Peer Deviancy Training and Peer Coercion: Dual Processes Associated With Early‐Onset Conduct Problems

Abstract

The prospective relationships of conduct problems and peer coercion and deviancy training during kindergarten (mean age = 5.3 years) to overt and covert conduct problems in third-fourth grade were examined in a sample of 267 boys and girls. Coercion and deviancy training were distinct peer processes. Both were associated with earlier child conduct problems but were differentially associated with child impulsivity, verbal ability, anxiety, peer rejection, and deviant peer affiliation. Coercion by peers predicted overt conduct problems and peer deviancy training and the interaction of deviancy training and coercion predicted covert conduct problems in third-fourth grade. Peer deviancy training occurs in early childhood and may serve as an independent risk mechanism in addition to peer coercion for early-onset, persisting conduct problems.

Future Directions in Emotion Dysregulation and Youth Psychopathology

“…Aggressive boys and their parents are more likely to initiate aversive interactions with one another than controls, and to reciprocate and exceed one another's levels of negative affect (e.g., Snyder, 1977;Snyder et al, 1994;Snyder & Patterson, 1995). Snyder also demonstrated that aggressive boys become more likely to escalate conflict once in a dysregulated, irritable state (Snyder et al, 1997) and that intense displays of negative affect are more likely to cease conflict in aggressive dyads than in control dyads (Snyder et al, 1994). These landmark studies indicate that negative reinforcement occurs not only via escape from the aversive behaviors of others but also through escape from one's own visceral, dysregulated states (see Beauchaine & Zalewski, in press;Skowron et al, 2011).…”

“…However, when subcortically mediated trait anxiety or trait impulsivity are coupled with cortically mediated deficiencies in emotion regulation, psychopathology is a likely outcome (Beauchaine, 2001;Beauchaine & Gatzke-Kopp, 2012;Beauchaine et al, 2007). Compelling evidence indicates that emotional lability and emotion dysregulation are socialized within coercive and invalidating families via operant reinforcement contingencies that occur thousands of times across development (see, e.g., Snyder, Schrepferman, & St. Peter, 1997). Socialization mechanisms of emotion dysregulation are specified in modern instantiations of coercion theory (see Beauchaine & Zalewski, in press), which identifies escalation of and escape from negative affective expressions of other family members (i.e., invalidation, anger, violence) as causal agents in reinforcement of emotional lability (e.g., Patterson, DeBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1989;Snyder, 1977).…”

“…Socialization mechanisms of emotion dysregulation are specified in modern instantiations of coercion theory (see Beauchaine & Zalewski, in press), which identifies escalation of and escape from negative affective expressions of other family members (i.e., invalidation, anger, violence) as causal agents in reinforcement of emotional lability (e.g., Patterson, DeBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1989;Snyder, 1977). Through meticulous behavioral coding, Snyder and colleagues have quantified negative reinforcement of emotion dysregulation during dyadic exchanges between aggressive children and their parents and linked these reinforcement processes to longitudinal increases in delinquency and affective lability (e.g., Snyder, Edwards, McGraw, Kilgore, & Holton, 1994;Snyder et al, 1997). Aggressive boys and their parents are more likely to initiate aversive interactions with one another than controls, and to reciprocate and exceed one another's levels of negative affect (e.g., Snyder, 1977;Snyder et al, 1994;Snyder & Patterson, 1995).…”

“…Of importance, even though trait anxiety and trait impulsivity are highly heritable, the specific form(s) of internalizing (e.g., panic, generalized anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder) and externalizing (e.g., ADHD, conduct disorder, substance dependence) behavior that are exhibited by individuals who score high on these traits are determined by interactions between neurobiological vulnerabilities and environmental risk factors. For example, although impulsive male individuals who are reared in protective environments are likely to exhibit only ADHD (Beauchaine, Hinshaw, & Pang, 2010;Beauchaine & McNulty, 2013), their impulsivity often progresses to more serious externalizing conduct if they are reared in high-risk environments characterized by coercive parenting (e.g., Patterson, DeGarmo, & Knutson, 2000), coercive and deviant peer group affiliations (e.g., Dishion & Hiatt Racer, 2013;Snyder et al, 2008), and neighborhood violence and criminality (e.g., Meier, Slutske, Arndt, & Cadoret, 2008). Similarly, environmental risk, including child maltreatment and exposure to protracted stress, increase the likelihood of emerging anxiety and depressive disorders among those with specific genetic vulnerabilities, such as the short allele of the serotonin transporter and certain glucocorticoid polymorphisms (see, e.g., Beauchaine, Crowell, & Hsiao, 2015;Nugent, Tyrka, Carpenter, & Price, 2011;Stein, Schork, & Gelernter, 2008).…”

Conduct problems trajectories and psychosocial outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Early risk factors such as harsh parenting, maternal anxiety, parental instability, and partner cruelty to mother but also mother and child diet have shown to be associated with the EOP trajectory [12,13], as well as adolescence correlates such as peer problems, emotional difficulties, and high risk of affiliating with deviant peers [14,15]. Early risk factors also account for AO individuals, particularly parental instability [16], low IQ and under controlled temperament [17].…”