Within-child associations between family income and externalizing and internalizing problems.

Within-child associations between family income and child externalizing and internalizing problems were examined using longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (2004a, 2004b; N = 1,132). Variations in income effects were estimated as a function of whether families were poor, whether mothers were partnered, and the number of hours mothers and their partners were employed. On average, children had fewer externalizing problems during times when their families' incomes were relatively high than during times when their families' incomes were relatively low; the estimated benefits of increased income were greatest for children who were chronically poor. For both externalizing and internalizing problems, income was most strongly associated with problems when chronically poor children's mothers were partnered and employed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reciprocal influences between parents' marital problems and adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior.

The present study examines reciprocal associations between marital functioning and adolescent maladjustment using cross-lagged autoregressive models. The research involved 451 early adolescents and their families and used a prospective, longitudinal research design with multi-informant methods. Results indicate that parental conflicts over child rearing predicted adolescent depressive symptoms and delinquency. In turn, these adolescent problems exacerbated parental conflicts over child rearing. Furthermore, conflict over child rearing served as the nexus through which more generalized marital dissatisfaction and adolescent adjustment problems were reciprocally interrelated. This research replicates earlier observations that marital problems intensify adolescent maladjustment and extends the literature by demonstrating that adolescent problems also predict marital conflict and ultimately marital dissatisfaction. In sum, the present study demonstrates that marital dissatisfaction, conflict over child rearing, and early adolescent adjustment difficulties are interwoven in a dynamic family system marked by reciprocity along these dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Efficacy of the RECAP intervention program for children with concurrent internalizing and externalizing problems.

The authors evaluated the efficacy of RECAP, a psychosocial intervention developed to treat concurrent internalizing and externalizing problem in children. Participants included 93 4th-grade children assigned to the treatment group or a no-treatment control group. The school-based program, which lasts the 9-month academic year, provides individual, group, classroom, teacher, and parent training in the RECAP skills-development curriculum, which was derived from empirically supported treatment programs for nonconcurrent internalizing and externalizing problems. Outcome assessments included parent-, teacher-, self-, and peer reports. A mixed hierarchical linear models analysis indicated that, overall, treatment children's rate of improvement in both internalizing and externalizing problems was significantly greater than that for control participants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The association between psychopathology in fathers versus mothers and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems: A meta-analysis.

In light of the selective focus on maternal (vs. paternal) psychopathology as a risk factor for child development, this meta-analysis examines the relative strength of the association between psychopathology in mothers versus fathers and the presence of internalizing and externalizing disorders in children. Associations were stronger between maternal than paternal psychopathology and the presence of internalizing (but not externalizing) problems in children, with all average effect sizes being small in magnitude. Relations were moderated by variables that highlight theoretically relevant differences between psychopathology in mothers versus fathers (e.g., age of children studied, type of parental psychopathology) and by variables related to methodological differences across studies (e.g., method of assessing psychopathology in parents and children, type of sample recruited, familial composition). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Common and specific correlates of preadolescent internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.

The specificity of various child characteristics and environmental correlates of childhood internalizing and externalizing problems was examined using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses (from ages 2–3 and 4–5 years) in a general population sample of 10–11-year-olds. Specificity was defined according to a between-subjects and a within-subjects method, using parent and teacher reports of psychopathology. Temperamental withdrawal, parental internalizing psychopathology, and early single parenthood (for girls) were identified as correlates that are specific for internalizing problems, whereas temperamental high general activity level was identified as externalizing-specific. Further, parenting stress, poor school results (only for boys), and stressful life events (only for girls) were found to be common correlates of psychopathology. Research implications regarding the findings and the use of a within-subjects method are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparisons of problems reported by parents of children in 12 cultures: total problems, externalizing, and internalizing

OBJECTIVE: To compare parent-reported problems for children in 12 cultures. METHOD: Child Behavior Checklists were analyzed for 13,697 children and adolescents, aged 6 through 17 years, from general population samples in Australia, Belgium, China, Germany, Greece, Israel, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. RESULTS: Comparisons of 12 cultures across ages 6 through 11 and 9 cultures across ages 6 through 17 yielded medium effect sizes for cross-cultural variations in Total Problem, Externalizing, and Internalizing scores. Puerto Rican scores were the highest, while Swedish scores were the lowest. With great cross-cultural consistency, Total and Externalizing scores declined with age, while Internalizing scores increased; boys obtained higher Total and Externalizing scores but lower Internalizing scores than girls. Cross-cultural correlations were high among the mean item scores. CONCLUSIONS: Empirically based assessment provides a robust methodology for assessing and comparing problems reported for children from diverse cultures. Age and gender variations are cross-culturally consistent. Although clinical cutoff points should not necessarily be uniform across all cultures, empirically based assessment offers a cost-effective way to identify problems for which children from diverse cultural backgrounds may need help.     

Patterns of marital conflict predict children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

Reports the results of a longitudinal study on how marital interaction affects children. Observational assessment of marital interaction during conflict resolution obtained when children were 5 yrs old predicted teachers' ratings of internalizing and externalizing behaviors when the children were 8 yrs old. Two distinct and uncorrelated marital interaction patterns were related to specific forms of child outcomes. The Mutually Hostile pattern, which correlated with later marital dissolution, also predicted externalizing behavior patterns in children 3 yrs later. The Husband Angry and Withdrawn pattern predicted child internalizing behaviors. Marital satisfaction and child temperament did not relate to child outcomes, nor did they interact with marital patterns to produce deficits in child adjustment. Findings suggest that the specific behaviors couples use when resolving marital disputes may contribute differentially to the presence of externalizing and internalizing behavior patterns in children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The teacher-student relationship as a developmental context for children with internalizing or externalizing behavior problems.

Children with significant behavior problems are at risk for poor school adaptation and a host of deleterious school outcomes. Given the time children spend in school, there is a need to better understand the normative contexts and processes within schools that may enhance the positive adaptation of children with significant behavior problems. This study evaluated one such context, the teacher-student relationship, specifically, the degree of closeness and conflict in the relationship, between urban, American elementary schoolchildren with significant externalizing or internalizing behavior problems and their teachers. The results suggest that the qualities of the teacher-student relationship predict children's successful school adjustment. Having a relationship with a teacher characterized by warmth, trust, and low degrees of conflict was associated with positive school outcomes. Some moderation effects were noted, including differential effects for warmth on the reading achievement of children with externalizing distress, and conflict on the school adaptation of children with internalizing problems. Results are discussed in light of theory and school-based intervention and prevention efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neighborhood disadvantage as a moderator of the association between harsh parenting and toddler-aged children's internalizing and externalizing problems.

Neighborhood dangerousness and belongingness were expected to moderate associations between harsh parenting and toddler-age children's problem behaviors. Fifty-five predominantly African American mothers participated with their 2-year old children. Neighborhood danger, neighborhood belongingness, and children's problem behaviors were measured with mothers' reports. Harsh parenting was measured with observer ratings. Analyses considered variance common to externalizing and internalizing problems, using a total problems score, and unique variance, by controlling for internalizing behavior when predicting externalizing behavior, and vice versa. Regarding the common variance, only the main effects of neighborhood danger and harsh parenting were significantly associated with total problem behavior. In contrast, after controlling for externalizing problems, the positive association between harsh parenting and unique variance in internalizing problems became stronger as neighborhood danger increased. No statistically significant associations emerged for the models predicting the unique variance in externalizing problems or models considering neighborhood belongingness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns and correlates of agreement between parent, teacher, and male adolescent ratings of externalizing and internalizing problems.

The authors examined how well 394 triads of male youths, caregivers, and teachers agreed about youth problems reported on the Achenbach checklists. Dyadic agreement was measured through difference scores (subtracting the raw score of youth self-report from the caregiver's or teacher's score for shared items), q correlations between pairs of raters across items, and D2 (generalized distance between item profiles) for both externalizing and internalizing items. Teachers reported fewer internalizing and externalizing problems than did caregivers or youths. Teacher–youth disagreement was higher for African American than European American males about externalizing criteria. Caregiver depression and stress (but not paternal antisocial behavior or maternal substance abuse) correlated with higher disagreement with other informants about all criteria. These factors appear to increase disagreement about the level of problems but not about specific symptom patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specificity of relations between children's control-related beliefs and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.

The authors examined the specificity of the relation between 3 types of control-related beliefs and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in a sample of 290 clinic-referred children aged 7 to 17 years. Self-reported beliefs about control (the capacity to cause an intended outcome), contingency (the degree to which a desired outcome can be controlled by a relevant behavior), and competence (an individual's ability to produce the relevant behavior) across 3 domains (academic, behavioral, and social) showed more specific relations with psychopathology than have been previously reported. Among children with externalizing psychopathology, internalizing psychopathology may be specifically associated with increased self-critical awareness about their conduct; externalizing psychopathology may attenuate the specific negative relation between internalizing psychopathology and control-related beliefs in the social domain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A multivariate analysis of adolescents' orientations toward physician use.

Interviewed 2,188 early adolescents (aged 12–13 yrs), 1,814 late adolescents (aged 16–28 yrs), their parents, school representatives, and health professionals. Hypotheses regarding direct parent–adolescent links were examined in a multivariate structural equations model relating demographics, adolescents' interpersonal competencies, and parental variables to adolescents' orientations toward physician utilization. Adolescents' orientations toward physician use were associated with those of their parents, and this link was generally stronger and more specific during late adolescence. The model also suggests that these orientations conform to social and cultural variables related to differences in social stratification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling relations between hassles and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescents: A four-year prospective study.

This study examined the relations between hassles and internalizing and externalizing symptoms across 4 years in adolescents who varied with regard to their risk for psychopathology. The sample comprised 240 adolescents assessed in 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades regarding their level of peer and academic hassles and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Structural equation modeling was used to construct latent variables of hassles and internalizing and externalizing syndromes. Results varied by informant about the teens' symptoms. For adolescent report, the stress exposure model fit the data best for internalizing syndromes; that is, higher levels of stressors predicted significantly higher levels of self-reported symptoms 1 year later. For mother report of adolescents' symptoms, the stress generation model fit the data best for both internalizing and externalizing syndromes; that is, higher levels of adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms, as reported by their mothers, significantly predicted higher levels of hassles 1 year later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model for representing gender differences in the pattern of cognitive abilities.

Comments on A. Feingold's (see record 1988-18577-001) meta-analytic assessment of gender-related performance on the Differential Aptitude Tests, which indicated a trend toward disappearing gender differences in the profile of cognitive abilities (CAs). In a review of potential explanatory models for this finding, the present author considers the mechanisms by which both biological and sociocultural factors might influence the developing pattern of human CAs. A satisfactory model might include the identification of a mechanism such as gender, and individual, differences in the frequency of engagement in sex-dimorphic behaviors. This model would predict a specific relationship between early activity patterns and the pattern of later CAs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal examination of the reciprocal relations between perceived parenting and adolescents' substance use and externalizing behaviors.

Although studies have found an association between adolescent problem behavior and deficits in parental support and control, questions remain concerning the causal nature of these relations. Using longitudinal data, this study explored prospective reciprocal relations between perceived parenting and adolescents' substance use and externalizing symptoms. A community sample of adolescents and their parents (N?=?441) was studied, within which half of the adolescents were at risk for problem behavior because of parental alcoholism. Covariance structural modeling revealed full reciprocal relations between adolescent substance use and levels of parental support and control. Furthermore, although adolescent externalizing behaviors prospectively predicted parental control and support, parenting was not prospectively related to externalizing symptoms. The findings support the reciprocal effects model of socialization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analytic review of internalizing, externalizing, and academic adjustment among children of deployed military service members.

Parental deployment during military conflicts has the potential to impact child adjustment. As increased numbers of military Service members have children, it is critical to understand the association between military deployment and child adjustment. In order to resolve inconsistencies in the existing literature, we performed a meta-analytic review of 16 studies that report associations of military deployment with internalizing, externalizing, and academic adjustment among children. Results indicate a small association between deployment and poorer adjustment. This association varied across several features of the studies. Age moderation was such that the associations are strongest in middle childhood and weakest during adolescence. The method that adjustment was assessed also moderated this association, such that maladjustment was evident primarily with parents' reports. Study design also moderated associations, such that comparisons to civilian controls indicated associations with maladjustment, whereas comparisons to nondeployed military and prepost comparisons did not. These findings summarize the existing quantitative literature to indicate that parental deployment has a negligible association with child maladjustment and provide a foundation for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple risk factors in the development of externalizing behavior problems: group and individual differences

The aim of this study was to test whether individual risk factors as well as the number of risk factors (cumulative risk) predicted children's externalizing behaviors over middle childhood. A sample of 466 European American and 100 African American boys and girls from a broad range of socioeconomic levels was followed from age 5 to 10 years. Twenty risk variables from four domains (child, sociocultural, parenting, and peer-related) were measured using in-home interviews at the beginning of the study, and annual assessments of externalizing behaviors were conducted. Consistent with past research, individual differences in externalizing behavior problems were stable over time and were related to individual risk factors as well as the number of risk factors present. Particular risks accounted for 36% to 45% of the variance, and the number of risks present (cumulative risk status) accounted for 19% to 32% of the variance, in externalizing outcomes. Cumulative risk was related to subsequent externalizing even after initial levels of externalizing had been statistically controlled. All four domains of risk variables made significant unique contributions to this statistical prediction, and there were multiple clusters of risks that led to similar outcomes. There was also evidence that this prediction was moderated by ethnic group status, most of the prediction of externalizing being found for European American children. However, this moderation effect varied depending on the predictor and outcome variables included in the model.     

Concurrent validity of the internalizing and externalizing profile patterns of the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist.

Explored the concurrent validity of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), using 163 6–11 yr old consecutive referrals to a child psychiatry outpatient department. Ss were administered a battery of psychological tests aimed at measuring cognitive (short form of the WISC—R and the Wide Range Achievement Test), personality (the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children and a measure of egocentrism), and social functioning (Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale and a measure of coping). Using the computerized classification of the CBCL, Ss in the optimal range and those with mixed profiles and high and low scores were determined. Parent and teacher ratings of pathology and competence were also obtained. Results indicate that CBCL internalizers were favored on a number of measures of adaptation when compared with CBCL externalizers, which is consistent with a wider literature on internalizing–externalizing syndrome types indicating that internalizers are generally more competent than are externalizers. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of individual differences and gender differences in knowledge.

The authors investigated the abilities, self-concept, personality, interest, motivational traits, and other determinants of knowledge across physical sciences/technology, biology/psychology, humanities, and civics domains. Tests and self-report measures were administered to 320 university freshmen. Crystallized intelligence was a better predictor than was fluid intelligence for most knowledge domains. Gender differences favoring men were found for most knowledge domains. Accounting for intelligence reduced the gender influence in predicting knowledge differences. Inclusion of notability predictors further reduced the variance accounted for by gender. Analysis of Advanced Placement test scores largely supported the results of the knowledge tests. Results are consistent with theoretical predictions that development of intellect as knowledge results from investment of cognitive resources, which, in turn, is affected by a small set of trait complexes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)