The effect of father's participation in parenting on children's externalizing behavior problem: The adjusted mediation effect of the father's empathy and the effortful control of children

AbstractPreventing problem behavior requires an understanding of earlier factors that are amenable to intervention. The main goals of our prospective longitudinal study were to trace trajectories of child externalizing behavior between ages 3 and 10 years, and to identify patterns of developmentally significant child and parenting risk factors that differentiated pathways of problem behavior. Participants were 218 3-year-old boys and girls who were reassessed following the transition to kindergarten (age 5–6 years) and during the late school-age years (age 10). Mothers contributed ratings of children's externalizing behavior at all three time points. Children's self-regulation abilities and theory of mind were assessed during a laboratory visit, and parenting risk (frequent corporal punishment and low maternal warmth) was assessed using interview-based and questionnaire measures. Four developmental trajectories of externalizing behavior yielded the best balance of parsimony and fit with our longitudinal data and latent class growth analysis. Most young children followed a pathway marked by relatively low levels of symptoms that continued to decrease across the school-age years. Atypical trajectories marked chronically high, increasing, and decreasing levels of externalizing problems across early and middle childhood. Three-year-old children with low levels of effortful control were far more likely to show the chronic pattern of elevated externalizing problems than changing or low patterns. Early parental corporal punishment and maternal warmth, respectively, differentiated preschoolers who showed increasing and decreasing patterns of problem behavior compared to the majority of children. The fact that children's poor effortful regulation skills predicted chronic early onset problems reinforces the need for early childhood screening and intervention services.

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Coparenting behavior moderates longitudinal relations between effortful control and preschool children’s externalizing behavior

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry ◽

10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.02009.x ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 50 (6) ◽

pp. 698-706 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Sarah J. Schoppe-Sullivan ◽

Arielle H. Weldon ◽

J. Claire Cook ◽

Evan F. Davis ◽

Catherine K. Buckley

Keyword(s):

Externalizing Behavior ◽

Effortful Control

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意志控制与学校卷入度的关系：学业效能的中介作用The Prediction of Effortful Control to School Involvement: The Mediation Effect of Academic Self-Efficacy

Advances in Psychology ◽

10.4236/ap.2012.25043 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 02 (05) ◽

pp. 274-278

Author(s):

何津

Keyword(s):

Self Efficacy ◽

Effortful Control ◽

Mediation Effect ◽

School Involvement ◽

Academic Self Efficacy

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Parenting, anger, and effortful control as predictors of child externalizing behavior

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/0165025417692898 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

pp. 248-256 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Cynthia L. Smith ◽

Kimberly L. Day

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Sex Differences ◽

Externalizing Behavior ◽

Effortful Control ◽

Externalizing Behaviors ◽

Future Research ◽

Child Characteristics ◽

Maternal Report ◽

Child Externalizing Behavior ◽

Controlling Behaviors

Externalizing behaviors observed in early childhood have been found to be stable, particularly for boys, but little research has investigated the antecedents of these behaviors, especially how the antecedents may differentially relate to externalizing behaviors in boys and girls. The goal of this study was to explore predictors of externalizing behaviors concurrently in toddlerhood and longitudinally to preschool. When children ( n = 140) were 30–36 months old, maternal supportive and controlling behaviors were observed, and children’s effortful control and anger were measured through observations and maternal report. Mothers reported on children’s externalizing behavior during toddlerhood and approximately 2 years later ( n = 116). Although mean level differences were not found between boys and girls, effortful control was differentially related to externalizing behaviors in toddlerhood. Higher levels of effortful control were associated with less externalizing behaviors for boys but not for girls. Additionally, anger was positively related to externalizing behaviors. Few associations were found for maternal behaviors, which emphasizes the importance of child characteristics in externalizing behaviors. Our findings emphasize how future research should continue to examine relations of early antecedents to concurrent and later externalizing behaviors even if mean level sex differences are not found.

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Effects of early maternal distress and parenting on the development of children's self-regulation and externalizing behavior

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579412001162 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 437-453 ◽

Cited By ~ 84

Author(s):

Daniel Ewon Choe ◽

Sheryl L. Olson ◽

Arnold J. Sameroff

Keyword(s):

Adverse Effects ◽

Externalizing Behavior ◽

Externalizing Problems ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Effortful Control ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Equation Model ◽

Maternal Distress ◽

Maternal Warmth ◽

Inductive Discipline

AbstractEmotional distress experienced by mothers increases young children's risk of externalizing problems through suboptimal parenting and child self-regulation. An integrative structural equation model tested hypotheses that mothers’ parenting (i.e., low levels of inductive discipline and maternal warmth) would mediate adverse effects of early maternal distress on child effortful control, which in turn would mediate effects of maternal parenting on child externalizing behavior. This longitudinal study spanning ages 3, 6, and 10 included 241 children, mothers, and a subset of teachers. The hypothesized model was partially supported. Elevated maternal distress was associated with less inductive discipline and maternal warmth, which in turn were associated with less effortful control at age 3 but not at age 6. Inductive discipline and maternal warmth mediated adverse effects of maternal distress on children's effortful control. Less effortful control at ages 3 and 6 predicted smaller relative decreases in externalizing behavior at 6 and 10, respectively. Effortful control mediated effects of inductive discipline, but not maternal warmth, on externalizing behavior. Findings suggest elevated maternal distress increases children's risk of externalizing problems by compromising early parenting and child self-regulation.

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