Bidirectional Effects of Parenting Quality and Child Externalizing Behavior in Predominantly Single Parent, Under-Resourced African American Families

Development of Externalizing Behaviors in the Context of Family and non-Family Relationships

“…This factor probably contributed to the high level of stability in both child and mother behaviors, perhaps because this relationship is shaped early in infancy (Berlin et al 2009). The cross-lagged analyses that focused on transactions in ''developmental time'', indicated some evidence for the bi-directionality of mother-child relationship, similar to previous research (Coley et al 2014;Pearl et al 2014). We found evidence of bidirectional lagged effects of physically harsh parenting self-reported by the mothers and child externalizing behaviors between ages 3 and 5.…”

“…We separately analyzed the maternal and observer reports of physically harsh parenting. Many previous studies that found evidence of the reciprocal motherchild effects, used self-reports of maternal harsh parenting (Coley et al 2014;Gershoff et al 2012;Pearl et al 2014). One study that used both maternal and observer reports also estimated separate models for each measure and found no evidence of reciprocal effects at ages 1-3 (Berlin et al 2009).…”

“…Nevertheless, they may under-estimate or over-estimate reciprocal effects. Transactional models are sometimes estimated without allowing for the concurrent covariance of the maternal and child behaviors due to reasons other than reciprocal causation (Pearl et al 2014). Concurrent covariances may arise due to environmental stress (e.g., poverty) and/or biological (genetic) factors (Barnes et al 2013).…”

Bidirectional Relationships Between Parenting Processes and Deviance in a Sample of Inner‐City African American Youth

“…A modest number of studies have focused on the bidirectional links between parenting processes and child/adolescent adjustment in predominantly African American samples. For example, based on a random sample of school-aged African American children, Pearl et al (2014) found some evidence of bidirectional effects between parenting quality and externalizing behaviors. Positive parenting strategies, measured by caregiver perceptions of positive parenting, effectiveness of parenting discipline, parenting efficacy, and parental satisfaction, were associated with child externalizing behaviors and vice versa.…”

“…There continues to be a growing interest among both developmental and criminological researchers in the bidirectional associations between parenting processes and measures of child/adolescent adjustment, with particular attention to the extent to which positive parenting strategies (i.e., discipline, monitoring, and involvement) reduce the risk of negative adolescent adjustment. Some previous studies have shown that positive parenting processes reduce adjustment problems in youth (Barbot, Crossman, Hunter, Grigorenko, & Luthar, 2014;Buist, Dekovi c, Meeus, & van Aken, 2004;Childs, Fite, Moore, Lochman, & Pardini, 2014;Gault-Sherman, 2012;Pearl, French, Dumas, Moreland, & Prinz, 2014;Roche, Ghazarian, Little, & Leventhal, 2011;Williams & Steinberg, 2011;Willoughby & Hamza, 2011). Previous bidirectional and transactional studies have largely focused on the role of positive parenting efforts in the reduction of negative behaviors, with some exceptions (see Bradley & Corwyn, 2013;Childs et al, 2014).…”