Patterns and correlates of agreement between parent, teacher, and male adolescent ratings of externalizing and internalizing problems

The authors examined how well 394 triads of male youths, caregivers, and teachers agreed about youth problems reported on the Achenbach checklists. Dyadic agreement was measured through difference scores (subtracting the raw score of youth self-report from the caregiver's or teacher's score for shared items), q correlations between pairs of raters across items, and D2 (generalized distance between item profiles) for both externalizing and internalizing items. Teachers reported fewer internalizing and externalizing problems than did caregivers or youths. Teacher-youth disagreement was higher for African American than European American males about externalizing criteria. Caregiver depression and stress (but not paternal antisocial behavior or maternal substance abuse) correlated with higher disagreement with other informants about all criteria. These factors appear to increase disagreement about the level of problems but not about specific symptom patterns.     

Behaviour problems in 18- to 36-month old children of alcoholic fathers: secure mother-infant attachment as a protective factor

This study examined the relationship between paternal alcoholism and toddler behavior problems from 18 to 36 months of age, as well as the potential moderating effects of 12-month infant-mother attachment security on this relationship. Children with alcoholic fathers had higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior than children of nonalcoholic fathers. Simple effects testing of an interaction effect of child age, group, and attachment security with mothers on externalizing behaviour suggested that at 24 and 36 months of age mother-infant attachment security moderated the relationship between alcohol group status and externalizing behaviour. Namely, within the alcohol group, those children with secure relationships with their mothers had significantly lower externalizing than insecure children of alcoholics. A similar pattern was noted for internalizing behavior at 36 months of age. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Genetic Analyses of Maternal and Teacher Ratings on Attention Problems in 7-year-old Dutch Twins

The goal of the present study is to examine genetic and environmental influences on maternal and teacher ratings of Attention Problems (AP) in 7-year-old children. Teachers completed the Teacher Report Form (N = 2259 pairs), and mothers the Child Behavior Checklist (N = 2057 pairs). Higher correlations were found in twins rated by the same teacher than in twins rated by different teachers. This can be explained by rater bias or by a greater environmental sharing in twins, who are in the same classroom. We further found that 41% of the variation in maternal and teacher ratings is explained by a common factor. The heritability of this common factor is 78%. The heritabilities of the rater specific factors of mothers and teachers are 76% and 39%, respectively. Because Attention Problems that are persistent over situations may indicate more serious behavior problems than context dependent Attention Problems, we believe that gene finding strategies should focus on this common phenotype.Edited by Richard Rose     

Retrospective reports of college students' childhood problems

College students and a subsample of their mothers and fathers participated in a study examining their retrospective reports of childhood emotional and behavioral problems experienced by college students. College students and their mothers and fathers exhibited moderate correspondence in their recollection of internalizing and externalizing problems that college students experienced during their childhood. In contrast, college students tended to endorse significantly greater levels of both internalizing and externalizing problems relative to their mothers and fathers. Current psychological symptoms predicted the greater endorsement of childhood internalizing and externalizing problems by college students and the greater endorsement of college students' childhood internalizing problems by their mothers. Further, college students' current perceptions of their parents predicted their endorsement of childhood internalizing problems, and college students' current masculinity and femininity predicted their endorsement of childhood externalizing problems. Results of this study emphasized the importance of noting factors that may be related to retrospective reports.     

Daily mood and sleep: reciprocal relations and links with adjustment problems

Children's sleep problems are common and associated with increased risk for adjustment problems. We examined daily links between children's sleep and mood, using a daily diary method and actigraphy. We also tested children's daily mood as a mediator of relations among sleep and children's broader internalizing and externalizing symptoms. A community sample of 142 children (mean age = 10.69 years; 57% girls; 69% European American, 31% African American) and their parents participated. For 1 week, children wore actigraphs and parents completed a daily telephone interview about their child's mood. Following the week of actigraphy, mothers and fathers reported on their child's adjustment. Multi‐level models indicated within‐person relations between children's mood and subsequent sleep fragmentation (indicated by increased activity) and sleep latency, and between‐person relations between sleep latency and subsequent mood on the next day. Significant indirect effects were found such that a more negative daily mood (aggregated across diary days) mediated relations between poor sleep efficiency and longer sleep latency and parent‐reported internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Findings extend previous research by highlighting disruptions to children's daily mood as a potential mechanism linking sleep problems to children's mental health.     

Parenting and psychosocial development of IVF children: a follow-up study

BACKGROUND: This report details a follow-up study of the parent-child relationship and the child's psychosocial development after IVF. The pilot study compared 31 IVF families and 31 families with a naturally conceived child when the children were aged 2 years. Twenty-seven IVF and 23 control families participated again when the children were aged 8-9 years. METHODS: Fathers and mothers completed questionnaires assessing parenting variables and the child's behaviour. For most children, behavioural ratings were also obtained from the child's teacher. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between IVF and control parents' reports of child behaviour, parenting behaviour, parenting stress and most of the parenting goals. The parenting goal adjustment was significantly more important for IVF than for control fathers; religion was more important for IVF than for naturally conceiving mothers. Teacher ratings of the child's behaviour did not differ significantly between the IVF and control groups. All couples but one had talked to other persons about the IVF conception; 75% of the IVF parents had not yet informed their children. IVF parents who had informed their child observed more (internalizing and for fathers also overall) problem behaviours in their child, compared with IVF parents who had not yet disclosed the IVF conception. CONCLUSIONS: Parenting and the children's psychosocial development do not differ significantly between IVF families and control families.     

The relations among depression in fathers, children's psychopathology, and father-child conflict: a meta-analysis

Research on parental depression is beginning to recognize the importance of studying fathers in relation to maladaptive outcomes in their offspring. Paternal depression is hypothesized to correlate with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents and to compromise adaptive parent-child relationships (e.g., increased conflict). In the present paper, meta-analytic procedures were applied to this literature to address the magnitude and direction of covariation between paternal depression and children's functioning. In addition, we tested whether variation in findings could be accounted for by study characteristics. Results indicated that paternal depression was significantly related to offspring internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and father-child conflict. Larger effects for internalizing symptoms were associated with the use of community samples and symptom rating scales of internalizing problems.     

Mental Health Professionals' Perception of the Utility of Children,Mothers, and Teachers as Informants on Childhood Psychopathology

Surveyed clinicians' and researchers' perceptions of the relative usefulness of prepubertal children, their mothers, and teachers as informants on children's problem behavior. Findings showed a high level of agreement within types of informants surveyed. Children were seen as the least useful informants on their own hyperactivity, attention problems, and oppositional behavior. Teachers were judged superior to mothers as informants on children's hyperactivity/inattentiveness; these relative ratings were reversed for oppositional child behavior. Children and mothers were perceived as more useful informants than teachers, on children's internalizing problems, with mothers scoring higher than children in all but one area–worrying. The survey results largely agree with those of other studies using different methods.     

Bias in Self-Perceptions and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Adjustment During Early Adolescence: A Prospective Investigation

We investigated bias in self-perceptions of competence (relative to parent ratings) for family, school, and peer domains as predictors of adjustment problems among 139 young adolescents over a 1-year period using a prospective design. Regressions examined measures of bias at Time 1 (T1) as predictors of ratings of internalizing and externalizing problems at Time 2 (T2), controlling for T1 adjustment ratings. For the family domain, curvilinear trends were found. Follow-up analyses revealed that for this domain both negative bias (self-perceptions less favorable than parent ratings) and positive bias (self-perceptions more favorable than parent ratings) predicted greater internalizing and externalizing problems as rated by youth, parents, and teachers. For the peer domain, higher scores on the measure of bias predicted greater internalizing and externalizing problems as rated by teachers. These findings are consistent with the view that accuracy in self-perceptions of competence can have important implications across multiple domains of development.     

Bias in self-perceptions and internalizing and externalizing problems in adjustment during early adolescence: a prospective investigation.

We investigated bias in self-perceptions of competence (relative to parent ratings) for family, school, and peer domains as predictors of adjustment problems among 139 young adolescents over a 1-year period using a prospective design. Regressions examined measures of bias at Time 1 (T1) as predictors of ratings of internalizing and externalizing problems at Time 2 (T2), controlling for T1 adjustment ratings. For the family domain, curvilinear trends were found. Follow-up analyses revealed that for this domain both negative bias (self-perceptions less favorable than parent ratings) and positive bias (self-perceptions more favorable than parent ratings) predicted greater internalizing and externalizing problems as rated by youth, parents, and teachers. For the peer domain, higher scores on the measure of bias predicted greater internalizing and externalizing problems as rated by teachers. These findings are consistent with the view that accuracy in self-perceptions of competence can have important implications across multiple domains of development.     

Interactive effects of internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors on recurrent pain in children

OBJECTIVE: To examine, in children, relationships between self-reported recurrent pain and emotion regulation indicated by rated internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors and adjustment. METHOD: Finnish 11-12-year-old schoolchildren (N = 414) completed a questionnaire measuring recurrent pain. Emotion regulation was assessed by a Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory, Teacher Rating Form. Relationships between recurrent pain and emotion regulation were examined in logistic regression analyses, after controlling for past injuries and chronic illnesses. RESULTS: Independent of injuries and chronic illnesses, externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors related to recurrent pain, and more so together than separately. Gender differences were found; constructive behavior associated with recurrent pain only in girls. CONCLUSIONS: Low self-control of emotions, indicated by internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors, was related to pain in both boys and girls; high self-control of emotions, indicated by constructive behavior, associated with pain only in girls.     

Cardiac vagal regulation differentiates among children at risk for behavior problems

A sample of 335 five-year-old children participating in an ongoing longitudinal study was the focus of a study on the effects of emotional and behavioral challenge on cardiac activity in children with different patterns of early childhood behavior problems. The children were placed in one of three behavior problem groups (low behavior problems, risk for externalizing problems, risk for mixed externalizing/internalizing problems) based on their scores on the Child Behavior Checklist for 4-18-year-olds [Achenbach, T.M., 1991. Integrative guide for the 1991 CBCL/4-18, YSR & TRF profiles. University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry, Burlington, VT], completed by their mothers. To assess cardiac vagal regulation, resting measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA change (vagal withdrawal) to five emotionally and behaviorally challenging tasks were derived. In addition, heart period (HP) and heart period change (HR acceleration) was examined. Results indicated that the behavior problem groups did not differ in terms of resting measures of either RSA or HP. Analyses of the challenge tasks indicated that the children at risk for mixed problems displayed greater cardiac vagal withdrawal across the five tasks than did the other two groups of children. There was a trend for the children at risk for externalizing problems to display less vagal withdrawal than the control group. In addition, the children at risk for mixed problems displayed greater heart rate acceleration to the tasks than did the other two groups of children. Follow-up analyses indicated that the greater cardiac acceleration observed in the mixed group was largely a function of greater vagal withdrawal. These findings are discussed in terms of the emotion regulatory function of cardiac vagal regulation, and its implications for patterns of risk for behavior problems in young children.     

Multimethod study of attention and behavior problems in hearing-impaired children

Assessed the nature and extent of attention and behavior problems in a sample of hearing-impaired children using multiple measures and observers. Hearing-impaired and normally hearing 6- to 14-year-olds (n = 64) completed three Continuous Performance Tests (CPT; Gordon, 1983) of attention. Parents and teachers of hearing-impaired children also completed ratings of behavior problems on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983). On two of the three attention tasks, hearing-impaired children exhibited significant attention problems. In particular, they had more difficulty than hearing children discriminating the target and inhibiting responses to nontarget information. Analyses of errors on the CPT tasks also suggested that hearing-impaired children may have problems related to proactive interference. Parent ratings on the CBCL indicated that one half of the hearing-impaired children had elevated levels of externalizing behavior problems, whereas teacher ratings indicated that one third had significant behavioral problems. Substantial convergence was found between performance on the CPT tasks and behavior ratings on the CBCL. Issues relevant to the multidimensional nature of the attention construct and its assessment are discussed.     

The analysis of parental ratings of children's behavior using LISREL

A common procedure for assessing children's behavior is to obtain parental ratings of the child. Since the ratings obtained are a function of both parent and child, disentangling the child's phenotype from that of the rater becomes an important methodological problem. For the analysis of genetic and environmental contributions to children's behavior, solutions to this are available when multiple raters, e.g., two parents, rate multiple children, e.g., twins. This paper describes and illustrates simple LISREL models for the analysis of parental ratings of children's behavior. We show how the assumption that mothers and fathers are rating the same behavior in children can be contrasted with the weaker alternative that parents are rating correlated behaviors. Given the stronger assumption, which appears adequate for ratings of children's internalizing behavior problems, the contribution of rater bias and unreliability may be separated from the shared and nonshared environmental components of variation in a behavior genetic analysis.The work reported in this paper was supported in part by Grants MH45268, AA08672, and MH19392 and the Carman Trust for Scientific Research.     

Effect of Co-Occurrence on the Referability of Internalizing and Externalizing Problem Behavior in Adolescents

Assessed the effect of co-occurring versus not co-occurring internalizing and externalizing behavior problems on the reasons parents reported for clinical referral of their adolescent child. Reasons for referral were coded for 181 inpatient adolescents, and parent ratings of internalizing and externalizing behavior were obtained for a general population sample of 500 adolescents. Parents concurrently reported internalizing and externalizing behavior as reasons for referral less frequently (p < .0001) than would be expected given the correlation between these two domains in the general population sample. This suggests that the presence of externalizing problems may decrease parents' concern or awareness of internalizing problems, the presence of internalizing problems may decrease parents' concern or awareness of externalizing problems, or both Implications for the clinical referral of adolescents and for informal parental efforts at helping their children with externalizing and internalizing problems are discussed.     

Sleeping Toward Behavioral Regulation: Relations Between Sleep and Externalizing Symptoms in Toddlers and Preschoolers

The aim of this study was to investigate the concurrent and longitudinal relations between sleep and externalizing symptoms among young children. Sixty-four families (mostly Caucasian; 36 boys) were met twice, when children were 2 (T1) and 4 years of age (T2). At T1, children wore an actigraph monitor for a 72-hr period, and both mothers and fathers completed the Child Behavior Checklist. At T2, both parents as well as the daycare educator filled the Child Behavior Checklist. At T1, longer sleep duration and higher sleep efficiency were associated with fewer externalizing symptoms as assessed by mothers. Results also indicated that higher sleep efficiency at T1 was related to fewer parent-reported externalizing symptoms at T2 (while controlling for prior externalizing symptoms). Relations between sleep efficiency at T1 and externalizing symptoms as assessed by mothers at T1 and by fathers at T2 were moderated by child sex, such that links were significant among boys only. Results pertaining to educators’ reports were inconclusive. The current study highlights the importance of rapidly treating sleep difficulties, which are associated with persistent behavioral maladjustment, perhaps especially for boys.     

Improved child behavioural and emotional functioning after Circle of Security 20-week intervention

ABSTRACT

This study examined the efficacy of the attachment-based Circle of Security 20-week intervention in improving child behavioural and emotional functioning. Participants were 83 parents of children (1–7 years) referred to a clinical service with concerns about their young children’s behaviour. Parents (and teachers, when available) completed questionnaires assessing child protective factors, behavioural concerns, internalizing and externalizing problems, prior to and immediately after the intervention. The following were considered as potential moderators: child gender and age, parent representations, reflective functioning, child attachment indices and severity of presenting problems, prior to treatment. Results showed significant improvement for parent ratings of child protective factors, behavioural concerns, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, all ps < .05, and children with more severe problems showed most improvement. Teachers also reported improvements, but change was significant only for externalizing problems (p = .030). Findings suggest Circle of Security is effective in improving child behavioural and emotional functioning in clinically referred children aged 1–7 years.     

Stability in infant frontal asymmetry as a predictor of toddlerhood internalizing and externalizing behaviors

Stability in frontal brain electrical activity (i.e., electroencephalographic or EEG) asymmetry at 10 and 24 months was examined with respect to maternal ratings of internalizing and externalizing behaviors at 30 months in a sample of 48 children. Children with stable left frontal EEG asymmetry during infancy were rated higher in externalizing behaviors by their mothers, whereas children with stable right frontal EEG asymmetry were rated higher in internalizing behaviors. These findings highlight the need to focus on the early stability in physiological measures that may be implicated later in developing behavioral problems. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 52:158–167, 2010     

Fathers’ and mothers’ attachment styles,couple conflict,parenting quality,and children’s behavior problems: an intervention test of mediation

ABSTRACT

A diverse sample of 239 primarily low-income couples participated in a random controlled trial of the Supporting Father Involvement couples group intervention. In this report, we examined the value of adding measures of fathers’ attachment style and parenting to mothers’ measures in order to explain variations in children’s behavior problems. We also tested the hypothesis that the link between intervention-induced reductions in couple conflict and reductions in anxious/harsh parenting can be explained by intervention effects on parents’ attachment insecurity or on anxiety and depression. Fathers’ attachment security and parenting behavior added significantly to mothers’ in accounting for children’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Fathers’ anxious attachment style and anxiety/depression mediated the link between post-intervention reductions in parental conflict and anxious/harsh parenting. For mothers, only improvements in attachment security accounted for those links. The findings support the need for attachment researchers to consider the contributions of both parents to their children’s development.     

Narrative Representations of Moral-Affiliative and Conflictual Themes and Behavioral Problems in Maltreated Preschoolers

Examined whether maltreated preschoolers are more likely than nonmaltreated preschoolers to have fewer moral-affiliative and more conflictual narrative representations and whether these representations mediate child behavior problems. A structured narrative story-telling task was administered to assess representations, and independent ratings of behavior problems were obtained from teachers. The narratives of maltreated children contained more conflictual and fewer moral-affiliative themes. Maltreated children also exhibited more internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. A partial mediation effect of conflictual representations on the relation between child maltreatment and externalizing behavior problems was found. The results demonstrate the relation between child maltreatment and children's organization of their life experiences and their behavioral symptomatology.