Deficits in executive functions (EF) have been found in school-age children and adolescents with externalizing behavior disorders. Present meta-analysis was carried out to determine whether these EF impairments can also be found in preschool children with externalizing behavior problems. Twenty-two studies were included with a total of 4021 children. Four separate meta-analyses were conducted, concerning overall EF, working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility. A medium correlation effect size was obtained for overall EF (ESzr = 0.22) and for inhibition (0.24), whereas a small effect size was found for working memory (0.17) and for cognitive flexibility (0.13). Moderator analyses revealed a stronger effect for older preschoolers compared to younger preschoolers, and for children from referred samples compared to community samples. These results show that EF, especially inhibition, is related to externalizing behavior problems already in preschool years.

Clinically diagnosed preschool children with ADHD showed robust inhibition deficits, whereas preschool children with DBD showed impaired inhibition especially where motivational incentives were prominent. Severity of inhibition impairment in the comorbid group was similar to the ADHD group.

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In this longitudinal study, we examined the stability of the association between executive functions and externalizing behavior problems, and the developmental change of executive functions in a predominately clinically diagnosed preschool sample (N = 200). Inhibition and working memory performance were assessed three times in 18 months. Across time, poorer inhibition performance in young children was associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disruptive behavior disorders (DBD), and poorer working memory performance was associated with ADHD. Inhibition and working memory performance increased over time, especially in the early preschool period. The improvement of inhibition performance was more pronounced in the clinically diagnosed children compared to the TD children.

Longitudinal studies have shown that preschool children's diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are likely to persist into school age. However, limited attention has been paid to instability of diagnosis. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to investigate both stability and change of ODD, CD and ADHD diagnosis in children aged 3.5-5.5 years. For diagnosing these disorders, a semi-structured diagnostic parent interview, i.e., the Kiddie-Disruptive Behavior Disorder Schedule (K-DBDS), was used at the first assessment and at follow-up assessments (9 and 18 months). Five diagnostic stability groups (chronic, partial remission, full remission, new onset, no diagnosis) were compared with regard to impairment and number of symptoms. Participants were referred preschool children with externalizing behavioral problems (N = 193; 83% male) and typically developing (TD) children (N = 58; 71% male). Follow-up assessments allowed to distinguish children belonging to the chronic group of ODD, CD or ADHD from those belonging to one of the remission groups. In addition, there was a substantial number of children with a new onset diagnosis. In conclusion, as a complement to studies showing stability of ODD, CD and ADHD diagnosis into school age, present findings point to changes of diagnosis in the preschool and early school period. Diagnostic reassessments therefore are needed in this age group.

The relation between divorce, co-parenting conflicts, and children’s adjustment problems has been well established. An unresolved question for research and clinical interventions, however, is how conflicts between parents are maintained and/or escalate. This cross-sectional research tested the hypothesis that co-parenting conflicts in divorced couples are associated with perceived social network disapproval and that this relation is mediated by parents’ tendency to forgive each other. In Study 1, a convenience sample of 136 divorced parents recruited via online forums, we showed that perceived social network disapproval was indeed positively related to co-parenting conflicts and that parents’ tendency to forgive the other parent—albeit partly—explained this relationship. Strength of our research is that in Study 2, 110 parents referred to children’s mental health care because the wellbeing of the children was severely compromised by the severity of the conflicts between parents, we replicated these results. In both studies perceived social network disapproval and co-parenting conflicts were positively related and this link was mediated by forgiveness: perceived social network disapproval was negatively related to forgiveness, which in turn was negatively related to more parental conflicts.

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This cross-sectional study examined the hypothesis that parentchild emotion dialogues among interparental violence (IPV) exposed dyads (n ¼ 30; 4-12 years) show less quality than dialogues among nonexposed dyads (n ¼ 30; 4-12 years). Second, we examined whether parental posttraumatic stress symptoms and parental adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were associated with the quality of the dialogues. As expected, in the IPV-exposed group, quality of mother-child emotion dialogues was of lesser quality; dyads often showed a lack of elaboration in their dialogue; mothers showed less sensitive guidance; and children showed less cooperation and exploration, compared to dialogues, dyads, mothers, and children in the nonexposed group. Although maternal posttraumatic stress symptoms and maternal history of ACEs were significantly higher in the IPV-exposed families than in the nonexposed families, these variables were not associated with the quality of emotion dialogues. Clinical implications and study limitations are discussed. KEYWORDSChild maltreatment; domestic violence; parent-child emotion dialogues; parent-child relationship; parental posttraumatic stress Exposure to interparental violence (IPV) has considerable direct effects on children. Children exposed to IPV are at risk to develop posttraumatic stress symptoms, internalizing and externalizing behavior problems (Evans, Davies, & DiLillo, 2008;Kitzmann, Gaylord, Holt, & Kenny, 2003). An important protective factor for children in the aftermath of IPV exposure is the parentchild relation (Afifi & MacMillan, 2011). For children to process difficult and even traumatic life events, it is important to form a coherent narrative of the events (Cohen, Mannarino, & Murray, 2011). Parent-child relations in which children feel safe to give meaning to the traumatic events may enhance their recovery (Fivush, 2007). Especially in IPV-exposed families talking about the traumatic events may be a problem because IPV affects the family system as a whole. Therefore, parents as well are at risk for posttraumatic stress symptoms, and other forms of psychopathology (Campbell, Kub, Belknap, & Templin, 1997;Cascardi, O'Leary, & Schlee, 1999). This vulnerability, in turn, may negatively affect parenting and the parent-child relationship (Levendosky, Huth-Bocks, Shapiro, & Semel, 2003), and thus, the impaired parent-child relation may impede children's narrative formation.Although there has been a concerted research effort to determine the direct and indirect effects of IPV on children's functioning (Buehler & Gerard, 2002;Davies, Winter, & Cicchetti, 2006;Hungerford, Wait, Fritz, & Clements, 2012), a minimal amount is known regarding the capacity of IPV-exposed parent-child dyads to talk about emotions and to compose coherent narratives about emotional events in children's lives. In the present study, we compare emotion dialogues in parent-child dyads between IPV-exposed and nonexposed families. Additionally, we examine the role of parental posttraumatic stress and parents' own ...