Coparental discord and children's behavior problems: Children's negative family representations as an explanatory mechanism.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Parry LQ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7374041 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Although an extensive literature has linked couple conflict with the development of children's externalizing behavior problems, longer term protective effects of positive dimensions of couple relationships on children's externalizing behavior remain understudied, particularly in relation to underlying mechanisms. Supportiveness in the dyadic couple relationship may enhance mothers' and fathers' individual parenting skills and protect against children's behavior problems, but the contribution of coparenting (couples' support for one another's individual parenting) remains unclear. This observational study investigated associations between couple supportiveness in children's infancy and middle childhood externalizing problems, exploring pathways involving coparenting and/or mothers' and fathers' individual parenting using data from the U.K. Millennium Cohort Study (MCS; N = 5,779) and the U.S. Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFS; N = 2,069). Couple supportiveness was associated with reduced externalizing problems 8 to 10 years later (standardized betas: MCS = -.13, FFS = -.11, both ps < .001). Much of this effect (60% MCS, 55% FFS) was attributable to coparenting and parenting when children were aged 3 to 5 years. Pathways from couple supportiveness involving negative parenting were stronger than those via positive parenting, pathways via mothers' parenting were stronger than those via fathers' parenting, and there were pathways via coparenting alone (without affecting parenting). Pathways involving coparenting were similar in magnitude (MCS), or larger (FFS), than those involving parenting alone. Consistent findings across different population samples suggest that helping parents to support one another in coparenting and to develop their individual parenting skills may lessen the longer term impact of couple relationship problems during early childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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Project description:Maternal insightfulness or the capacity to see things from the child's point of view, is considered to be a crucial construct for therapeutic change. In the present study, we aimed to implement the knowledge gleaned from the studies on attachment theory and maternal insightfulness into clinical practice to create an intervention program for mothers of children-at-risk due to inadequate parental care. We used drama therapy to "practice" maternal insightfulness in more "experiential" ways, because the use of creative expressive means may be accessible and effective for the target population of the study and help improve maternal care. We used a manualized 10-week drama therapy-group intervention, focusing on the core concepts of maternal insightfulness: insightfulness, separateness, complexity, and acceptance. We used various dramatic means to explore and experience these components of maternal insightfulness. Forty mothers of children-at-risk took part in eight groups of parental insightfulness drama therapy (PIDT). To evaluate the efficacy of the intervention, we used the Insightfulness Assessment (IA) interview, which produces 10 scales and a final classification of PI and non-PI. The Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) was used to evaluate a change in children's behavior problems. The assessment took place at three time points: before the intervention (T1), right after the end of the intervention (T2), and 6 months following the intervention (T3). Results at T2 showed a significant improvement compared to T1 in some of the maternal insightfulness scales, but not in the maternal insightfulness categorical classification. At T3, there was a significant change in the classification of the mothers, from non-insightful to positively insightful. At T3, there was also a significant decline in the children's externalized and general behavioral problems. The results of this study contribute to an evidence-based practice of using drama therapy in the treatment of mothers and children at risk.
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Project description:Purpose. Parents have important roles in child rearing, but the influence of their personality on rearing practices and their impact on the behavior of children has received surprisingly little attention. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between parents' personality and children's problem behaviors. Materials and Methods. Participants consisted of 190 preschool outpatients (104 boys, 86 girls) and their parents who visited traditional Korean pediatric clinics with minor physical symptoms as chief complaints. The personality profiles of the both parents were measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory and children's behavior problems by the Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5. Correlation and stepwise regression analysis were employed for the statistical analyses. Results. The temperament trait of Harm Avoidance and the character traits of Self-Directedness and Self-Transcendence of the parents were significantly correlated with children's problem behaviors. Character as well as temperament, played an important role in explaining children's problem behaviors after age and gender of children were taken into account. Conclusion. The maturity of parents' character appears to have a key role in reducing the risk of behavior problems in their children. Suggestions are made for parental education and future research.
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Project description:This article focuses on the early years of children from immigrant families in Germany. Research has documented disparities in young children's development correlating with their family background (e.g., immigrant or ethnic minority status), making clear the importance of early intervention. Institutional childcare-as an early intervention for children at risk-plays an important role in Germany, as 34.3% of children below the age of three and 93% of children above that age are in external childcare. This paper focuses on the extent to which children from families with a background of migration differ in their social development when considering their age of entry into early external childcare (and thus its duration). Data from the infant cohort study of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS, N = 1,846) is used to analyze the impact of early institutional childcare before the age of 3 years on children's social competence at the age of 5 years, controlling for gender, siblings, temperament, home learning activities, and socioeconomic status. Results show the effects of duration of early external childcare on peer problems for children from families with a background of migration, in such a way that children who attend early external childcare for more than 1 year before the age of three show less problem behavior with peers than those who attend for less than a year. These findings have equity implications for children with a migration background living in Germany, especially as the proportion of these children is trending upwards.
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Project description:Several research teams have previously traced patterns of emerging conduct problems (CP) from early or middle childhood. The current study expands on this previous literature by using a genetically-informed, experimental, and long-term longitudinal design to examine trajectories of early-emerging conduct problems and early childhood discriminators of such patterns from the toddler period to adolescence. The sample represents a cohort of 731 toddlers and diverse families recruited based on socioeconomic, child, and family risk, varying in urbanicity and assessed on nine occasions between ages 2 and 14. In addition to examining child, family, and community level discriminators of patterns of emerging conduct problems, we were able to account for genetic susceptibility using polygenic scores and the study's experimental design to determine whether random assignment to the Family Check-Up (FCU) discriminated trajectory groups. In addition, in accord with differential susceptibility theory, we tested whether the effects of the FCU were stronger for those children with higher genetic susceptibility. Results augmented previous findings documenting the influence of child (inhibitory control [IC], gender) and family (harsh parenting, parental depression, and educational attainment) risk. In addition, children in the FCU were overrepresented in the persistent low versus persistent high CP group, but such direct effects were qualified by an interaction between the intervention and genetic susceptibility that was consistent with differential susceptibility. Implications are discussed for early identification and specifically, prevention efforts addressing early child and family risk.
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