Maltreatment and Affective and Behavioral Problems in Emerging Adults With and Without Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms: Mediation by Parent–Child Relationship Quality

Abstract

The current study examined the indirect effect of maternal and paternal emotional and physical maltreatment on affective and behavioral symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) through parent-child relationship quality; gender and overall ODD symptoms were examined as moderators. Participants included 2,362 emerging adults who completed questionnaires about parental emotional and physical maltreatment, parent-child relationship quality, and affective and behavioral ODD symptoms. These characteristics were compared across parent and child gender (i.e., maternal and paternal effects as well as male and female differences) as well as participants reporting high and low ODD symptoms. In the low ODD group, indirect effects of emotional maltreatment occurred in all parent-child dyads except the mother-son dyad, whereas in the high ODD group, indirect effects occurred only in the father-son dyad. Indirect effects of physical maltreatment occurred only in the father-son dyad in the low ODD group, and only in the mother-daughter dyad on behavioral ODD symptoms in the high ODD group. The results suggest that specific parent-child gender dyads respond differently, warranting further investigation of gender effects. Moreover, emerging adults in the low ODD symptoms group demonstrated a positive association between parental maltreatment and ODD symptoms and a negative association between parent-child relationship quality and ODD symptoms, whereas those high in the high ODD symptoms group did not demonstrate these associations. That is, emerging adults reporting high ODD symptoms demonstrated no relationship between their ODD symptoms and harsh parenting, suggesting an ineffective coercive process.

Family violence and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms in Chinese children: The role of parental alienation and child emotion regulation

“…These findings provided a further understanding for interpreting ODD symptoms from a family system perspective. Compared with previous studies that simply explored one level of interaction—the whole level of parent–child relationships (Li et al, 2018; McKinney et al, 2018)—the current study investigated three levels of interactions. These findings are in line with the three‐level model of ODD (Lin et al, 2013) and highlight the urgency to decrease family violence within the Chinese family, to decrease parental alienation and to improve children's Emotion Regulation.…”

“…Specifically, we included family violence as an entire level factor in the family system, parental alienation as a dyadic level factor in the family system and child ER as an individual level factor in the family system. Expanding upon prior research (Li, Lin, Chi, et al, 2016; Li, Lin, Hou, et al, 2016; McKinney et al, 2018), the current study examined whether parental alienation plays a mediating role between family violence and ODD symptoms. Additionally, given the importance of ER for the development of ODD (Lin, Li, Heath, et al, 2016), it was hypothesized that different levels of child ER (Lability/Negativity and Emotion Regulation) would have different effects on the relation between family violence and ODD symptoms.…”

“…For parent–child relationship as a dyadic level factor, some evidence supports parent–child relationship was involved in the association of family violence with ODD symptoms by mediational processes (Li et al, 2016; Li, Lin, Hou, Fang, & Liu, 2016; McKinney, Stearns, & Szkody, 2018). Although the relations between parent–child relationship and ODD symptoms had been examined in previous studies (Li, Lin, Chi, et al, 2016; Li, Lin, Hou, et al, 2016; McKinney et al, 2018), it remains unclear how the specific dimensions of the parent–child relationship influence ODD symptoms. According to Armsden and Greenberg (1987), there are three dimensions in parental attachment: parental trust, parental communication and parental alienation.…”

Relationships Among Emerging Adult Psychological Problems, Maltreatment, and Parental Psychopathology: Moderation by Parent–Child Relationship Quality

“…Less research has examined the effect of continued adult child maltreatment by parents during emerging adulthood. In one recent study, researchers reported increased rates of substance use associated with maternal and paternal emotional maltreatment independently (Rogers et al, 2018) as well as increased rates of antisocial symptoms associated with general parental maltreatment (McKinney, Stearns, & Szkody, 2018).…”

Perceived Parental Anxiety and Depressive Problems and Emerging Adult Oppositional Defiant Problems: Moderated Mediation by Psychological and Physical Maltreatment and Gender

“…Moreover, research has indicated that ODD is best understood as an interaction among contextual factors, such as parental psychopathology, family cohesion, and discipline (Goodman et al., ). For example, parental depressive and anxiety problems and child maltreatment by parents have been associated with greater ODD problems in emerging adults (McKinney, Stearns, & Szkody, ). Additionally, Trepat, Granero, and Ezpeleta () found that corporal punishment mediated the relationship between maternal anxiety/depression and child ODD in a sample of preschoolers.…”