Although the reciprocal effects of parenting and child behavior have long been recognized, the emphasis of empirical study in the field of developmental psychopathology has been on parenting effects on children. For girls in particular, little is known about unique parenting effects on conduct problems in comparison to depression, or vice versa. In the current study, data from the large-scale (n = 2,451) Pittsburgh Girls Study were used to examine the reciprocal relations between parenting and child behavior over a six year period (child ages 7-12 years). Girls and their caregivers (85% of whom were biological mothers) were interviewed annually in their homes. Girls reported on symptoms of conduct disorder and depression, and caregivers reported on level of parent-child warmth and use of harsh punishment. The results of generalized estimating equation regression models demonstrated that both parenting behaviors were uniquely predictive of changes in girls' conduct problems and depressed mood. When the effects of race and poverty on these associations were controlled for, both parenting effects on girls' conduct problems remained significant, but only low parental warmth remained as a significant predictor of depressed mood. Girls' conduct problems, but not depressed mood, predicted changes in harsh punishment over time. The small effect of girls' depressed mood, on changes in parental warmth, was further weakened when socio-demographic factors were also included in the model.

There has been much controversy over the past decades on the origins of gender differences in children's aggressive behavior. A widely held view is that gender differences emerge sometime after 2 years of age and increase in magnitude thereafter because of gender-differentiated socialization practices. The objective of this study was to test for (a) gender differences in the prevalence of physical aggression in the general population of 17-month-old children and (b) change in the magnitude of these differences between 17 and 29 months of age. Contrary to the differential socialization hypothesis, the results showed substantial gender differences in the prevalence of physical aggression at 17 months of age, with 5% of boys but only 1% of girls manifesting physically aggressive behaviors on a frequent basis. The results suggest that there is no change in the magnitude of these differences between 17 and 29 months of age.

ABSTRACT

The Pittsburgh Girls Study is a longitudinal, community–based study of 2,451 girls who were initially recruited when they were between the ages of 5 and 8 years. The primary aim of the study was testing developmental models of conduct disorder (CD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and their co-occurrence in girls. In the current paper, we summarize the published findings from the past 5 years of the PGS and place those results in the context of what it known to date about developmental psychopathology in girls. Key results suggest that DSM-IV mental disorders tend to have an insidious onset often beginning with sub-syndromal symptom manifestation and that there appear to be shared and unique developmental precursors to disorder in subgroups of girls based on race and poverty.

Accurate descriptions of sex differences in the development of childhood conduct problems and adolescent delinquency will inform theories of their causes in fundamentally important ways. Using data on 4,572 offspring of a national sample of women, we tested descriptive hypotheses regarding sex differences. As predicted, the magnitude of sex differences varied with age, suggesting that multiple processes differentially influence levels of these behaviors in females and males across development. During childhood, boys scored lower on measures of cognitive ability and exhibited lower sociability and compliance and greater hyperactivity, oppositional behavior, and conduct problems. Most of these variables were associated with childhood conduct problems and adolescent delinquency equally in females and males, but maternal delinquency and early childhood sociability were correlated more strongly with childhood conduct problems in males and childhood compliance predicted adolescent delinquency more strongly in females. Both sexes exhibited both childhood-onset and adolescent-onset trajectories of delinquency. Although more males followed a childhood-onset trajectory, there were few sex differences in the early childhood risk correlates of either delinquency trajectory.

Observed patterns of clinically salient behavior show promise for advancing developmentally-informed characterization of disruptive behavior within the preschool period.

This article reviews research on the construct of emotion regulation in young children. The lack of consensus with regard to a definition of emotion regulation notwithstanding, it appears that biological and behavioral processes involved in emotion regulation can be reliably measured early in life. Such indices of reactivity may be useful in identifying children at risk for developmental psychopathology, but the predictive utility of these indices has yet to be established. Measurement issues and factors hypothesized to affect an infant's risk for dysregulation, such as care‐giving factors, are presented. The implications of continued programmatic research on emotion dysregulation early in life are discussed.

Predictive associations between parenting and temperament during the first year of life and child conduct problems were assessed longitudinally in 1,863 offspring of a representative sample of women. Maternal ratings of infant fussiness, activity level, predictability, and positive affect each independently predicted maternal ratings of conduct problems during ages 4-13 years. Furthermore, a significant interaction indicated that infants who were both low in fussiness and high in predictability were at very low risk for future conduct problems. Fussiness was a stronger predictor of conduct problems in boys whereas fearfulness was a stronger predictor in girls. Conduct problems also were robustly predicted by low levels of early mother-report cognitive stimulation. Interviewerrated maternal responsiveness was a robust predictor of conduct problems, but only among infants low in fearfulness. Spanking during infancy predicted slightly more severe conduct problems, but the prediction was moderated by infant fussiness and positive affect. Thus, individual differences in risk for mother-rated conduct problems across childhood are already partly evident in maternal ratings of temperament during the first year of life and are predicted by early parenting and parentingby-temperament interactions.Many theorists have suggested that mothers who responsively meet the needs of their infants following birth provide a necessary foundation for the development of regulated and competent emotional and social behavior (Bornstein, 2002;Bowlby, 1958;Kochanska, 1997a). The infant plays an important role in this potentially critical process, as responsive parenting involves reciprocal transactions between infants and mothers (Anderson, Lytton, & Romney, 1986;Bates et al., 1998;Bell, 1977;Chess & Thomas, 1984;Lytton, 1990;Maccoby, 1992 NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscriptit is likely that individual differences in maternal responsiveness reflect characteristics of the mother, dimensions of infant temperament, and interactions among these variables (Lerner, Nitz, Talwar, & Lerner, 1989; Thomas & Chess, 1977).The "truly early starter model (TESM) of antisocial behavior" was advanced to apply a transactional view of early temperament and parenting to the origins of conduct problems (Shaw, Bell, & Gilliom, 2000). The TESM includes the hypothesis that the combination of infant fussiness and lack of maternal responsiveness creates aversive mother-infant interactions which set the stage for coercive interactions that foster conduct problems later in childhood (Patterson, 1982). In addition, the TESM hypothesizes significant interactions (in the sense of greater than additive combinations) between infant temperament and early parenting. The specific hypothesis offered is the combination of low maternal responsiveness and aversive infant behavior (e.g., fussy and persistent bids for maternal attention) is associated with particularly high risk for later conduct problems. The TESM also suggests that t...