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Capturing Parenting as a Multidimensional and Dynamic Construct with a Person-Oriented Approach

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Abstract

Although parenting is one of the most commonly studied predictors of child problem behavior, few studies have examined parenting as a multidimensional and dynamic construct. This study investigated different patterns of developmental trajectories of two parenting dimensions (harsh discipline [HD] and parental warmth [PW]) with a person-oriented approach and examined the associations between different parenting patterns and child externalizing problems and callous-unemotional traits. Data were drawn from the combined high-risk control and normative sample (n = 753) of the Fast Track Project. Parent-reported HD and observer-reported PW from kindergarten to grade 2 were fit to growth mixture models. Two subgroups were identified for HD (low decreasing, 83.0 %; high stable, 17.0 %) and PW (high increasing, 78.7 %; low increasing, 21.3 %). The majority of parents (67.0 %) demonstrated the low decreasing HD and high increasing PW pattern, while the prevalence of the high stable HD and low increasing PW pattern was the lowest (6.8 %). Parenting satisfaction, parental depression, family socioeconomic status, and neighborhood safety predicted group memberships jointly defined by the two dimensions. Children from the high stable HD and low increasing PW pattern showed the highest levels of externalizing problems in grades 4 and 5. Children from the low decreasing HD and low increasing PW pattern showed the highest levels of callous-unemotional traits in grade 7. These findings demonstrate the utility and significance of a person-oriented approach to measuring parenting as a multidimensional and dynamic construct and reveal the interplay between HD and PW in terms of their influences on child developmental outcomes.

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Acknowledgments

This article used data from the Fast Track project (for additional information about Fast Track, see http://www.fasttrackproject.org). We are grateful for the collaboration of the Durham Public Schools, the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, the Bellefonte Area Schools, the Tyrone Area Schools, the Mifflin County Schools, the Highline Public Schools, and the Seattle Public Schools. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of the many staff members who implemented the project, collected the evaluation data, and assisted with data management and analyses. We are grateful to the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (Karen L. Bierman, John D. Coie, Kenneth A. Dodge, Mark T. Greenberg, John E. Lochman, Robert J. McMahon, and Ellen E. Pinderhughes) for providing the data and for additional involvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for the Reduction of Youth Violence, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, RCB 5246, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada

    Yao Zheng, Dave S. Pasalich, Carla Oberth & Robert J. McMahon

  2. Child & Family Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Yao Zheng, Dave S. Pasalich, Carla Oberth & Robert J. McMahon

  3. Department of Child Study and Human Development, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Ellen E. Pinderhughes

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  1. Yao Zheng
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  4. Robert J. McMahon
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Correspondence to Yao Zheng.

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Funding

This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Grants R18 MH48043, R18 MH50951, R18 MH50952, R18 MH50953, K05MH00797, and K05MH01027; National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Grants DA016903, K05DA15226, and P30DA023026; and Department of Education Grant S184U30002. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention also provided support through a memorandum of agreement with the NIMH. Additional support for the preparation of this work was provided by a LEEF B.C. Leadership Chair award, Child & Family Research Institute Investigator Salary and Investigator Establishment Awards, and a Canada Foundation for Innovation award to Robert J. McMahon.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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Supplementary Table 1

Model Fit Indices (DOCX 27 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Group Membership Prediction with Binary Logistic Regression (DOCX 23 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

Child Externalizing Problems between Groups within each Dimension (DOCX 28 kb)

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Zheng, Y., Pasalich, D.S., Oberth, C. et al. Capturing Parenting as a Multidimensional and Dynamic Construct with a Person-Oriented Approach. Prev Sci 18, 281–291 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0665-0

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