Unraveling the Bidirectional Associations Between Parental Knowledge and Children's Externalizing Behavior

Overview

Journal J Youth Adolesc

Specialties Pediatrics
Psychology
Social Sciences

Date 2023 Feb 15

PMID 36790650

Authors

Anke H Visscher

Savannah Boele

Jaap J A Denissen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Although within- and between-family bidirectional associations between parental knowledge and children's externalizing behavior have been theoretically proposed, studies that unravel these associations simultaneously remain scarce. This study examined these bidirectional associations within and between German families. 3611 families participated across one-year intervals between children ages 8 to 15 (50.6% boys, 34.5% fathers, 89.0% German-born, M = 3.63, SD = 2.00). Random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) with linear slopes revealed negative between-family associations between parental knowledge and children's externalizing behavior, and a negative association between the random linear slopes. Generally, no within-family cross-lagged effects were found, but there were some correlated slopes across families. When teasing apart paternal and maternal knowledge, father-driven but not mother-driven lagged effects of increased knowledge predicting decreased externalizing behavior were found. The findings illustrate the importance of fathers' knowledge and new directions for within-family studies of parent-child interactions.

References

Pinquart M . Associations of parenting dimensions and styles with externalizing problems of children and adolescents: An updated meta-analysis. Dev Psychol. 2017; 53(5):873-932. DOI: 10.1037/dev0000295. View

Rose B, Holmbeck G, Coakley R, Franks E . Mediator and moderator effects in developmental and behavioral pediatric research. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2004; 25(1):58-67. DOI: 10.1097/00004703-200402000-00013. View

Denissen J, van Aken M, Dubas J . It takes two to tango: how parents' and adolescents' personalities link to the quality of their mutual relationship. Dev Psychol. 2009; 45(4):928-41. DOI: 10.1037/a0016230. View

Florean I, Dobrean A, Balazsi R, Rosan A, Pasarelu C, Predescu E . Measurement Invariance of Alabama Parenting Questionnaire Across Age, Gender, Clinical Status, and Informant. Assessment. 2022; 30(3):728-743. DOI: 10.1177/10731911211068178. View

Olson S, Bates J, Sandy J, Lanthier R . Early developmental precursors of externalizing behavior in middle childhood and adolescence. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2000; 28(2):119-33. DOI: 10.1023/a:1005166629744. View

Soenens B, Vansteenkiste M, Luyckx K, Goossens L . Parenting and adolescent problem behavior: an integrated model with adolescent self-disclosure and perceived parental knowledge as intervening variables. Dev Psychol. 2006; 42(2):305-18. DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.42.2.305. View

Willoughby T, Hamza C . A longitudinal examination of the bidirectional associations among perceived parenting behaviors, adolescent disclosure and problem behavior across the high school years. J Youth Adolesc. 2010; 40(4):463-78. DOI: 10.1007/s10964-010-9567-9. View

Lux U, Walper S . A systemic perspective on children's emotional insecurity in relation to father: links to parenting, interparental conflict and children's social well-being. Attach Hum Dev. 2019; 21(5):467-484. DOI: 10.1080/14616734.2019.1582597. View

van Roekel E, Keijsers L, Chung J . A Review of Current Ambulatory Assessment Studies in Adolescent Samples and Practical Recommendations. J Res Adolesc. 2019; 29(3):560-577. PMC: 6790669. DOI: 10.1111/jora.12471. View

10.

Usami S, Murayama K, Hamaker E . A unified framework of longitudinal models to examine reciprocal relations. Psychol Methods. 2019; 24(5):637-657. DOI: 10.1037/met0000210. View

11.

Kapetanovic S, Boele S, Skoog T . Parent-Adolescent Communication and Adolescent Delinquency: Unraveling Within-Family Processes from Between-Family Differences. J Youth Adolesc. 2019; 48(9):1707-1723. PMC: 6732128. DOI: 10.1007/s10964-019-01043-w. View

12.

Boele S, Bulow A, de Haan A, Denissen J, Keijsers L . Better, for worse, or both? Testing environmental sensitivity models with parenting at the level of individual families. Dev Psychopathol. 2023; 36(2):674-690. PMC: 7616005. DOI: 10.1017/S0954579422001493. View

13.

Elam K, Chassin L, Eisenberg N, Spinrad T . Marital stress and children's externalizing behavior as predictors of mothers' and fathers' parenting. Dev Psychopathol. 2017; 29(4):1305-1318. PMC: 6681807. DOI: 10.1017/S0954579416001322. View

14.

Zhang J, Lee S, Piehler T, Gewirtz A, August G . Bidirectional Relations Between Parenting Practices and Child Externalizing Behaviors in Formerly Homeless Families: A Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis. Parent Sci Pract. 2021; 20(3):177-199. PMC: 7954139. DOI: 10.1080/15295192.2019.1694833. View

15.

Zemp M, Johnson M, Bodenmann G . Within-family processes: Interparental and coparenting conflict and child adjustment. J Fam Psychol. 2018; 32(3):299-309. DOI: 10.1037/fam0000368. View

16.

Keijsers L, Voelkle M, Maciejewski D, Branje S, Koot H, Hiemstra M . What drives developmental change in adolescent disclosure and maternal knowledge? Heterogeneity in within-family processes. Dev Psychol. 2016; 52(12):2057-2070. DOI: 10.1037/dev0000220. View

17.

Cutrin O, Maneiro L, Chowdhury Y, Kulis S, Marsiglia F, Gomez Fraguela J . Longitudinal Associations between Parental Support and Parental Knowledge on Behavioral and Emotional Problems in Adolescents. J Youth Adolesc. 2021; 51(6):1169-1180. PMC: 9090879. DOI: 10.1007/s10964-021-01559-0. View

18.

Yan N, Ansari A, Peng P . Reconsidering the relation between parental functioning and child externalizing behaviors: A meta-analysis on child-driven effects. J Fam Psychol. 2020; 35(2):225-235. DOI: 10.1037/fam0000805. View

19.

Norman G . Likert scales, levels of measurement and the "laws" of statistics. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 2010; 15(5):625-32. DOI: 10.1007/s10459-010-9222-y. View

20.

Hamaker E, Kuiper R, Grasman R . A critique of the cross-lagged panel model. Psychol Methods. 2015; 20(1):102-16. DOI: 10.1037/a0038889. View