Conflict in the Latino parent-youth dyad: The role of emotional support from the opposite parent.

In the present study, the author examined the independent and interactive effects of support and conflict within a triadic familial context (mother-father-youth). The sample consisted of 6th- and 7th-grade inner-city Latino youths (N = 329; 142 boys, 187 girls). Using multiple regression techniques, level of conflict with either mother or father was consistently related to higher levels of both boys' and girls' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Interaction effects were significant in predicting boys' externalizing behavior problems--a supportive parental relationship significantly reduced the risk associated with high conflict with the opposite parent. For boys' internalizing problems, mother and father support served a protective function regardless of the level of conflict with the opposite parent. Conflict with the mother was especially detrimental for Latina girls--highly conflictive mother-daughter relationships were associated with increased internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, and father support added little in predicting symptomatology. The study adds to the understanding of risk and protection in Latino families and underscores the importance of examining the parent-youth relationship from a triadic perspective, noting similarities and differences in mother-son, mother-daughter, father-son, and father-daughter relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's coping with marital conflict and their adjustment and physical health: Vulnerability and protective functions.

Children's strategies for coping with parental marital conflict were examined as predictors, mediators, and moderators of the relations between marital conflict and 8- to 11-year-olds' internalizing, externalizing, and physical health problems. In the context of marital conflict, a higher level of active coping and support coping combined was a protective factor against girls' depression symptoms and self-esteem problems and both boys' and girls' health problems. Further, avoidance coping was a vulnerability factor for externalizing, internalizing, and physical health problems in boys, and distraction coping was protective against children's depression and health problems. These findings extend the literature by delineating coping strategies that either protected children against, or heightened their vulnerability to, adjustment and health problems associated with exposure to parental marital conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital Adjustment, Child-Rearing Disagreements, and Overreactive Parenting: Predicting Child Behavior Problems.

Using structural equation modeling, the authors evaluated the hypothesis that the relation between marital adjustment and children's behavior problems is mediated by child-rearing disagreements, whose effects are mediated by parents' overreactive discipline. In a community sample, fully or partially mediated models of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems of 3- to 7-year-old boys (N = 99) and girls (N = 104) were supported for mothers and fathers in 7 of 8 cases. Child-rearing disagreements always mediated the relation of marital adjustment and child behavior problems, and overreactive discipline was a final mediator in 3 cases. More variance was accounted for in mothers' than fathers' ratings. For mothers' ratings, the most variance was accounted for in boys' externalizing and girls' internalizing behavior problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neoplastic association of enhanced type V collagen production in rat fibrosarcoma

This study investigated hospitalized adolescents (57 girls; 46 boys; mean age = 14 years, 8 months) and their fathers and mothers to ascertain the degree of correspondence (by gender of parent and child) on ratings of total symptoms and of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Parents (especially mothers) reported higher levels of symptom severity than their offspring; girls' ratings were more severe than boys'. Whereas interparent correspondence was essentially the same in ratings of daughters, mother-son convergence was generally higher than father-son correspondence. Boys and their parents did not differentiate internalizing from externalizing disorders; girls and parents were better able to discriminate between these types of psychopathology.     

Sex differences in the longitudinal relations among family risk factors and childhood externalizing symptoms.

Despite potential sex differences in base rates, predictors, and maintaining processes for children's externalizing behaviors, little prospective research has examined sex differences in the relations between concurrent, proximal family risk factors and children's externalizing behaviors. The current study examined the relations among maternal depressive symptoms, maternal parenting behaviors (i.e., negativity and low warmth), and child externalizing symptoms at 24 months and first grade in a community-based sample of 1,364 children enrolled in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Structural equation modeling revealed that maternal depression and negative parental behaviors were associated with concurrent externalizing behaviors, though maternal depression may be differentially linked to boys' and girls' externalizing problems. The relation between depression and boys' externalizing symptoms was more pronounced at 24 months, and over time, the relation between maternal depression and boys' externalizing symptoms decreased in magnitude, whereas this relation increased among girls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting preschoolers' externalizing behaviors from toddler temperament, conflict, and maternal negativity.

Rarely have researchers elucidated early childhood precursors of externalizing behaviors for boys and girls from a normative sample. Toddlers (N=104; 52 girls) were observed interacting with a same-sex peer and their mothers, and indices of conflict-aggression, emotion and behavior dysregulation, parenting, and child externalizing problems were obtained. Results indicated that boys initiated more conflictual-aggressive interactions as toddlers and had more externalizing difficulties 2 years later, yet girls' (not boys') conflict-aggressive initiations at age 2 were related to subsequent externalizing problems. When such initiations were controlled for, emotional-behavioral undercontrol at age 2 also independently predicted externalizing problems at age 4. Moreover, the relation between conflict-aggressive initiations at age 2 and externalizing problems at age 4 was strongest for dysregulated toddlers. Finally, the relation between age 2 conflict-aggressive initiations and age 4 externalizing problems was strongest for those toddlers who incurred high levels of maternal negativity. These findings illustrate temperament by parenting connections in the development of externalizing problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in boys' and girls' timing and tempo of puberty: Modeling development with nonlinear growth models.

Pubertal development is a nonlinear process progressing from prepubescent beginnings through biological, physical, and psychological changes to full sexual maturity. To tether theoretical concepts of puberty with sophisticated longitudinal, analytical models capable of articulating pubertal development more accurately, we used nonlinear mixed-effects models to describe both the timing and tempo of pubertal development in the sample of 364 White boys and 373 White girls measured across 6 years as part of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Individual differences in timing and tempo were extracted with models of logistic growth. Differential relations emerged for how boys' and girls' timing and tempo of development were related to physical characteristics (body mass index, height, and weight) and psychological outcomes (internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and risky sexual behavior). Timing and tempo are associated in boys but not girls. Pubertal timing and tempo are particularly important for predicting psychological outcomes in girls but only sparsely related to boys' psychological outcomes. Results highlight the importance of considering the nonlinear nature of puberty and expand the repertoire of possibilities for examining important aspects of how and when pubertal processes contribute to development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of specific emotions in children's responses to interparental conflict: A test of the model.

Mothers, fathers, and their 6-year-old children (N?=?164) participated in a study testing key tenets of the specific emotions model of marital conflict. Parents reported their marital conflict strategies, were observed interacting with their children, and rated children's behavioral adjustment. Children reported their emotional reactions to specific interparental conflicts. Results support the specific emotions model. Children's behaviors mirrored the marital or parental behaviors of same-gender parents. Indirect effects of marital aggression through parental behavior were detected, and marital and parental behaviors interacted to predict girls' externalizing. Girls' anger, sadness, and fear increased with fathers' marital aggression. Fear and the anger by fear interaction predicted girls' internalizing. Fathers' marital aggression interacted with anger to predict externalizing and interacted with fear to predict internalizing behavior in boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Partner aggression and children's externalizing problems: Maternal and partner warmth as protective factors.

This research examined maternal and partner warmth as moderators of the relation between men's intimate partner aggression and children's externalizing problems. Participants were 157 mothers and their children (ages 7-9 years). Results indicate that maternal and partner warmth each moderated the relation between men's intimate partner aggression and children's externalizing problems. Partner-to-mother aggression was positively associated with child reports of externalizing problems at lower, but not higher, levels of maternal warmth. Similarly, partner-to-mother aggression was positively associated with mother reports of girls', but not boys', externalizing problems at lower, but not higher, levels of maternal warmth. On the other hand, the moderating effect of partner warmth was in the opposite direction and was found only with child-reported externalizing problems. Increased levels of partner-to-mother aggression related positively to child-reported externalizing problems when partners were higher, but not lower, in warmth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in the development and adult outcome of co-occurring depression and delinquency in adolescence.

Using a dual trajectory modeling approach, we examined co-occurring trajectories of depression and delinquency from age 11 to age 18 and their relation to adult outcome six years later in a community sample of 1423 (674 boys) adolescents. We also examined the effects of childhood externalizing, internalizing, and social problems on trajectory membership for depression and delinquency. The results showed that although more girls than boys were likely to follow high-level, co-occurring trajectories on depression and delinquency, the adult outcome of adolescents following high-level trajectories on both domains was poorer for boys than for girls. However, the combination of decreasing depression symptoms and increasing delinquency symptoms across adolescence was related with poorer adult outcomes for girls compared to boys. Finally, whereas boys' high-level co-occurring trajectory of depression and delinquency was predicted by childhood aggression, girls' equivalent trajectory was predicted by childhood depression and delinquency. The findings support the “gender paradox” effect (Loeber & Keenan, 1994) stating that in disorders with an unequal gender ratio, members of the gender with the lower prevalence rate tend to be more seriously affected in terms of comorbidity and poor outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sports participation and juvenile delinquency: The role of the peer context among adolescent boys and girls with varied histories of problem behavior.

In a study of 1,344 urban adolescents, the authors examined the relation between participation in organized sports and juvenile delinquency. They compared youth who participated in sports to those who only participated in nonathletic activities and to those who did not participate in any organized activities. They also examined the indirect relations between sports and delinquency via 2 peer-related constructs—deviant peer affiliations and unstructured socializing. Finally, they examined the extent to which gender and prior externalizing problems moderated the direct and indirect relations between sports participation and delinquency. The authors found that the odds of nonviolent delinquency were higher among boys who participated in sports when compared to boys who participated only in nonathletic activities but not when compared to boys who did not participate in any organized activities. Deviant peer affiliations and unstructured socializing mediated the relation between sports participation and boys' nonviolent delinquency. Moreover, prior externalizing problems moderated the mediated path through peer deviance. The authors did not, however, find direct, mediated, or moderated relations between sports and boys' violent delinquency nor between sports and girls' violent or nonviolent delinquency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal and interpersonal antecedents and consequences of victimization by peers.

This study was designed to determine whether the personal and interpersonal difficulties that characterize victimized children are antecedents of victimization, consequences of victimization, or both. Boys and girls in the 3rd through 7th grades (N?=?173, mean age?=?11.3 years) were assessed on victimization, personal variables (internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and physical strength), and interpersonal variables (number of friends and peer rejection). One year later children were assessed again on all variables. Internalizing problems, physical weakness, and peer rejection contributed uniquely to gains in victimization over time. Moreover, initial victimization predicted increases in later internalizing symptoms and peer rejection. These reciprocal influences suggest the existence of a vicious cycle that supports the strong temporal stability of peer victimization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early onset conduct problems: Does gender make a difference?

Baseline assessments of 64 girls and 158 boys (aged 4–7 yrs) diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder or early-onset conduct problems, or both, were examined for gender-linked differences in behavioral symptoms. Child variables, parenting variables, and family variables were correlated with teacher reports of externalizing problems at school and independent observations of externalizing problems at home before treatment to determine whether there were any gender-specific differences in risk factors. Follow-up data (1–2 yrs posttreatment) were also examined for any gender differences in predictors of treatment outcome. Results indicated significant gender differences in behavioral symptoms according to independent home observations. However, reports of gender differences in behavioral symptoms were influenced by the gender of the reporting agent. The only gender-specific risk factor found was father "negativity" which was correlated with boys' behavior at home but not girls' behavior. Concerning differences in treatment outcome, variables regarding parents' psychological states and parenting style were the best predictors for girls but not for boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ego control, ego resiliency, and the Five-Factor Model as predictors of behavioral and emotional problems in clinic-referred children and adolescents.

The relations of Ego control (EC), Ego resiliency (ER), and the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM) with behavioral and emotional problems were explored among 116 clinic-referred children. Within the EC-ER model, Ego undercontrol was most important in predicting externalizing problems, and both Ego brittleness (the relative absence of ER) and Ego undercontrol made equal contributions to predicting internalizing problems. Within the FFM, Extraversion and Agreeableness were independent predictors of externalizing problems, whereas only Neuroticism predicted internalizing problems. When the EC-ER model was tested against the FFM, the latter model appeared to outperform the former in predicting externalizing but not internalizing problems; when clinical syndrome groups were examined, dimensions from both personality models were differentially salient for children with primary internalizing, externalizing, or comorbid problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trajectories of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems from age 2 to age 12: Findings from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care.

How and why do internalizing and externalizing problems, psychopathological problems from different diagnostic classes representing separate forms of psychopathology, co-occur in children? We investigated the development of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems from ages 2 to 12 with the use of latent class growth analysis. Furthermore, we examined how early childhood factors (temperament, cognitive functioning, maternal depression, and home environment) and early adolescent social and behavioral adjustment variables were related to differential trajectories of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems. The sample (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care) consisted of 1,232 children (52% male). Mother reports on the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991, 1992) were used to construct the trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems. Analyses identified groups of children exhibiting pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems. Children exhibiting continuous externalizing or continuous co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems across the 10-year period under investigation were more likely to (a) engage in risky behaviors, (b) be associated with deviant peers, (c) be rejected by peers, and (d) be asocial with peers at early adolescence. However, children exhibiting pure internalizing problems over time were only at higher risk for being asocial with peers as early adolescents. Moreover, the additive effects of individual and environmental early childhood risk factors influenced the development of chronic externalizing problems, although pure internalizing problems were uniquely influenced by maternal depression. Results also provided evidence for the concepts of equifinality and multifinality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family Functioning and Children's Adjustment: Associations Among Parents' Depressed Mood, Marital Hostility, Parent-Child Hostility, and Children's Adjustment.

Relations between parents' depressed mood, marital conflict, parent-child hostility, and children's adjustment were examined in a community sample of 136 ten-year-olds and their parents. Videotaped observational and self-report data were used to examine these relations in path analyses. A proposed model was tested in which mothers' and fathers' depressed mood and marital hostility were associated with children's adjustment problems through disruptions in parent-child relationships. Results showed that both mothers' and fathers' marital hostility were linked to parent-child hostility, which in turn was linked to children's internalizing problems. Fathers' depressed mood was linked to children's internalizing problems indirectly through father-child hostility. Fathers' depressed mood was directly linked to children's externalizing problems and indirectly linked through father-child hostility. For mothers, marital hostility was directly linked to children's externalizing problems, and marital hostility in fathers was indirectly linked to children's externalizing problems through father-child hostility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent psychopathology, parenting, and child internalizing problems in substance-abusing families.

A structural model accounting for child internalizing problems in substance-abusing families was tested. Parents receiving substance abuse treatment (N = 242) completed forms about children between the ages of 6 and 18 who resided in their home. The effects of parent gender, child gender, and child age were controlled. Negative parenting was examined as a mediator between parent internalizing and externalizing problems and child anxiety and affective problems using path analysis. Negative parenting mediated relations only between parent internalizing problems and child affective problems. High-positive involvement moderated relations between parent externalizing problems and child internalizing problems. Relations between parent externalizing problems and child anxiety and affective problems were significant only among families in which high-positive involvement was present. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cloning and characterization of Rep-8 (D8S2298E) in the human chromosome 8p11.2-p12

Assessed the effect of co-occurring versus not co-occurring internalizing and externalizing behavior problems on the reasons parents reported for clinical referral of their adolescent child. Reasons for referral were coded for 181 inpatient adolescents, and parent ratings of internalizing and externalizing behavior were obtained for a general population sample of 500 adolescents. Parents concurrently reported internalizing and externalizing behavior as reasons for referral less frequently (p < .0001) than would be expected given the correlation between these two domains in the general population sample. This suggests that the presence of externalizing problems may decrease parents' concern or awareness of internalizing problems, the presence of internalizing problems may decrease parents' concern or awareness of externalizing problems, or both. Implications for the clinical referral of adolescents and for informal parental efforts at helping their children with externalizing and internalizing problems are discussed.     

Mom and dad are at it again: Adolescent perceptions of marital conflict and adolescent psychological distress.

In these two studies. the authors used children's perceptions of family relationships to examine simultaneously direct and indirect links between marital conflict and child adjustment. With data pertaining to 146 sixth and seventh graders, Study 1 supported direct and indirect effects of perceptions of marital conflict on internalizing behaviors, and indirect effects for externalizing behaviors. In Study 2, data analyzed from 451 families showed indirect effects of marital conflict and parent-to-child hostility, through adolescent perceptions of such behavior, on both current distress and distress 12 months later in 3 of 4 models estimated. Direct and indirect effects were found for boys' concurrent internalizing behavior. Implications and limitations of both studies are discussed to address the need for a more sophisticated theoretical approach to examine why an association exists between marital conflict and child adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in neighborhood poverty from 1990 to 2000 and youth's problem behaviors.

This study used data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, a multilevel, longitudinal study of children sampled from 80 diverse neighborhoods, to explore associations among changes in neighborhood poverty from 1990 to 2000 and changes in youth's internalizing problems and property and violent offenses over 6 years (N = 3,324; mean age across waves = 12.6 years). After accounting for a host of background characteristics and weighting for the propensity to stay in the original sampled neighborhood, results indicated that neighborhood poverty dynamics were unfavorably linked to boys' problem behaviors. In high-poverty (>30% in 1990) neighborhoods, decreasing poverty was associated with boys' greater internalizing problems and higher probability of increasing in violent behavior than stable neighborhood poverty. In moderate-poverty (20%–30% in 1990) neighborhoods, boys in neighborhoods that got poorer had more internalizing problems than boys in stably poor neighborhoods. Likewise, in low-poverty (