Related Experiment Videos
Predicting preschoolers' externalizing behaviors from toddler temperament, conflict, and maternal negativity
Kenneth H Rubin1, Kim B Burgess, Kathleen M Dwyer
1Center for Children, Relationships, and Culture, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-1131, USA. kr61@umail.umd.edu
Insights
Early childhood aggression predicts later externalizing problems, especially in girls. Maternal negativity and emotional dysregulation in toddlers can exacerbate these behavioral issues.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychiatry
Background:
- Externalizing behaviors in children are a significant concern.
- Early identification of precursors is crucial for intervention.
- Limited research exists on gender-specific early childhood predictors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate early childhood precursors of externalizing behaviors in a normative sample of boys and girls.
- To examine the roles of conflict-aggression, emotion dysregulation, and parenting in predicting later externalizing problems.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study observing 104 toddlers (52 girls) interacting with a same-sex peer and mother.
- Assessment of conflict-aggression, emotion/behavior dysregulation, parenting, and externalizing problems.
- Follow-up assessment of externalizing problems at age 4.
Main Results:
- Boys showed more toddler conflict-aggression and later externalizing difficulties.
- Girls' conflict-aggression at age 2 predicted later externalizing problems, unlike boys'.
- Emotional-behavioral undercontrol and maternal negativity moderated the link between early aggression and later externalizing issues.
Conclusions:
- Temperament and parenting interact in the development of childhood externalizing problems.
- Gender differences exist in the pathways to externalizing behaviors.
- Early identification of at-risk toddlers requires considering individual temperament and the caregiving environment.
Abstract:
Rarely have researchers elucidated early childhood precursors of externalizing behaviors for boys and girls from a normative sample. Toddlers (N = 104; 52 girls) were observed interacting with a same-sex peer and their mothers, and indices of conflict-aggression, emotion and behavior dysregulation, parenting, and child externalizing problems were obtained. Results indicated that boys initiated more conflictual-aggressive interactions as toddlers and had more externalizing difficulties 2 years later, yet girls' (not boys') conflict-aggressive initiations at age 2 were related to subsequent externalizing problems. When such initiations were controlled for, emotional-behavioral undercontrol at age 2 also independently predicted externalizing problems at age 4. Moreover, the relation between conflict-aggressive initiations at age 2 and externalizing problems at age 4 was strongest for dysregulated toddlers. Finally, the relation between age 2 conflict-aggressive initiations and age 4 externalizing problems was strongest for those toddlers who incurred high levels of maternal negativity. These findings illustrate temperament by parenting connections in the development of externalizing problems.