Externalizing Behavior Across Childhood as Reported by Parents and Teachers: A Partial Measurement Invariance Model

Abstract

The externalizing spectrum may explain covariation among externalizing disorders observed in childhood and adulthood. Few prospective studies have examined whether externalizing spectrum might manifest differently across time, reporters, and gender during childhood. We used a multitrait, multimethod model with parent and teacher report of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms, and conduct disorder (CD) symptoms from kindergarten to Grade 5 in data from the Fast Track Project, a large multisite trial for children at risk for conduct problems (n = 754). The externalizing spectrum was stably related to ADHD, ODD, and CD symptoms from kindergarten to Grade 5, with similar contributions from parents and teachers. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance were largely supported across time, suggesting that the structure of the externalizing spectrum is stable over time. Configural and partial metric invariance were supported across gender, but scalar invariance was not supported, with intercepts consistently higher for males than for females. Overall, our findings confirm other research that the externalizing spectrum can be observed early in development as covariation between ADHD, ODD, and CD, and extend that work to show that it is relatively consistent across time and reporter, but not consistent across gender.

Maternal history of childhood maltreatment and later parenting behavior: A meta-analysis

“…There are two possible explanations for these findings. The first is that boys tend to show more externalized behavior early in their development, as early as the preschool years (Broidy et al, 2003; King et al, 2018), and this may test parents’ abilities more so than for girls. Support for this hypothesis comes from studies that have examined foster placement stability.…”

“…The association between CM and parenting may also be moderated by child gender. Some studies have shown that parenting behavior differs as a function of child gender (Leaper, Anderson, & Sanders, 1998; Shanahan, McHale, Crouter, & Osgood, 2007), and in light of the frequently documented association between child gender and externalizing behavior (King et al, 2018), it is possible that boys would more often elicit more controlling or otherwise negative parental behaviors from their parents, possibly increasing the CM–parental behavior association (Cross et al, 2016). Indirect support of this possibility comes from the observation that boys are more often exposed to emotional and physical abuse than girls (Government of Canada, 2012).…”

Children’s mental health in different contexts: Results from a multi-informant assessment of Estonian first-grade students

“…Less research has been done to define the psychometrics of behavioural tests of impulsivity (Bari & Robbins, 2013; Perales et al., 2009), but studies have shown moderate to good test-retest reliability of the Go/No-Go task and an association between performance on the task and other executive-functioning tests or measures of psychopathology, e.g. teacher ratings of ADHD symptoms (Kuntsi et al., 2005; Langenecker et al., 2007).…”

Using implementation science to close the gap between the optimal and typical practice of quantitative methods in clinical science.

“…For example, intervention or experimental psychopathology researchers might mix experimental methods with longitudinal data analytic methods to study how treatment effects or psychopathology unfolds over both short (Tang, Beberman, DeRubeis, & Pham, 2005) and long (Laurenceau, Hayes, & Feldman, 2007) periods of time. Researchers who study psychopathology might use structural equation (King, Luk, et al, 2018), latent class (Witkiewitz et al, 2013) or network analysis (Borsboom, Cramer, Schmittmann, Epskamp, & Waldorp, 2011) to study the structure of psychopathology, or use longitudinal models (King, Littlefield, et al, 2018) to study how psychopathology changes over time. Many clinical researchers must use methods that account for nesting of observations within clusters (such as multiple observations of the same people, or multiple clients nested within providers nested within organizations) (McNeish, Stapleton, & Silverman, 2016).…”