Parental caregiving and child externalizing behavior in nonclinical samples: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

A meta-analysis of 47 studies was used to shed light on inconsistencies in the concurrent association between parental caregiving and child externalizing behavior. Parent-child associations were strongest when the measure of caregiving relied on observations or interviews, as opposed to questionnaires, and when the measure tapped combinations of parent behaviors (patterns), as opposed to single behaviors. Stronger parent-child associations were also found for older than for younger children, and for mothers than for fathers. Finally, externalizing was more strongly linked to parental caregiving for boys than for girls, especially among preadolescents and their mothers. The meta-analysis helps account for inconsistencies in findings across previous studies and supports theories emphasizing reciprocity of parent and child behavior.

Risky families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring.

“…Parenting that constrains, invalidates, and manipulates children's psychological and emotional experience and expression is also related to both internalizing and externalizing symptoms 1 (Barber, 1996). A meta-analysis of 47 studies found that higher levels of coercive control in the family were related to problems of undercontrol on the part of children, particularly more aggressive and noncompliant behavior (Rothbaum & Weisz, 1994), a relation that is argued to be bidirectional.…”

Longitudinal relations among parental emotional expressivity, children's regulation, and quality of socioemotional functioning.

“…Parents who are high in warmth and positive emotion, and low in the expression of disapproval, hostility, and other negative emotions directed toward their children, tend to have socially competent, adjusted children who are also skilled in social understanding (Lindahl, 1998;Matthews, Woodall, Kenyon, & Jacob, 1996;Rothbaum & Weisz, 1994;Rubin, Hastings, Chen, Stewart, & McNichol, 1998;Scaramella, Conger, & Simons, 1999). In addition, both parental and family expressiveness, especially positive expressivity, have been associated with children's social competence, emotional understanding, positive emotionality, prosocial behavior, and self-esteem (Boyum & Parke, 1995;Bronstein et al, 1993;Cassidy, Parke, Butkovsky, & Braungart, 1992;Halberstadt et al, 1999).…”

Interaction of temperamental resistance to control and restrictive parenting in the development of externalizing behavior.

“…Parenting characteristics have been the most frequently considered environmental antecedents of child behavior problems. Like temperament variables, parenting variables have been found to show direct, main-effects links with child adjustment (Hetherington & Martin, 1986; G. R. Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992;Rothbaum & Weisz, 1994), And also like temperament, the links are of a typically modest-to-moderate order, with correlations in the range of .2 to .4 (e.g., see Rothbaum & Weisz, 1994). Not only current systems theories but also empirical findings of limited maineffects relations call for the study of Temperament × Environment interactions.…”