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Strategic considerations in the search for transactional processes: Methods for detecting and quantifying transactional signals in longitudinal data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Glenn I. Roisman ,
R. Chris Fraley ,
John D. Haltigan ,
Elizabeth Cauffman  and
Cathryn Booth-Laforce
Glenn I. Roisman*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
R. Chris Fraley
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
John D. Haltigan
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
Elizabeth Cauffman
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Cathryn Booth-Laforce
Affiliation:
University of Washington
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Glenn I. Roisman, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, 51 East River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55455; E-mail: roism001@umn.edu.
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Abstract

Over the last four decades the transactional model has emerged as a central fixture of modern developmental science. Despite this, we are aware of no principled approach for determining (a) whether it is actually necessary to invoke transactional mechanisms to explain observed patterns of stability in a given domain of adaptive functioning and (b) the extent to which transactional processes, once identified in aggregate, are accounted for by measured domains with which an aspect of adaptive functioning is theoretically in transaction. Leveraging the fact that transactional mechanisms produce excess stability in an outcome domain above and beyond autoregressive processes, along with the basic logic of mediational analysis, we introduce two novel indexes for studying transactional processes strategically. We apply these metrics to data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development cohort on mother- and teacher-reported externalizing problems and social competence along with teacher-reported and objective assessments of academic skills acquired in Grades 1, 3, and 5. During this developmental period we find that (a) transactional contributions to stability are strongest for teacher-reported outcomes, next strongest for mother-reported outcomes, and relatively weak for objective assessments of academic skills and (b) observed maternal sensitivity (but not child-reported friendship quality) accounts for a modest proportion of the total transactional effects operative in most of the domains of adaptive functioning we studied. Discussion focuses on extending the logic of our approach to additional waves of measurement.

Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 28 , Special Issue 3: Longitudinal Transactional Models of Development and Psychopathology , August 2016 , pp. 791 - 800
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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