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)     

Parental Socialization of Emotion Expression: Gender Differences and Relations to Child Adjustment.

The present study examined gender differences in children's submissive and disharmonious emotions and parental attention to these emotions. Sixty children and their mothers and fathers participated when children were 4 and 6 years old. Children's emotion expression and parental responses during a game were coded. Girls expressed more submissive emotion than boys. Fathers attended more to girls' submissive emotion than to boys' at preschool age. Fathers attended more to boys' disharmonious emotion than to girls' at early school age. Parental attention at preschool age predicted later submissive expression level. Child disharmonious emotion predicted later externalizing symptoms. Gender differences in these emotions may occur as early as preschool age and may be subject to differential responding, particularly by fathers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating Parenting Capacity: Validity Problems With the MMPI-2, PAI, CAPI, and Ratings of Child Adjustment.

Practitioners who conduct assessments of parenting capacity for the courts are faced with the challenge of determining the extent to which positive self-presentation by parents distorts test findings. This study examined positive self-presentation bias on commonly used psychological tests in cases referred following removal of children from the home because of abuse or neglect. Substantial positive self-presentation bias was apparent on the measures examined, and parents who presented themselves positively on one test tended to do so on others. Intellectual functioning did not account for these findings. The results demonstrate the pervasive problem of positive self-presentation bias in compromising the validity of test results in this population. Recommendations for conducting clinical assessments with this population are offered, including direction for the use and interpretation of psychological tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender, victimization, and outcomes: Reconceptualizing risk.

Large-scale studies of gender differences in psychopathological reactions to victimization have focused on posttraumatic stress disorder, overlooking other trauma-related disorders. The present study expands this literature with a contextualized examination of interpersonal aggression exposure and sequelae. Using k-means cluster analysis on a sample of 16,000, the authors identified 8 distinct profiles of exposure to sexual violence, physical assault, stalking, and emotional abuse. Analyses of covariance then suggested links among victimization profile, gender, and mental and physical health. Results revealed no meaningful interactive effects of gender and interpersonal aggression on outcomes, once lifetime exposure to aggressive events was adequately taken into account. These findings argue against theories of female victims' greater vulnerability to pathological outcomes, instead linking risk to exposure history. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting Stability and Change in Toddler Behavior Problems: Contributions of Maternal Behavior and Child Gender.

This study examined the stability and continuity of early-identified behavior problems and the factors associated with this stability. Children and their mothers (N=125) were seen when the children were 2 and 4 years of age. Maternal reports of child externalizing behavior and laboratory observations of child noncompliance were stable from age 2 to age 4. Early externalizing behaviors decreased over time; however, child noncompliance in the laboratory did not. Although few associations were found between maternal positive behavior and child behavior problems, maternal controlling behavior was related to increases in child behavior problems, particularly at high levels of both prior noncompliance and prior maternal control. Child noncompliance was predictive of increases in maternal controlling behavior over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences and developmental change in externalizing disorders from late adolescence to early adulthood: A longitudinal twin study.

Using data from over 1,000 male and female twins participating in the Minnesota Twin Family Study, the authors examined developmental change, gender differences, and genetic and environmental contributions to the symptom levels of four externalizing disorders (adult antisocial behavior, alcohol dependence, nicotine dependence, and drug dependence) from ages 17 to 24. Both men and women increased in symptoms for each externalizing disorder, with men increasing at a greater rate than women, such that a modest gender gap at age 17 widened to a large one at age 24. Additionally, a mean-level gender difference on a latent Externalizing factor could account for the mean-level gender differences for the individual disorders. Biometric analyses revealed increasing genetic variation and heritability for men but a trend toward decreasing genetic variation and increasing environmental effects for women. Results illustrate the importance of gender and developmental context for symptom expression and the utility of structural models to integrate general trends and disorder-specific characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Child Behavior Scale (CBS) revisited: A longitudinal evaluation of CBS subscales with children, preadolescents, and adolescents.

The Child Behavior Scale (CBS) is a teacher-report instrument that was developed over a decade ago as an alternative to more costly methods for assessing children’s behavior and peer relations in school contexts. This investigation was undertaken to clarify how well the CBS achieves its aims with a broader age spectrum of youth (6- to 13-year-olds). Investigative aims were to examine the basic psychometric properties of the CBS and evaluate the construct and criterion-related validity of the CBS’s 6 subscales at each of 8 grade levels (Grades 1–8). These aims were examined in a longitudinal investigation with samples of children and their teachers, classmates, and parents. One sample (n = 396) was followed from 1st through 8th grade, and a second sample (n = 100) was recruited in 5th grade, combined with the initial sample, and followed through 8th grade. Results suggest that the majority of the CBS subscales provide trustworthy data about the behavioral and peer relational constructs that this instrument was designed to measure and that the CBS’s range of application, or developmental purview as an assessment tool, spans the period from early childhood (age 5) through early adolescence (age 13). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)