Developmental theories of parental contributors to antisocial behavior

Abstract

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.

Maternal Predictors of Rejecting Parenting and Early Adolescent Antisocial Behavior

“…These findings are supportive of the models presented by Belsky and Dix in that there were multiple unique predictors of rejecting parenting rather than a single underlying core deficit. The findings also fit with models that emphasize the toddler period as a period of unique and important challenges that may tax the limited resources of low income mothers (e.g., Shaw and Bell 1993;Shaw et al 2000). Rejecting parenting also accounted for indirect effects of each of the maternal resources and toddler difficult temperament on antisocial behavior.…”

The Development of Physical Aggression from Toddlerhood to Pre-Adolescence: A Nation Wide Longitudinal Study of Canadian Children

“…Thus, the family characteristics identified in the present study (low income, low maternal education) may reflect family environments in which children have difficulty learning to inhibit their use of physical aggression, as well as difficulty learning alternative strategies to solve problems. One possible mechanism by which this occurs is parenting: parents with high risk characteristics may use parenting practices that do not help children learn to inhibit PA and learn alternative strategies to achieve their aims (e.g., Patterson, 1982;Shaw & Bell, 1993). However, we did not find parenting practices to explain the effects of family characteristics.…”

“…Note that change in parenting was not assessed. Therefore, caution is required in interpreting the parenting effect: it may reflect the reciprocal influence between children and parents (Shaw & Bell, 1993).…”

Intergenerational continuity in parenting quality: The mediating role of social competence.

“…These developmental theories suggest that parenting is associated both theoretically and empirically with child competence in multiple domains of behavior (e.g., Shaw & Bell, 1993). Social learning theory provides one explanation for the processes by which effective or ineffective parenting may affect children's behavior.…”