Trajectories of Early Childhood Environmental Instability and the Development of Disruptive Behaviors into Adolescence

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Environmental instability, defined as events that cause temporary or permanent disruption to the day-to-day structure and routines, has been associated with a myriad of maladaptive developmental outcomes, including children’s externalizing behaviors (Milan et al., 2006). The effects of environmental instability on behavior development appear to be particularly pronounced during early childhood (Womack et al., 2018). Previous research on environmental instability has taken a variable-centered approach, documenting the average effects on instability on behavior development across an entire sample. However, person-centered approaches (e.g., mixture modeling) may elucidate more nuanced relationships between instability and behavior development. The present study addresses two gaps in the literature. First, using semiparametric growth mixture modeling, the present study takes a person-centered approach to describe patterns of environmental instability for racially-diverse youth living in low-SES families across early childhood. Second, the present study builds on previous cross-sectional findings to examine associations between instability trajectories in early childhood and the developmental course of externalizing behaviors from middle-childhood through adolescence.
Data were collected from 731 families as a part of the Early Steps Multisite Study (Dishion et al., 2008). An environmental instability composite was created based on primary caregiver reports in eight domains (Forman & Davies, 2003): residential moves, transitions in primary caregiver, primary caregiver cohabitating relationship transitions, work stress, death or serious illness of a close family member, household chaos, household overcrowding, and incarcerations of adults living in the home. Instability scores were created at child ages 2, 3, 4, and 5, and a group-based trajectory model (Nagin, 1999) was fit to identify latent trajectories of environmental instability. Child externalizing behaviors were measured as a latent factor of primary caregiver, alternate caregiver, and teacher reports on the externalizing factor of the Child Behavior Checklist at child ages 7.5, 8.5, 9.5, 10.5, and 14. A curve of factors model (McArdle, 1988) was fit to examine the development of externalizing behaviors. Instability group was regressed onto the intercept, slope, and quadratic terms.
The best fitting mixture model was a 4-group model (Figure 1). Families fell into the following instability groups: low, decreasing; moderate, increasing; high, rapid decreasing; and high, slow decreasing. Accounting for relevant covariates including baseline externalizing behaviors, youth in the moderate, increasing group displayed higher levels of disruptive behaviors at the intercept (i.e., age 7.5) relative to youth in the low, decreasing group (Table 1). Youth in the high, rapid decreasing group displayed a steeper increase in externalizing behaviors from middle childhood to adolescence that tended to decelerate over time.
Youth who experience increasing levels of instability across early childhood demonstrated higher levels of behavior problems in middle-childhood relative to youth in stable homes, but no difference in the rate of growth, indicating that the initial effect of instability on externalizing behaviors remains stable through adolescence. In contrast to persistently low pattern of externalizing shown by youth in always stable group, children in the trajectory with high baseline but rapidly decreasing instability continued to demonstrate externalizing behaviors through adolescence, indicating potential lasting consequences of instability during early childhood.

Authors

• Sean Womack, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Presenting Author

• Melvin N Wilson, University of Virginia -Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Xin Tong, University of Virginia -Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

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