Intergenerational continuity in high-conflict family environments

In the current study, we examined continuity in conflict across generations and explored potential mediators and moderators that could explain this continuity. We followed 246 targets from adolescence to adulthood and examined family conflict as reported by multiple reporters in targets' family of origin and current families. Results showed that conflict in the current family was strongly correlated with that of the family of origin in women but not in men. Continuity in family conflict across generations was mediated by patterns of elevated adolescent externalizing behavior in members of the second generation (G2). In addition, analyses revealed an interaction between both G2 partners' externalizing behavior such that if one partner in the G2 family demonstrated high levels of externalizing behavior, elevated levels of family conflict resulted. Potential explanations and implications of these findings are considered.

Assessing early communicative ability: a cross-reporter cumulative score for the MacArthur CDI

Thirty middle- to upper middle-class monolingual Dutch speaking families consisting of at least a mother and a father completed the Infant Form ‘Words and Gestures’ of the Dutch adaptation of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory for the same child at 1;1. Considerable inter- and intrafamily variation emerged in how two (or three) different reporters who are all presumably close to the child assess a particular child's communicative abilities. The greater the child's communicative ability, as rated by any one reporter, the more differences tended to emerge between reporters. In order to take into account multiple reporters' assessments of the same child, we propose the use of a Cumulative CDI Score that credits the child with the best score for any item on the CDI as checked by any single reporter. We conclude that single reporter CDI reports may underestimate the child's communicative knowledge.