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

Abstract

A longitudinal model was presented, that included reciprocal associations between physically harsh parenting by the mother, child externalizing problems, and support from the father, the extended family, and the neighbors. This transactional process was estimated for the years preceding school entry. The data were from a 4-years longitudinal and nationally representative study of 1009 children and their mothers in Turkey. The results indicated that concurrently, physically harsh parenting and child externalizing problems were strongly associated. Controlling for their within domain stability and cross-domain concurrent correlation, changes in harsh parenting and changes in child externalizing behaviors had significant reciprocal effects in early childhood, although these effects were small. These reciprocal effects were smaller for observer reported harsh parenting than maternal reports. There was a role of the mesosystem in this developmental process. Increases in the support from the father, and the extended family and the neighbors predicted declines in the child externalizing behaviors subsequently. Reciprocally, high child externalizing and maternal physically harsh parenting predicted subsequent declines in the support from these sources. These results were consistent with the hypotheses that negative mother-child relationships could spill over to the other relationships of the mothers, and that positive and supportive relationships of the mother could constitute positive role models for the child.

Mechanisms of Children’s Exposure to Nature: Predicting Adulthood Environmental Citizenship and Commitment to Nature-Based Activities

“…In addition, childhood exposure to nature through family included measures of exposure with immediate and extended families. Immediate and extended families may have different psycho-cultural dynamics, and the effect of the interactions between nuclear and extended families on outcomes of interest depends on those unique psycho-cultural differences (Akcinar & Baydar, 2016). Hence, it could be that the two distinct pathways of exposure—through immediate family and through extended family—have counterpoising effects on adulthood attitudinal, but not behavioral, commitment to nature-based activities.…”

Child/Adolescent’s ADHD and Parenting Stress: The Mediating Role of Family Impact and Conduct Problems

“…Second, several works have shown the powerful association of perceived social support with both parental styles and child/adolescent ADHD symptoms (or conduct problems): Families of children with ADHD perceive more social isolation and report lower perceive social support than control families ( Lange et al, 2005 ; Gau, 2007 ). This is remarkably important considering that child/adolescent’s conduct problems augmented when perceived social support diminished ( Mash and Johnston, 1983 ; Akcinar and Baydar, 2016 ). The role of social support as a stress-related factor has also been investigated.…”

How Heritable are Parental Sensitivity and Limit‐Setting? A Longitudinal Child‐Based Twin Study on Observed Parenting

“…Negative control and harsh parenting—as well as laxness and a lack of monitoring are associated with more child behavior problems than gentle but firm limit‐setting and an authoritative parenting style (Kochanska, Aksan, Prisco, & Adams, 2008). Coercive cycles (Patterson, 1982) and other transactional processes (Akcinar & Baydar, 2016; Sameroff, 1975) may mediate these associations, underscoring that adequate parental limit setting strategies for managing child behavior during the toddler years are highly important.…”