at decreasing disrupted parenting behavior when compared to a control condition, 2) determine whether changes in disrupted parenting behavior due to ABC lead to decreased rates of disorganized attachment in children when compared to a control condition, and 3) assess how anomalous parenting behavior confers risk of dysregulation during early childhood.

A total of 109 parent-child dyads who were referred to Child Protective Services due to substantiated or unsubstantiated reports of maltreatment were included in the current study. Disrupted parenting behaviors were coded using the Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE; Lyons-Ruth, Bronfman, & Parsons, 1999) coding system during the Strange Situation procedure (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). Additionally, attachment quality was coded based on children’s behavior during the Strange Situation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Main & Solomon, 1990). Children were approximately 20.7 months old (SD = 6.2 months) at the time of participation in the Strange Situation. Children’s regulatory abilities were coded within the Disruptive Behavior Diagnostic Observation Schedule, which presents children with a series of increasingly frustrating tasks (DB-DOS; Wakschlag et al., 2010), when children were approximately 4.2 years old (SD = .4 years).
A one-way analysis of variance revealed a significant effect of intervention group on parental withdrawal (F(1, 107) = 5.21, p = .02), such that parents randomized to receive ABC demonstrated lower levels of parental withdrawal (M = 3.77, SD = 1.42) after completion of the intervention than parents randomized to receive the control condition (M = 4.46, SD = 1.69). A structural equation model indicated that decreases in parental withdrawal mediated the association between intervention group and the proportion of children categorized as having a disorganized attachment. See Table 1 for mediation results. Finally, results of a structural equation model indicated that affective communication errors predicted increased dysregulation at age 4 (β = .41, p = .02). Findings point to the continued efficacy of ABC in improving parenting quality, and the dysregulating role affective communication errors have on children’s development.

Authors

• Heather A. Yarger, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Mary Dozier, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author