The purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal reciprocal relationship between fathers' parenting attitude and preschoolers' externalizing behavior problem. Methods: The study sample consisted of 1,777 fathers and their preschool children (aged 5-7 years, 912 boys and 865 girls) from the Panel Study on Korean Children. Data from three waves were analyzed using the autoregressive cross-lagged modeling. Results: Our analysis showed that fathers' parenting attitude and preschoolers' externalizing behavior problem were moderately stable over time. Second, a reciprocal causal relationship was found between fathers' affective parenting and preschoolers' externalizing behavior problem. In other words, fathers' prior affective parenting had a significantly negative effect on preschoolers' later externalizing behavior problem, and the preschoolers' prior externalizing behavior problem had a significantly negative effect on fathers' later affective parenting. Third, the multi-group analysis revealed that there was no significant gender difference. Conclusion: Our findings show that there is an interrelationship between fathers' parenting attitude and preschoolers' externalizing behavior problem. Given that preschoolers' prior externalizing behavior problem decreases fathers' later affective parenting, which in turn is likely to worsen preschoolers' later externalizing behavior problem, we recommend finding ways to make fathers show affective parenting regardless of preschoolers' externalizing behavior problem.
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