Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T18:49:36.961Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Parenting and the development of effortful control from early childhood to early adolescence: A transactional developmental model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Stacey S. Tiberio ,
Deborah M. Capaldi ,
David C. R. Kerr ,
Maria Bertrand ,
Katherine C. Pears  and
Lee Owen
Stacey S. Tiberio*
Affiliation:
Oregon Social Learning Center
Deborah M. Capaldi
Affiliation:
Oregon Social Learning Center
David C. R. Kerr
Affiliation:
Oregon Social Learning Center Oregon State University
Maria Bertrand
Affiliation:
Oberlin College
Katherine C. Pears
Affiliation:
Oregon Social Learning Center
Lee Owen
Affiliation:
Oregon Social Learning Center
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Stacey S. Tiberio, Oregon Social Learning Center, 10 Shelton, McMurphey Boulevard, Eugene, OR 97401; E-mail: StaceyT@oslc.org.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Poor effortful control is a key temperamental factor underlying behavioral problems. The bidirectional association of child effortful control with both positive parenting and negative discipline was examined from ages approximately 3 to 13–14 years, involving five time points, and using data from parents and children in the Oregon Youth Study—Three Generational Study (N = 318 children from 150 families). Based on a dynamic developmental systems approach, it was hypothesized that there would be concurrent associations between parenting and child effortful control and bidirectional effects across time from each aspect of parenting to effortful control and from effortful control to each aspect of parenting. It was also hypothesized that associations would be more robust in early childhood, from ages 3 to 7 years, and would diminish as indicated by significantly weaker effects at the older ages, 11–12 to 13–14 years. Longitudinal feedback or mediated effects were also tested. The findings supported (a) stability in each construct over multiple developmental periods; (b) concurrent associations, which were significantly weaker at the older ages; (c) bidirectional effects, consistent with the interpretation that at younger ages children's effortful control influenced parenting, whereas at older child ages, parenting influenced effortful control; and (d) a transactional effect, such that maternal parenting in late childhood was a mechanism explaining children's development of effortful control from middle childhood to early adolescence.

Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 28 , Special Issue 3: Longitudinal Transactional Models of Development and Psychopathology , August 2016 , pp. 837 - 853
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beam, C. R., & Turkheimer, E. (2013). Phenotype–environment correlations in longitudinal twin models. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 7–16.Google Scholar
Bell, R. Q. (1979). Parent, child, and reciprocal influences. American Psychologist, 34, 821–826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belsky, J., Fearon, R. M. P., & Bell, B. (2007). Parenting, attention, and externalizing problems: Testing mediation longitudinally, repeatedly and reciprocally. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 1233–1242.Google Scholar
Block, J. H. (1965). The Child Rearing Practices Report. Berkeley, CA: University of California, Institute of Human Development.Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D. (1994). Origins and outcomes of individual differences in emotional regulation. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3), 53–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capaldi, D. M. (1995). Discipline Questionnaire. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Social Learning Center.Google Scholar
Capaldi, D. M. (2000a). Late Childhood Temperament Questionnaire—Child Version. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Social Learning Center.Google Scholar
Capaldi, D. M. (2000b). Late Childhood Temperament Questionnaire—Parent Version. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Social Learning Center.Google Scholar
Capaldi, D. M., & Eddy, J. M. (2014). Oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder: Evidence-based approaches to prevention and treatment. In Gullotta, T., Evans, M., & Plant, R. (Eds.), The handbook of adolescent behavioral problems (2nd ed., pp. 265–286). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Capaldi, D. M., Pears, K. C., Wilson, J., & Bruckner, L. (1998). Parent Interview. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Social Learning Center.Google Scholar
Capaldi, D. M., Pears, K. C., Wilson, J., & Bruckner, L. (2001). Child Interview. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Social Learning Center.Google Scholar
Capaldi, D. M., & Wilson, J. (1994). Moms Interview Ratings. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Social Learning Center.Google Scholar
Capaldi, D. M., & Wilson, J. (1998). Monitoring and Parent–Child Relationship Questionnaire. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Social Learning Center.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, P., & Reid, J. B. (1987). Parent observation and report of child symptoms. Behavioral Assessment, 9, 97–109.Google Scholar
Chang, H., Olson, S. L., Sameroff, A. J., & Sexton, H. R. (2011). Child effortful control as a mediator of parenting practices on externalizing behavior: Evidence for a sex-differentiated pathway across the transition from preschool to school. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 71–81.Google Scholar
Coley, R. L, & Chase-Lansdale, P. L (1998). Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood: Recent evidence and future directions American Psychologist, 53, 152–166.Google Scholar
Craig, L. (2006). Does father care mean fathers share? A comparison of how mothers and fathers in intact families spend time with children. Gender and Society, 20, 259–281.Google Scholar
Dishion, T. J., & Patterson, G. R. (2006). The development and ecology of antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. In Cicchetti, D. & Cohen, D. J. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 3. Risk, disorder, and adaptation (pp. 503–541). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Doan, S. N., Fuller-Rowell, T. E., & Evans, G. W. (2012). Cumulative risk and adolescent's internalizing and externalizing problems: The mediating roles of maternal responsiveness and self-regulation. Developmental Psychology, 48, 1529–1539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dwyer, J. H. (1983). Statistical models for the social and behavioral sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Smith, C. L., & Spinrad, T. L. (2011). Effortful control: Relations with emotion regulation, adjustment, and socialization in childhood. In Vohs, K. D. & Baumeister, R. F. (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 263–283). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Zhou, Q., Spinrad, T. L., Valiente, C., Fabes, R. A., & Liew, J. (2005). Relations among positive parenting, children's effortful control, and externalizing problems: A three-wave longitudinal study. Child Development, 76, 1055–1071.Google Scholar
Ellis, L., & Rothbart, M. K. (1999). Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire—Revised. Unpublished manuscipt, University of Oregon–Eugene, Department of Psychology.Google Scholar
Evans, D. E., & Rothbart, M. K. (2007). Developing a model for adult temperament. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 868–888.Google Scholar
Fagot, B. I., & Gauvain, M. (1997). Mother–child problem solving: Continuity through the early childhood years. Developmental Psychology, 33, 480–488.Google Scholar
Florsheim, P., Sumida, E., McCann, C., Winstanley, M., Fukui, R., Seefeldt, T., et al. (2003). The transition to parenthood among young African American and Latino couples: Relational predictors of risk for parental dysfunction. Journal of Family Psychology, 17, 65–79.Google Scholar
Gaertner, B. M., Spinrad, T. L., & Eisenberg, N. (2008). Focused attention in toddlers: Measurement, stability, and relations to negative emotion and parenting. Infant and Child Development, 17, 339–363.Google Scholar
Gagne, J. R., Saudino, K. J., & Asherson, P. (2011). The genetic etiology of inhibitory control and behavior problems at 24 months of age. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52, 1155–1163.Google Scholar
Gilliom, M., Shaw, D. S., Beck, J. E., Schonberg, M. A., & Lukon, J. L. (2002). Anger regulation in disadvantaged preschool boys: Strategies, antecedents, and the development of self-control. Developmental Psychology, 38, 222–235.Google Scholar
Hardaway, C. R., Wilson, M. N., Shaw, D. S., & Dishion, T. J. (2012). Family functioning and externalizing behaviour among low-income children: Self-regulation as a mediator. Infant and Child Development, 21, 67–84.Google Scholar
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four-Factor Index of Social Status. Unpublished manuscript, Yale University, Department of Sociology.Google Scholar
John, O. P., Caspi, A., Robins, R. W., Moffitt, T. E., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1994). The “little five”: Exploring the nomological network of the five-factor model of personality in adolescent boys. Child Development, 65, 160–178.Google Scholar
Karreman, A., de Haas, S., van Tuijl, C., van Aken, M. A. G., & Dekovic, M. (2010). Relations among temperament, parenting and problem behavior in young children. Infant Behavior and Development, 33, 39–49.Google Scholar
Kiff, C. J., Lengua, L. J., & Zalewski, M. (2011). Nature and nurturing: Parenting in the context of child temperament. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 14, 251–301.Google Scholar
Klahr, A. M., Thomas, K. M., Hopwood, C. J., Klump, K. L., & Burt, S. A. (2013). Evocative gene–environment correlation in the mother–child relationship: A twin study of interpersonal processes. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 105–118.Google Scholar
Knafo, A., & Jaffee, S. R. (2013). Gene–environment correlation in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 1–6.Google Scholar
Knutson, N., & Forgatch, M., (1990). Homework task. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Social Learning Center.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., Aksan, N., Prisco, T. R., & Adams, E. E. (2008). Mother-child and father-child mutually responsive orientation in the first 2 years and children's outcomes at preschool age: Mechanisms of influence. Child Development, 79, 30–44.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., & Knaack, A. (2003). Effortful control as a personality characteristic of young children: Antecedents, correlates, and consequences. Journal of Personality, 71, 1087–1112.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., Murray, K. T., & Harlan, E. T. (2000). Effortful control in early childhood: Continuity and change, antecedents, and implications for social development. Developmental Psychology, 36, 220–232.Google Scholar
Lengua, L. J., Kiff, C. J., Moran, L., Zalewski, M., Thompson, S., Cortes, R., et al. (2014). Parenting mediates the effects of income and cumulative risk on the development of effortful control. Social Development, 23, 631–649.Google Scholar
MacDonald, K. B. (2008). Effortful control, explicit processing, and the regulation of human evolved predispositions. Psychological Review, 115, 1012–1031.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, D. P. (2008). Introduction to statistical mediation analysis. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Murray, K. T., & Kochanska, G. (2002). Effortful control: Relation to externalizing and internalizing behaviors and factor structure. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 503–514.Google Scholar
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2012). Mplus user's guide (7th ed.). Los Angeles: Author.Google Scholar
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2003). Do children's attention processes mediate the link between family predictors and school readiness? Developmental Psychology, 39, 581–593.Google Scholar
Olson, S. L., Sameroff, A. J., Kerr, D. C. R., Lopez, N. L., & Wellman, H. M., (2005). Developmental foundations of externalizing problems in young children: The role of effortful control. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 25–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olson, S. L., Tardif, T. Z., Miller, A., Felt, B., Grabell, A. S., Kessler, D., et al. (2011). Inhibitory control and harsh discipline as predictors of externalizing problems in young children: A comparative study of U.S., Chinese, and Japanese preschoolers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 1163–1175.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oregon Social Learning Center. (1985). Discussion Task Ratings. Eugene, OR: Author.Google Scholar
Ormel, J., Oldehinkel, A. J., Ferdinand, R. F., Hartman, C. A., De Winter, A. F., Veenstra, R., et al. (2005). Internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescence: General and dimension-specific effects of familial loadings and preadolescent temperament traits. Psychological Medicine, 12, 1825–1835.Google Scholar
Parke, R. D. (2002). Fathers and families. In Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Being and becoming a parent (Vol. 3, pp. 27–73). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Patterson, G. R. (1982). Coercive family process: Vol. 3. A social learning approach to family intervention. Eugene, OR: Castalia.Google Scholar
Pears, K. C., & Ayres, M. (2000). Parent–child compliance task and free play coding manual and rating scales. Unpublished manuscript, Oregon Social Learning Center.Google Scholar
Pener-Tessler, R., Avinun, R., Uzefovsky, F., Edelman, S., Ebstein, R. P., & Knafo, A. (2013). Boys' serotonin transporter genotype affects maternal behavior through self-control: A case of evocative gene–environment correlation. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 151–162.Google Scholar
Piehler, T. F., Véronneau, M.-H., & Dishion, T. J. (2012). Substance use progression from adolescence to early adulthood: Effortful control in the context of friendship influence and early-onset use. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40, 1045–1058.Google Scholar
Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., & Loehlin, J. C. (1977). Genotype-environment interaction and correlation in the analysis of human behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 309–322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Posner, M. I., Rothbart, M. K., & Sheese, B. E. (2007). Attention genes. Developmental Science, 10, 24–29.Google Scholar
Prior, D., Smart, D., Sanson, A., & Oberklaid, F. (2001). Longitudinal predictors of behavioural adjustment in pre-adolescent children. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 35, 297–307.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K. (1989). Child Behavior Questionnaire. Unpublished manuscript, University of Oregon–Eugene, Department of Psychology.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K. (2007). Temperament, development, and personality. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 207–212.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., Hershey, K., & Fisher, P. (2001). Investigations of temperament at three to seven years: The Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Child Development, 72, 1394–1408.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2006). Temperament. In Damon, W., Lerner, R., & Eisenberg, N. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 99–166). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Sameroff, A. (Ed.). (2009). The transactional model of development: How children and contexts shape each other. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Scarr, S., & McCartney, K. (1983). How people make their own environments: A theory of genotype leading to environment effects. Child Development, 54, 424–435.Google Scholar
Spinrad, T. L., Eisenberg, N., Gaertner, B., Popp, T., Smith, C. L., Kupfer, A., et al. (2007). Relations of maternal socialization and toddlers' effortful control to children's adjustment and social competence. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1170–1186.Google Scholar
Wachs, T. D., & Kohnstamm, G. A. (2001). The bidirectional nature of temperament-context links. In Wachs, T. D. & Kohnstamm, G. A. (Eds.), Temperament in context (pp. 201–222). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Wiesner, M., Capaldi, D. M., & Kim, H. K. (2007). Arrest trajectories across a 17-year span for young men: Relation to dual taxonomies and self-reported offense trajectories. Criminology, 45, 835–863.Google Scholar
Zhou, Q., Eisenberg, N., Wang, Y., & Reiser, M. (2004). Chinese children's effortful control and dispositional anger⁄frustration: Relations to parenting styles and children's social functioning. Developmental Psychology, 40, 352–366.Google Scholar
Zhou, Q., Chen, S. H., & Main, A. (2012). Commonalities and differences in the research on children's effortful control and executive function: A call for an integrated model of self-regulation. Child Development Perspectives, 6, 112–121.Google Scholar