Bidirectional relations between intrusive caregiving among parents and teachers and children’s externalizing behavior problems☆
Section snippets
Intrusive caregiving and child externalizing behaviors
Externalizing behavior problems are one of the most common and persistent forms of maladjustment among children (Campbell, 1995). Particularly during the first several years of school when increased demands for conformity and cooperation with others are required, children who exhibit externalizing behavior problems transition more poorly to school and are at heightened risk of performing poorly on multiple domains of school adjustment (Keenan, Shaw, Delliquadri, Giovannelli, & Walsh, 1998).
Children as the critical link in the home-School connections
Consistent with Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, development is “a function of forces emanating from multiple settings and from the relations among these settings” (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Schools and families function as two important proximal settings that shape children’s development. The mesosystem comprises the important connection existing between these proximal settings. Child-driven effects may function as one of the key ways in which the family and school contexts are
Groups differences in these transactional effects: child gender and Race/Ethnicity
Informed by the bioecological (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) and developmental systems theory (Lerner, 2006), we also pay careful attention to the moderating roles of children’s own characteristics, including their gender and race/ethnicity, in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of the reciprocal relations between children and their developmental ecologies. First, boys have been consistently found to show more susceptibility to a number of detrimental effects of environmental
Hypotheses
With the above literature in mind, we evaluated four hypotheses. First, both mothers’ and teachers’ intrusive caregiving predicts children’s externalizing behaviors. Second, children’s externalizing behaviors predict increased levels of intrusive caregiving, but these associations would be stronger at home than in school. Third, the link between teachers’ intrusiveness and mothers’ intrusive parenting (and vice versa) would function through children’s externalizing behaviors. Finally, we expect
Participants
Instead of using clinical samples, we used a large multi-site longitudinal community sample of children and families, which allows us to consider the implications of normative behavior problems. Mothers and children in the current study were derived from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Families were recruited during 1990 and 1991 from hospitals across 10 sites in the U.S. (Little Rock, AR; Irvine, CA; Lawrence, KS; Boston, MA; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Charlottesville, VA:
Results
We first tested a single measurement model of children’s externalizing behavior at 54 months of age (λmother = 0.40, p < 0.001; λteacher = 0.72, p < 0.001), 1st grade (λmother = 0.47, p < 0.001; λteacher = 0.76, p < 0.001), and 3rd grade (λmother = 0.51, p < 0.001; λteacher = 0.76, p < 0.001), which demonstrated good fit: CFI = 0.997, RMSEA = 0.042, and x2 (df = 3) = 9.02, p = 0.029. Having established the measurement model, we proceeded to estimating the focal structural model (see Fig. 1) of the bidirectional relations
Discussion
Guided by both transactional and bioecological theories (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Sameroff, 2000), this study considered the bidirectional relations between intrusive caregiving and children’s externalizing behaviors across the family and school systems during the elementary school years. The results from this study have three take home messages.
References (57)
- et al.
Children’s hyperactivity, television viewing, and the potential for child effects
Children and Youth Services Review
(2016) - et al.
A developmental psychopathology perspective on child abuse and neglect
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
(1995) - et al.
Kindergarten practices and first-grade achievement for Latino Spanish-speaking, Latino English-speaking, and Anglo students
Journal of School Psychology
(1995) - et al.
Teacher race, child race, racial congruence, and teacher ratings of children's school adjustment
Journal of School Psychology
(2000) - et al.
Relations between parenting and externalizing and internalizing problem behaviour in early adolescence: Child behaviour as moderator and predictor
Journal of Adolescence
(2006) - et al.
Trajectories of classroom externalizing behavior: Contributions of child characteristics, family characteristics, and the teacher-child relationship during the school transition
Journal of School Psychology
(2005) - et al.
Parenting and children's externalizing behavior: Bidirectionality during toddlerhood
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
(2010) - et al.
Manual for the Teacher's Report Form and teacher version of child behavior profile
(1986) - et al.
Immigration and the interplay of parenting, preschool enrollment, and children’s academic skills
Journal of Family Psychology
(2015) - et al.
Bibliography of published studies using ASEBA instruments
(2001)
Parenting, attention and externalizing problems: Testing mediation longitudinally, repeatedly and reciprocally
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Are there long-term effects of early child care?
Child Development
Sex differences in the longitudinal relations among family risk factors and childhood externalizing symptoms
Developmental Psychology
The bioecological model of human development
Boys' externalizing problems at elementary school age: Pathways from early behavior problems, maternal control, and family stress
Development and Psychopathology
Behavior problems in preschool children: A review of recent research
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Cultural influences on child development: Are we ready for a paradigm shift?
Externalizing behavior problems and discipline revisited: Nonlinear effects and variation by culture, context, and gender
Psychological Inquiry
The what and why of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior
Psychological Inquiry
Prediction of externalizing behavior problems from early to middle childhood: The role of parental socialization and emotion expression
Development and Psychopathology
The affective organization of parenting: Adaptive and maladaptative processes
Psychological Bulletin
The impact of young children with externalizing behaviors on their families
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
Reciprocal relations between teacher-child conflict and aggressive behavior in kindergarten: A three-wave longitudinal study
Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology
School readiness and later achievement
Developmental Psychology
Parental reactions to children's negative emotions: Longitudinal relations to quality of children's social functioning
Child Development
Externalizing symptoms, effortful control, and intrusive parenting: A test of bidirectional longitudinal relations during early childhood
Development and Psychopathology
Parents' hostility in dyadic marital and triadic family settings and children's behavior problems
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
The psychology of parental control
Cited by (14)
Pathways from marital relationships to children's social-emotional development in Korea: The role of parenting and social support
2023, Early Childhood Research QuarterlyTeacher-child one-on-one playtime: Teachers’ non-intrusiveness predicts developmental outcomes of children with developmental delay
2023, Research in Developmental DisabilitiesMother-father relationships and child social-emotional adjustment: Mediation through maternal and paternal parenting
2023, Early Childhood Research QuarterlyCitation Excerpt :Children's early social-emotional skills and problems can spread over time and across developmental domains to promote or undermine long-term development (Masten & Cicchetti, 2010; Masten et al., 2005). Positive social-emotional adjustment—referring to children's skills to facilitate positive interactions, resolve conflicts, and regulate emotions is a developmental asset for children's education over time (Ricciardi et al., 2021; Yan & Ansari, 2017). In contrast, behavioral and emotional problems can pose a risk for later academic, emotional, and behavioral difficulties, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds (Labella et al., 2019; McDermott et al., 2019).
Scientific inquiry of race, ethnicity, and racial inequality in Early Childhood Research Quarterly
2022, Early Childhood Research QuarterlyAdverse childhood experiences, parenting, and socioeconomic status: Associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescence
2022, Child Abuse and NeglectCitation Excerpt :Given differential findings among different facets of SES and types of ACEs, additional work is needed to clarify if particular forms of ACEs (i.e., physical vs. emotional abuse) and/or SES (i.e., parental education vs. gross income) incur greater risk for psychopathology over time. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that the association between youth externalizing problems and harsh parenting practices may be bidirectional (e.g., Yan & Ansari, 2017). Longitudinal analyses will provide a more rigorous assessment of the temporal association between parenting practices and youth psychopathology.
- ☆
The authors acknowledge the support of grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Young Scholar (31500904, PI: Ni Yan) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24 HD42849, PI: Mark Hayward; T32 HD007081-35, PI: Kelly Raley). Opinions reflect those of the authors and not necessarily the opinions of the funding agencies.