Emily B. Winslow

The Development of Early Externalizing Problems Among Children from Low-Income Families: A Transformational Perspective

The present study examined pathways leading to early externalizing problems from age 1 to 31/2 in a design that took advantage of our knowledge of normative progression and normative socialization as well as findings from research on risk. A sample of 130 low-income participants was followed longitudinally from 12 to 42 months using observational measures of developmentally salient parenting and child disruptive behavior to predict early externalizing problems. Results are best accommodated by concepts such as transformation and transaction from developmental psychology. For boys, both child and parent variables predicted later externalizing. For girls and boys, the interaction between child noncompliance and maternal rejection was significant.

Early risk factors and pathways in the development of early disruptive behavior problems

This study examined risk factors from infancy associated with the development of preschool disruptive behavior problems across child, parent, and sociodemographic domains. Risk factors that consistently were associated with the prediction of disruptive behavior at age 5 years included disorganized attachment classification at 12 months, and maternal personality risk and child-rearing disagreements during the second year. In addition, infants with disorganized attachment status at 12 months whose mothers perceived them as difficult in the second year showed significantly higher aggressive problems at age 5 years than those with only one of the two risk factors present. When pathways leading to clinically elevated aggression at age 5 were explored, infant disorganized attachment status, maternal personality risk, and child-rearing disagreements demonstrated equivalent predictive validity as child aggression assessed at age 3 years.

Destructive sibling conflict and the development of conduct problems in young boys.

Little empirical work has explored the relation between destructive sibling conflict and conduct problems in children. This study used a measure of observed sibling conflict to examine its relations with maternal and teacher report of conduct problems in a low-income sample of 180 five-year-old boys and their close-age siblings. Early report of behavior problems and rejecting parenting were added to the analyses to control for these predictors and to examine interactive effects. The interaction between destructive sibling conflict and rejecting parenting predicted aggressive behavior problems across time and informants such that a rise in aggression scores was evident for children who had high levels of both sibling conflict and rejecting parenting. Sibling conflict was also directly related longitudinally to the Child Behavior Checklist Delinquency factor. Results are discussed in terms of additive risk models and G. R. Pattersons (1984, 1986) theory of coercion.

A Prospective Study of the Effects of Marital Status and Family Relations on Young Children's Adjustment among African American and European American Families

The present study investigated the effects of divorce and family relations on young childrens development prospectively, using an ethnically diverse sample of approximately 300 low-income families. We also were able to examine the moderating effects of ethnicity on child adjustment in always two-parent, to-be-divorced, already-divorced, and always single-parent families. Results indicated that to-be-divorced European American and African American families demonstrated higher rates of preschool-age behavior problems, and already-divorced families showed similar trends. Parental conflict and behavior problems accounted for predivorce differences in child behavior problems, whereas rejecting parenting accounted for differences in problem behavior between always single-parent and always two-parent families. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of ethnicity in influencing young, low-income childrens adjustment to different family structures.

Young Children's Adjustment to Chronic Family Adversity: A Longitudinal Study of Low-Income Families

OBJECTIVE To test the relation between multiple family stressors and young childrens adjustment problems. METHOD Longitudinal data were collected on 300 low-income, ethnically diverse, male subjects beginning during infancy and followed until age 31/2. RESULTS General support was found for the family stressor hypothesis. Stressor groups at 18 and 24 months predicted Child Behavior Checklist Externalizing and Internalizing factors at 24 and 42 months, including clinically elevated problems. CONCLUSIONS The results confirm and extend previous investigation of the family stressor hypothesis. They suggest that psychological evaluations of young children need to be ecologically based, including intra- and extrafamilial factors that appear to cumulatively increase risk of behavior problems.

Developmental cascade effects of the New Beginnings Program on adolescent adaptation outcomes.

Using data from a 6-year longitudinal follow-up sample of 240 youth who participated in a randomized experimental trial of a preventive intervention for divorced families with children ages 9-12, the current study tested alternative cascading pathways by which the intervention decreased symptoms of internalizing disorders, symptoms of externalizing disorders, substance use, and risky sexual behavior and increased self-esteem and academic performance in mid- to late adolescence (15-19 years old). It was hypothesized that the impact of the program on adolescent adaptation outcomes would be explained by progressive associations between program-induced changes in parenting and youth adaptation outcomes. The results supported a cascading model of program effects in which the program was related to increased mother-child relationship quality that was related to subsequent decreases in child internalizing problems, which then was related to subsequent increases in self-esteem and decreases in symptoms of internalizing disorders in adolescence. The results were also consistent with a model in which the program increased maternal effective discipline that was related to decreased child externalizing problems, which was related to subsequent decreases in symptoms of externalizing disorders, less substance use, and better academic performance in adolescence. There were no significant differences in the model based on level of baseline risk or adolescent gender. These results provide support for a cascading pathways model of child and adolescent development.

Fifteen-year follow-up of a randomized trial of a preventive intervention for divorced families: effects on mental health and substance use outcomes in young adulthood.

OBJECTIVE This 15-year follow-up assessed the effects of a preventive intervention for divorced families, the New Beginnings Program (NBP), versus a literature control condition (LC). METHOD Mothers and their 9- to 12-year-olds (N = 240 families) participated in the trial. Young adults (YAs) reported on their mental health and substance-related disorders, mental health and substance use problems, and substance use. Mothers reported on YAs mental health and substance use problems. Disorders were assessed over the past 9 years (since previous follow-up) and 15 years (since program entry). Alcohol and marijuana use, other substance use and polydrug use, and mental health problems and substance use problems were assessed over the past month, past year, and past 6 months, respectively. RESULTS YAs in NBP had a lower incidence of internalizing disorders in the past 9 years (7.55% vs. 24.4%; odds ratio [OR] = .26) and 15 years (15.52% vs. 34.62%; OR = .34) and had a slower rate of onset of internalizing symptoms associated with disorder in the past 9 years (hazard ratio [HR] = .28) and 15 years (HR = .46). NBP males had a lower number of substance-related disorders in the past 9 years (d = 0.40), less polydrug (d = 0.55) and other drug use (d = 0.61) in the past year, and fewer substance use problems (d = 0.50) in the past 6 months than LC males. NBP females used more alcohol in the past month (d = 0.44) than LC females. CONCLUSIONS NBP reduced the incidence of internalizing disorders for females and males and substance-related disorders and substance use for males.

Predictors of Enrollment and Retention in a Preventive Parenting Intervention for Divorced Families

Participation rates in parenting programs are typically low, severely limiting the public health significance of these interventions. We examined predictors of parenting program enrollment and retention in a sample of 325 divorced mothers. Predictors included intervention timing and maternal reports of child, parent, family, and sociocultural risk factors. In multivariate analyses, child maladjustment and family income-to-needs positively predicted enrollment, and higher maternal education and recruitment near the time of the divorce predicted retention. Findings have implications for the optimal timing of preventive parenting programs for divorcing families and point to the importance of examining predictors of enrollment and retention simultaneously. Editors’ Strategic Implications: Parent education researchers and practitioners may find the authors’ application of the Health Belief Model to be a useful organizing framework for improving engagement and retention.

Long‐Term Effects of Parenting‐Focused Preventive Interventions to Promote Resilience of Children and Adolescents

In this article, we address three questions concerning the long-term effects of parenting-focused preventive interventions: 1) Do prevention programs promote effective parenting in families facing normative stressors as well as those facing frequent adversity? 2) Do parenting programs prevent childrens long-term problems? 3) Do changes in parenting mediate long-term effects of programs? We address these questions by summarizing evidence from 22 programs with randomized trials and followups of three years or longer. We describe in more detail two interventions for divorced and bereaved families, suggesting that they prevent a range of problems and promote a range of developmental competencies over a prolonged period. Program effects to strengthen parenting mediated many of these long-term outcomes.

Building Resilience in All Children

In this chapter, we present a conceptual framework for the promotion of resilience in children that integrates concepts from the study of resilience with a public health approach to improving mental health at the population level. The chapter begins with a review of resilience and public health concepts and describes how these perspectives can be integrated within a broad framework for the promotion of health and prevention of dysfunction. We then present examples of evidence-based preventive interventions and policies that have successfully implemented components of this framework. Given our focus on promoting resilience, we limit discussion and examples of interventions to those designed to create resources for children not diagnosed with mental health disorder, although the framework could readily be extended to interventions for children with clinical levels of dysfunction. Finally, we provide an overview of how the framework might be used by planners to create resources in their communities that will promote resilience, as well as examples of tools currently available to assist planners in this process.