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Presented by: Zohreh Yaghoub Zadeh, Associate Research Scientist, CCL Jennifer Jenkins, OISE/UT Debra Pepler, York University
The study investigates the reciprocal relationship between harsh parenting and externalizing psychopathology in young children. It uses data from three waves of National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). A transactional model was used to examine the bi-directional nature of parent-child relationship.
This large-scale longitudinal database was used because of its potential for investigating the role of contextual factors (i.e., parenting) in relation to the trajectories of psychopathology (i.e., externalizing behaviour) over time. Data imputation resulted in a large sample size (N=1364) which makes it possible to use structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques for testing the proposed model. Cross-reported constructs of parenting quality and child externalizing behaviour were created using mother and father rating of parenting and child externalizing behaviour for each wave.
The fit model indicates that development of child externalizing behaviour and harsh parenting resides in the relationship between parent and child. Our findings indicate that, after controlling for the concurrent relationship, parental harshness resulted in subsequent child externalizing behaviour and child externalizing behaviour evoked subsequent parenting harshness. This was over and above the concurrent relationship between child externalizing behaviour and harsh parenting. Theoretical, educational, and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.