Studies are summarized indicating that the basic model of socialization, the action of a parent on a child, is too limited to accommodate data emerging from recent studies of human and animal Ss. A set of propositions is presented concerning the effects of congenital factors in children on parent behavior. This system is applied to current findings in several major areas. Current literature on socialization, based largely on correlations between parent and child behavior, can be reinterpreted plausibly as indicating effects of children on parents. A correlation does not indicate direction of effect. The effect of children on parents can no longer be dismissed as only a logical but implausible alternative explanation of a correlation.

In view of the increased interest in a developmental approach to psychopathology, and mounting evidence of the importance of parent-child interactions in the etiology of early antisocial behavior, the following questions were posed for this review. What theories of parent-child relationships and family management techniques are available? How developmental are they, how specific and transactional are they relative to parent and child behaviors involved? And how well do they cover the period in which antisocial behavior develops? Six theories have some developmental features but the attachment theories (by L. A. Sroufe, B. Egeland, and M. T. Greenberg) and two social learning theories (by G. R. Patterson and J. Martin) are most clearly developmental. They postulate reciprocal interactions of parent and child, and transformations in the form of normative changes in the child or changes in family processes. The social learning theories of Patterson and Martin are most specific, microanalytic in fact, as to the interaction processes involved, and the attachment theories at least specify kinds of behavior involved and also do not rely on traits or types of influence as their units of analysis. Conceptualization is most weak and overly general between late infancy and the preschool years. This gap makes it difficult to link attachment and social learning theories, both of which have driven a large number of studies. A bridging theory is offered to link the two sets of theories in the critical period involved.

A control system model of how parents and children regulate each other through upper limit (reducing, redirecting) or lower limit (priming, stimulating) controls was proposed in 1971, along with implementing propositions concerning effects of children on parents and adults. Fourteen studies yielding relevant data have been carried out since that time. Predictions from the control theory concerning reactions of parents or adults to child characteristics were confirmed, and a coherent pattern of results emerged from studies of independence-dependence, activity-hyperactivity, and person orientation. For example, child independence elicited nondirective adult behavior, whereas instrumental dependence elicited directive, lower limit controls. To produce child effects, the investigators in these studies primarily used four new research approaches that clearly isolate effects of participants, the contrived participant, altered behavior, altered perception, and sample selection approaches.

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This paper revisits a developmental model of the origins of early conduct problems. Several of the model's primary tenets have now been validated in two samples of at-risk children followed prospectively from infancy to school-age. In both cohorts, child, family, and sociodemographic factors all play a significant role in the development of early conduct problems. In particular, the quality of the caregiving environment during the child's second year differentiates clinical impairment according to both parent and teacher report 6 years later. We conclude by making recommendations for future studies. Research that utilizes a developmental framework, incorporates more sophisticated measurement of infant negative emotionality, and addresses the influences of neighborhood and culture, is suggested.