Educational, psychosocial, and sexual outcomes of girls with conduct problems in early adolescence

This paper examines the extent to which conduct problems at age 13 are associated with a range of educational, psychosocial, and sexual outcomes at age 18 in a birth cohort of 488 young women. Significant associations were found between early adolescent conduct problems and later risks of educational failure, juvenile crime, substance abuse, mental health problems, and adverse sexual outcomes by late adolescence. These elevated risks were explained, in part, by social, family, and personal disadvantages associated with adjustment at age 13. In addition, there was evidence of a causal chain process in which early adolescent conduct problems were associated with a series of adolescent risk-taking behaviours, including delinquent peer affiliations, early-onset sexual behaviour, substance use, and school problems that were, in turn, associated with increased risks of later adverse outcomes.     

Child and parental literacy levels within families with a history of dyslexia

Background: The present study concerns literacy and its underlying cognitive skills in Dutch children who differ in familial risk (FR) for dyslexia. Previous studies with FR‐children were inconclusive regarding the performance of FR‐children without dyslexia as compared to the controls. Moreover, van Bergen et al. (2011) recently showed that FR‐children with and without dyslexia differed in parental reading skills, suggesting that those who go on to develop dyslexia have a higher liability. The current study concerned 1) the comparison of three groups of children at the end of second grade and 2) the intergenerational transfer of reading and its underlying cognitive skills from parent to child. Method: Three groups of children were studied at the end of second grade: FR‐dyslexia (n = 42), FR‐no‐dyslexia (n = 99), and control children (n = 66). Parents and children were measured on naming, phonology, spelling, and word and pseudoword reading. Results: The FR‐dyslexia children were severely impaired across all tasks. The FR‐no‐dyslexia children performed better than the FR‐dyslexia children, but still below the level of the controls on all tasks; the only exception was rapid naming (RAN), on which they were as fast as the controls. Focusing on the FR subsample, parental reading and RAN were related to their offspring’s reading status. Conclusions: We replicated and extended van Bergen et al.’s study in showing that the FR‐children who develop dyslexia are likely to have a higher liability. Both the group comparisons and the parent–child relations highlight the importance of good RAN skills for reading acquisition.     

Annotation: attachment disorganisation and psychopathology: new findings in attachment research and their potential implications for developmental psychopathology in childhood

BACKGROUND: The past 10 years have seen a fruitful line of enquiry building on identification of previously unclassifiable patterns of infant-mother interaction. A critical review of these new findings in attachment theory, highlighting their potential relevance to child psychopathology, is presented. METHOD: Selective literature review relating to disorganised attachment in childhood. RESULTS: Disorganised patterns of attachment have only relatively recently been described. They show characteristic patterns of evolution in development. There is evidence that disorganised attachments are associated with specific forms of distorted parenting, which are distinct from general parental insensitivity and are associated with unresolved loss or trauma in the caregiver. There are also links with aspects of neurodevelopment vulnerability in the child. Attachment disorganisation is a powerful predictor of a range of later social and cognitive difficulties and psychopathology. CONCLUSIONS: The identification of disorganised attachment has greatly increased the potential relevance of attachment theory to general clinical work. However, the concept raises many methodological and theoretical issues. Among issues needing further exploration is the way in which attachment disorganisation relates to children's general mental states and may be affected by cognitive functioning and developmental impairment.     

Maternal antenatal anxiety and behavioural/emotional problems in children: a test of a programming hypothesis

BACKGROUND: Previous animal investigations link antenatal stress with a range of persistent behavioural abnormalities in the offspring. The current study examined if the effect was also found in humans through middle childhood. METHODS: The current study is based on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a prospective, community-based study that has followed a cohort of women from pregnancy. Self-report measures of maternal anxiety and depression were assessed at repeated intervals in pregnancy and the postnatal period. Children's behavioural/emotional problems were assessed by parent report at age 47 and 81 months. Information on obstetric and psychosocial factors was obtained at several points in pregnancy and the postnatal period. RESULTS: Children whose mothers experienced high levels of anxiety in late pregnancy exhibited higher rates of behavioural/emotional problems at 81 months of age after controlling for obstetric risks, psychosocial disadvantage, and postnatal anxiety and depression (for girls, OR = 1.91, 95%CI = 1.26-2.89; for boys, OR = 2.16, 95%CI = 1.41-3.30). Furthermore, the effect at 81 months was comparable to what was previously obtained at 47 months, suggesting the kind of persistent effect proposed in the animal literature. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence that antenatal stress/anxiety has a programming effect on the fetus which lasts at least until middle childhood.     

Participation in power sports and antisocial involvement in preadolescent and adolescent boys

BACKGROUND: A limited number of mostly cross-sectional studies have examined the possible effects of power sports on aggressive and antisocial involvement in children and youth. The majority of these studies have serious methodological limitations, and results are partly contradictory. Longitudinal studies with representative, reasonably large samples and adequate dependent variables are lacking. METHODS: The relationship between participation in power or fight and strength sports (boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, and oriental martial arts) and violent and antisocial behaviour was examined in a sample of 477 boys, aged 11 to 13 years at Time 1, over a two-year period. Making use of information about different participation patterns over time, the longitudinal design provided an opportunity to examine specified hypotheses about possible causal effects of power sports. RESULTS: The total pattern of results strongly suggests that participation in power sports actually leads to an increase or enhancement of antisocial involvement in the form of elevated levels of violent as well as non-violent antisocial behaviour outside sports. In addition, there were no indications of selection effects; the presence of such effects would imply that boys who started with power sports were characterised by already elevated levels of antisocial involvement. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide strong support for the 'enhancement hypothesis'. The negative effects in boys seemed to stem from both the practice of power sports itself and from repeated contact with 'macho' attitudes, norms, and ideals. The negative effects of participation in power sports represent a societal problem of considerable dimensions which has been largely neglected up to now.     

Impaired attention to the eyes of attachment figures and the developmental origins of psychopathy

Background: A pervasive failure to attend and respond to emotionally salient stimuli is a core feature of psychopathy. We hypothesise that this begins early in life and is expressed most importantly as a failure to attend to core emotional features (viz., the eyes) of attachment figures. The current study tested whether impaired eye contact is a characteristic of children with antisocial behaviour and callous‐unemotional (CU) traits in real life settings. Methods: Conduct problem males were assessed on levels of CU traits and observed in free play and ‘emotion talk’ scenarios with their parents. Eye contact was measured for each dyad (child to mother, child to father, mother to child, father to child) as a proportion of intervals in which the child and parent interacted. Results: Levels of eye contact were reciprocated in mother–son and father–son dyads, but males with high CU traits showed consistent impairments in eye contact towards their parents. Mothers of high CU boys did not show impairments; however, fathers of high CU boys showed similar impairment. Levels of eye contact were also associated with independent measures of fear recognition, and general empathy in the boys. Conclusions: The findings provide the first evidence that impairments in eye contact, previously shown during computer tasks, characterise psychopathic traits in young males.     

The role of maternal factors in sibling relationship quality: a multilevel study of multiple dyads per family

Background: Although many children grow up with more than one sibling, we do not yet know if sibling dyads within families show similarities to one another on sibling affection and hostility. In the present study the hypotheses were tested that (a) there will be significant between family variation in change in sibling affection and hostility and (b) this between family variation will be explained by maternal affective climate, operationalized as positive and negative ambient parenting, differential parenting and maternal malaise. Methods: A general population sample of families with single and multiple sibling dyads were visited twice, 2 years apart. Up to 2 children in a family acted as informants; 253 relationships were rated in 118 families. A cross‐classified, multilevel model was fit to separate between‐family and within‐family variance in sibling relationships while simultaneously controlling for informant and partner influences. Results: Thirty‐seven percent of the variance in change in sibling affection and 32% of the variance in change in sibling hostility was between family variance. The measured maternal affective climate including, maternal malaise and maternal ambient and differential hostility and affection explained between family differences. Conclusions: Sibling relationship quality clusters in families and is partly explained by maternal affective climate.     

Children's perceptions of parental emotional neglect and control and psychopathology

Background: Parental emotional neglect is linked to psychiatric disorder. This study explores the associations between children’s perceptions of parental emotional neglect and future psychopathology. Methods: In a school‐based longitudinal study of nearly 1,700 children aged 11–15 we explored children’s perceptions of parenting, as measured by the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) at age 11, and their associations with later psychiatric diagnosis at age 15, as measured by computerised psychiatric interview. Rather than using the traditional four‐category approach to the PBI, we identified groups of children, classified according to their perceptions of parenting, using latent class analysis. Results: A small group of children (3%) perceived their parents as almost always emotionally neglectful and controlling. This group had an increased odds of psychiatric disorder (OR 2.14; 95% CI 1.29–4.50), increased overall (standardised) psychiatric symptom scores (B = .46; 95% CI .16–.75) and increased scores in all psychiatric subscales except substance‐use at age 15, despite no increase in psychiatric referral at age 11. Analyses controlled for key potential confounders (e.g., socioeconomic status). Conclusions: Although our findings are limited by having no objective evidence that children’s perceptions of emotional neglect are directly associated with actual neglect, children’s perceptions of neglect and control are associated with over twice the odds of psychiatric disorder at age 15. Children’s perceptions that parents are emotionally neglectful and controlling are independently associated with later psychiatric disorder and should be taken seriously as a risk factor for future psychopathology.     

Reading Problems and Antisocial Behaviour: Developmental Trends in Comorbidity

Samples of poor and normal readers were followed through adolescence and into early adulthood to assess continuities in the comorbidity between reading difficulties and disruptive behaviour problems. Reading-disabled boys showed high rates of inattentive-ness in middle childhood, but no excess of teacher-rated behaviour problems at age 14 and no elevated rates of aggression, antisocial personality disorder or officially recorded offending in early adulthood. Increased risks of juvenile offending among specifically retarded-reading boys seemed associated with poor school attendance, rather than reading difficulties per se , Reading problems were associated with some increases in disruptive behaviour in their teens in girls.     

Stage-related behavioural problems in the 1-4 year old child: Parental expectations in a child development unit referral group compared with a control group

Abstract Behavioural problems in preschool (1-4 years) children are a common cause of referral to health services. Parents of children presenting to the child development unit with behavioural problems ( n = 18) were compared with a control group ( n = 45). A questionnaire was utilized to examine the parents'expectations of the children's behaviours.
As might be expected, the parents of children presenting to the Unit rated their children as having more difficult behaviours. These parents had unrealistic expectations, particularly for the 'negative'behaviours (disobedience, temper tantrums, defiance and whinging). However, they were able to anticipate normal age-related difficulties in some problem areas (dawdling during mealtimes, masturbating, not sharing toys and being jealous of one's siblings).
Counselling should address the issue of matching the expectations of parents with the individual rates of development of their children.     

Family relationships and the development of social competence in adolescence

Abstract Resilient adolescents are notable for their social competence, which enables them to form and maintain close relationships. The evidence is that adolescents' social competence is derived from their experience of close relationships within their family. On the basis of structured interviews, adolescents' working models of attachments can be categorized into secure, dismissive, or pre-occupied. These attachment styles are associated with very divergent beliefs about the self and others, with differing patterns of emotion regulation and with differing risk profiles for maladjustment. Parenting styles and family relationships appear to have considerable influence on attachment behaviour. Further evidence for the importance of the family comes from research on ego development. Family level behavioural patterns have been discerned from family research interviews which are associated with stagnation or advancement in ego development during adolescence. Though the results suggest causal connections, the direction of effects is far from clear. Longitudinal research underpins the importance of childhood temperament as a contributing factor to the quality of the family environment that the child and then adolescent experiences.     

Two-year prediction of children's firesetting in clinically referred and nonreferred samples

This study provides the first prospective evaluation of the course and predictors of children's involvement with fire over a 2-year period in 268 nonpatient and patient children (ages 6-13 yrs). Selected predictor variables obtained at initial (intake) assessment, which included fire-specific and general psychosocial measures, were examined in each sample using hierarchical logistic regression. Both samples reported heightened involvement in matchplay and firesetting at follow-up, though the frequency of each behavior was nearly four times higher in patients than in nonpatients. Fifty per cent and 59% of the initial firesetters in the nonpatient and patient samples, respectively, became recidivists. In the nonpatient sample, the child's initial involvement in firesetting and level of covert antisocial behavior were the only psychosocial predictors of follow-up firesetting that added incremental variance beyond demographics. In the patient sample, the child's initial involvement in fire-related acts and level of covert antisocial behavior were the only predictors of follow-up firesetting beyond any initial involvement in matchplay. The findings highlight somewhat different risk factors for subsequent firesetting in nonpatient and patient children, especially prior firesetting and matchplay, respectively, and bear implications for the prevention of firesetting recidivism.     

Expressed emotion,attributions and depression in mothers of children with problem behaviour

BACKGROUND: This was an initial study seeking to examine the relationship between Expressed Emotion (EE), spontaneous causal attributions and depression in mothers of children referred for problem behaviour. METHOD: Sixty-one mothers were interviewed using the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI). The CFI was coded for maternal EE and spontaneous causal attributions regarding the child's behaviour. Self-report measures of child problem behaviour and maternal depressive symptoms were also completed. RESULTS: Consistent with previous research, high EE mothers, compared to low EE mothers, were more likely to make attributions thatjudged the cause of problem behaviour to be personal to and controllable by the child and also made more 'child-blaming' attributions than low EE mothers. Mothers' scores on the Beck Depression Inventory were found to be associated with 'child-blaming' attributions and higher levels of EE. Regression analyses did not support the hypothesised role of attributions as a mediator between depression and EE but did identify EE as a potential mediator in the relationship between maternal depressed mood and ratings of child problem behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate the relevance of both EE and attributions in mothers of children with problem behaviour and suggest that maternal depressed mood is an important factor which is related to both of these.     

Research review: the relation between child and parent anxiety and parental control: a meta-analytic review

Background: There is growing research interest in the association between parental control and child anxiety. Parental control may enhance child anxiety and parents may exert control in anticipation of their child’s anxiety‐related distress. Moreover, high levels of anxiety in parents could influence the development of parental control. Whereas past reviews have solely examined the relation between child anxiety and parental control, this meta‐analysis focuses on the associations between both child and parent anxiety and parental control. Methods: The associations of parent anxiety and child anxiety with observed parental control (k = 23 studies, N = 1,305 parent–child dyads) were investigated using a meta‐analytic approach. Moreover, factors were identified that may function as moderators of these relations, such as parent and child gender, family socioeconomic status, child age, and design and measurement characteristics. Results: A substantial association between child anxiety and parental control (d = .58) was found. Moderator analyses yielded the strongest effect sizes for studies with an overrepresentation of girls, for school‐aged children, for families from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, and for studies using a discussion task to assess parental control. Although a nonsignificant relation was found for the relation between parent anxiety and parental control (d = .08), small but significant effects were found for school‐aged children, for studies using a discussion task to assess parental control, and for samples with an overrepresentation of boys. Conclusions: As the direction of the association between child anxiety and parental control is unknown, future studies should use experimental designs to further explore the causal link between child anxiety and parental control.     

Commentary: Something old,something new: reflections on behavioural heterogeneity in conduct disorders and Klahr & Burt (2014)

The review by Klahr and Burt (this issue) is very welcome as it covers a condition that is the commonest in child and adolescent mental health, but one that is usually met with woefully inadequate availability of interventions despite an excellent evidence base of effective treatments. Antisocial behaviour in childhood is much researched in terms of cause and course, and the review covers two long‐standing ways of carving it up, and two newer ones. The term antisocial behaviour may be preferable to conduct disorder, as many of the studies described in the review did not use conduct disorder as an inclusion criterion, and whilst in ICD 10 conduct disorder includes oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), thus covering the majority of severely antisocial young children, DSM IV and V explicitly exclude ODD, thus leaving it with restricted usefulness when researching origins in younger children.     

Annual Research Review: Cross-cultural similarities and differences in parenting

This article reviews contemporary research on cross-cultural similarities and differences in parenting. The article begins by providing a definition of culture and how both parenting and culture can change over historical time. The article then presents some classic theoretical frameworks for understanding culture and parenting before considering why parenting may be similar across cultures and why parenting may be different across cultures. The article next turns to a review of cross-cultural similarities and differences in several aspects of parenting, including physical caregiving, cognitive stimulation, warmth and acceptance, control and monitoring, and discipline. Cultural normativeness and beliefs on the legitimacy of parental authority are then considered as potential moderators that contribute to cross-cultural similarities and differences in relations between parenting and child outcomes. The article then considers implications for parenting interventions and laws and policies related to parenting. Finally, the article suggests directions for future research.     

Positive socialization mechanisms in secure and insecure parent–child dyads: two longitudinal studies

Background: Implications of early attachment have been extensively studied, but little is known about its long‐term indirect sequelae, where early security organization moderates future parent–child relationships, serving as a catalyst for adaptive and maladaptive processes. Two longitudinal multi‐trait multi‐method studies examined whether early security amplified beneficial effects of children’s willing, receptive stance toward the parent on socialization outcomes. Methods: We examined parent–child early attachment organization, assessed in the Strange Situation at 14–15 months, as moderating links between children’s willing stance toward parents and socialization outcomes in Study 1 (108 mothers and children, followed to 73 months) and Study 2 (101 mothers, fathers, and children, followed to 80 months). Children’s willing stance was observed as committed compliance at 14 and 22 months in Study 1, and as responsiveness to the parent in naturalistic interactions and teaching contexts at 25 and 67 months in Study 2. Socialization outcomes included children’s internalization of maternal prohibition, observed at 33, 45, and 56 months, and maternal ratings of children’s externalizing problems at 73 months in Study 1, and mothers’ and fathers’ ratings of children’s oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder symptoms at 80 months in Study 2. Results: Indirect effects of attachment were replicated across both studies and diverse measures: Attachment security significantly amplified the links between children’s willing stance to mothers and all outcomes. Secure children’s willing, cooperative stance to mothers predicted future successful socialization outcomes. Insecure children’s willing stance conferred no beneficial effects. Conclusions: Implications of early attachment extend to long‐term, indirect developmental sequelae. Security in the first year serves as a catalyst for future positive socialization processes.     

Unresolved maternal attachment representations, disrupted maternal behavior and disorganized attachment in infancy: links to toddler behavior problems

BACKGROUND: Attachment theory's original formulation was substantially driven by Bowlby's (1969/1982) quest for a meaningful model of the development of psychopathology. Bowlby posited that aberrant experiences of parenting increase the child's risk of psychopathological outcomes, and that these risks are mediated by the quality of the attachment relationship. To empirically examine this hypothesis, the current study explores the associations between the development of toddler behavior problems and a) maternal unresolved attachment representations, b) maternal interactive behavior, and c) infant attachment relationships. Second, we test the mediating role of disorganized attachment in the association between disruptive behavior and toddler behavior problems, as well as unresolved attachment and behavior problems. METHOD: Sixty-four adolescent mother-infant dyads participated in this longitudinal study. The Adult Attachment Interview was administered at 6 months, the Strange Situation procedure was conducted at 12 months, disrupted behavior was assessed during play interactions at 12 months using the AMBIANCE measure, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to assess behavior problems at 24 months of age. RESULTS: Maternal reports of externalizing problems were significantly associated with unresolved representations of attachment, disrupted maternal behavior, and disorganized attachment. Inclusion of these variables in a path analytic model suggested that disorganized attachment mediated the associations between disrupted maternal behavior and externalizing problems. Although the association between unresolved attachment representations and externalizing problems was no longer significant when mediation by disrupted behavior and disorganized attachment was taken into account, this indirect pathway was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The results are consistent with Bowlby's (1969/1982) original conceptualization of the explanatory role of the attachment relationship in the development and manifestation of behavioral maladaptation. Effects of unresolved attachment on externalizing problems await further explanation.