Mediating Factors in Within-Person Developmental Cascades of Externalising, Internalising and ADHD Symptoms in Childhood

Abstract

This study investigated the role of parental involvement alongside academic achievement and peer problems in mediating within-person developmental cascades from externalising to internalising problems and from ADHD symptoms to internalising and externalising problems using autoregressive latent trajectory models with structured residuals. Models were fit for parent- and teacher-reports on children’s psychosocial development as measured by the Social Behaviour Questionnaire (SBQ) collected over ages 7, 9, and 11 in a Swiss longitudinal cohort study (zproso; N=1387, 51% male). Results indicated that none of the considered factors acted as significant mediators in longitudinal relations between ADHD, internalising and externalising problems; hence, a full picture of the mediating mechanisms in developmental cascades remains to be identified.

Testing for Within × Within and Between × Within Moderation using Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models

“…First, the results support prior research finding evidence for developmental cascades from conduct to emotional problems ( Capaldi, 1992 ; Murray et al, 2020 ). Evidence for cascades in the other direction has been mixed ( Carlson & Cantwell, 1980 ; Speyer et al, 2021 ), however, findings of the current study suggest that these cascades may be at play during middle childhood.…”

“…Five items each, scored on a 3-point scale are summed up to derive subscale scores with higher scores indicating more problem behaviours (range 0-10). Psychometric evaluations of the SDQ have generally found favourable results ( Kersten et al, 2016 ), including longitudinal invariance across ages 5 to 14 in the MCS sample used here ( Murray, Speyer, et al, 2021 ). Cognitive abilities were measured at age 3 using the composite percentile score on the Bracken School Readiness Assessment, assessing understanding of colours, letters, numbers, sizes, comparisons, and shapes ( Bracken, 2002 ).…”

“…Studies have found evidence for developmental cascades from externalising problems to internalising problems (e.g., Murray et al, 2020 ). However, few studies have tested such cascades within a framework that allows for an appropriate disaggregation of within-person effects (for an example, see Speyer et al, 2021 ), and no studies have investigated whether the strength of such cascade effects may be affected by continuous moderating factors. In line with a risk-protective model ( Rutter, 1979 ), factors such as cognitive abilities or peer problems may buffer or increase an individual’s risk for the development of co-occurring mental health problems.…”

“…If at least three waves of data are available, the RI-CLPM allows for the decomposition of observed data into within- and between-person components, thus ensuring that the cross-lagged effects, under certain assumptions, provide unbiased estimates of within-person effects ( Hamaker et al, 2015 ). Similar to CLPMs, RI-CLPMs can be extended to include mediation ( Speyer et al, 2021 ) or between-person moderation involving categorical variables in multi-group models ( Mulder & Hamaker, 2020 ). However, moderation involving continuous variables, often described as interactions, are less straightforward to implement, for reasons discussed below.…”