Examined associations between effortful control temperament and externalizing problems in 220 3-year-old boys and girls, controlling for co-occurring cognitive and social risk factors. We also considered possible additive and0or interactive contributions of child dispositional anger and psychosocial adversity, and whether relations between effortful control and early externalizing problems were moderated by child gender. Individual differences in children's effortful control abilities, assessed using behavioral and parent rating measures, were negatively associated with child externalizing problems reported by mothers, fathers, and preschool teachers. These associations were not overshadowed by other cognitive or social risk factors, or by other relevant child temperament traits such as proneness to irritability. Further analyses revealed that associations between externalizing problem behavior and effortful control were specific to components of child problem behavior indexing impulsive-inattentive symptoms. Thus, children's effortful control skills were important correlates of children's early disruptive behavior, a finding that may provide insight into the developmental origins of chronic behavioral maladjustment. Problems of aggression, impulsivity, and inattention, often labeled externalizing symptoms, represent the most common forms of childhood maladjustment~IOM, 1989; Kazdin, 1995!. Once established, these problems tend to be chronic, placing children at risk for a wide range of negative adaptational outcomes including academic failure, rejection by peers, conflicted interactions with parents, siblings, peers, and teachers, and delinquent behavior~Caspi & Moffitt, 1995; Coie & Dodge, 1998; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992!. How early in life do these problems become established? Recent research has shown that serious externalizing problems can be identified in the toddler and preschool years Keenan & Wakschlag, 2000!, and that individual differences in externalizing behaviors persist at moderate levels across the transition from early to middle childhood~e.g.,

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Perceptions of social support from family, non-family adults, and peers were examined in relation to the psychopathology reported by 220 suicidal adolescents (152 females) during a psychiatric hospitalization. Results of regression analyses showed that, among females, family support was negatively related to hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Among males, peer support was positively associated with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Across gender, more peer support was associated with more externalizing behavior problems; whereas, family support was negatively related to these problems and to alcohol/substance abuse. Paralleling normative findings, age was positively associated with peer support, and females perceived more peer support than did males. Findings extend previous research on social support to suicidal adolescents, and broaden the literature by examining extrafamilial support and a broader range of relevant psychopathology. That is, perceived social support relates to psychiatric impairment differentially by gender, and normative, age-related variations in perceptions of social support are detected even among highly impaired adolescents. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Findings support the value of multi-informant assessment, uphold calls to include fathers in childhood research, and suggest that examiners provide valid, though non-unique assessment data. Examiner contributions may prove useful in many research contexts.

This prospective, intergenerational study considered multiple influences on 102 fathers' constructive parenting of 181 children. Fathers in the second generation (G2) were recruited as boys on the basis of neighborhood risk for delinquency and assessed through early adulthood. The fathers' parents (G1) and the G2 mothers of G3 also participated. A multiagent, multimethod approach was used to measure G1 and G2 constructive parenting (monitoring, discipline, warmth, and involvement), G2 positive adolescent adjustment, and problem behavior in all 3 generations, including G3 difficult temperament and externalizing problems in early and middle childhood, respectively. Path modeling supported direct transmission of G1 constructive parenting of G2 in late childhood to G2 constructive parenting of G3 in middle childhood. Of note, G1 parenting indirectly influenced G2 parenting through G2 positive adjustment but not through G2 adolescent antisocial behavior. G1 parenting influenced G2 parenting in both early and middle childhood of G3. G2 parenting influenced G3 problem behavior but not vice versa. Intergenerational continuities in parenting persisted, even when additional influences were considered. Transmission pathways are not limited to life-course adversity. Rather, constructive parenting is maintained, in part, by engendering positive adjustment in offspring. Keywords antisocial behavior; parenting; temperament; positive adjustment; three generationsThere is now converging evidence from well-designed prospective, intergenerational studies to support what many scientists, practitioners, and the lay public have suspected: The patterns of parenting and discipline that parents use with their children can be at least partially predicted from those their own parents used (e.g., Belsky, Jaffee, Sligo, Woodward, & Silva, 2005;Conger, Neppl, Kim, & Scaramella, 2003). These assumptions have been based on the belief that children learn parenting practices from their parents (e.g., Patterson, 1998;Simons, Beaman, Conger, & Chao, 1992). What has been a surprise, however, has been the relatively modest strength of intergenerational associations (e.g., Capaldi, Pears, Kerr, & Owen, 2008;Capaldi, Pears, Patterson, & Owen, 2003;Smith & Farrington, 2004). Therefore, additional approaches are being used to further understand the etiology of parenting practices, how they (©) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.Correspondence regarding this research should be directed to David C. R. Kerr, Psychology Department, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR 97331. E-mail: david.kerr@oregonstate.edu.. are transmitted from the first to the second generation (G1 and G2), and the effects on children in the second and third generations (G2 and G3). NIH Public AccessThe current study capitalizes on over two decades of fully prospective data and extends prior work on the intergenerational transmission of parenting and risk behaviors in two key respects. First, unique to this investigation, is the test of whether transmission of constructive parenti...