James J. Snyder

The contributions of ineffective discipline and parental hostile attributions of child misbehavior to the development of conduct problems at home and school.

Data were collected in a longitudinal study of 134 boys and 132 girls and their families during kindergarten and first grade. Four hours of parent-child interaction were coded to ascertain parent discipline practices. A structured interview assessed maternal attributions about child behavior. Maternal ratings of child conduct problems at kindergarten entry reliably predicted the mothers subsequent hostile attributions concerning child misbehavior and use of ineffective discipline tactics. Ineffective maternal discipline and the interaction of ineffective discipline and hostile attribution predicted growth in child conduct problems at home during kindergarten and first grade. Changes in teacher-reported and observed child conduct problems at school during kindergarten and first grade were predicted by growth in conduct problems at home and by the interaction of ineffective discipline and hostile attribution.

Escalation and reinforcement in mother-child conflict: Social processes associated with the development of physical aggression

The objective of this study was to test a social interactional model of physical aggression. Specifically, this model hypothesizes that the performance of physical aggression has its roots in socialization settings that are characterized by high densities of aversive stimuli and that provide frequent reinforcement for escalation to high intensity aversive behavior during social conflict. Social conflicts were observed during 10 hr of interaction of each of 20 mothers and their 5-year-old sons; half of the sons were selected based on evidence of frequent aggression in home and school settings. Simple descriptive and sequential analyses indicated that aggressive relative to nonaggressive dyad members were more likely to engage in conflict, engaged in longer conflicts, were more likely to escalate to higher levels of aversiveness, and were less likely to de-escalate the intensity of conflict. In aggressive and nonaggressive dyads, the cessation of conflict contingent on the escalation of one dyad member was reliably associated with an increased likelihood of escalation and with escalation to higher levels of aversiveness by that member in the subsequent conflict. However, escalation occurred more frequently and was more likely to result in cessation of conflicts in aggressive than nonaggressive dyads.

Deviancy training and association with deviant peers in young children: ocurrence and contribution to early-onset conduct problems.

The relationships of deviant talk and role taking during peer interaction, association with deviant peers, and growth in overt and covert conduct problems during kindergarten and first grade were examined in a community sample of 267 boys and girls. At entry to kindergarten, high levels of overt and covert conduct problems predicted association with deviant peers, and deviant peer association predicted deviant talk and role taking during peer interaction during kindergarten. Association with deviant peers, and deviant talk and role taking predicted growth in overt and covert conduct problems on the playground, in the classroom, and at home during kindergarten and first grade. Peer processes associated with growth in conduct problems that escalate rapidly during late childhood and adolescence appear to occur in earlier childhood. These peer processes may play a central role in the evolution of conduct problems to include covert as well as overt forms.

Child Anger Regulation, Parental Responses to Children's Anger Displays, and Early Child Antisocial Behavior.

The display and regulation of child anger in family interaction was coded in a sample of 240 boys and girls at child age 6, and coded using the Specific Affect Coding System. Child antisocial behavior was longitudinally assessed, beginning in kindergarten. Pooled- and family-level analyses were used to assess hazard rates for child anger. Parents’ ability to modulate their own emotions and negative behavior, and childrens ability to down-regulate anger were associated with increased latency for child anger. Hazard for child anger increased as parents’ insensitive and negative responses toward the child cumulated during family interaction. Macro-level, non-hazard analyses indicated that chronic levels of child antisocial behavior were associated with the frequency of parental negative behavior, but not with the frequency of child anger. Micro-level hazard analyses indicated that childrens ability to regulate anger was related to chronic levels of child covert but not overt antisocial behavior.

The use of cognitive self-instruction in the treatment of behaviorally disturbed adolescents

Fifteen behaviorally disturbed, institutionalized adolescents were assigned to one of three conditions: cognitive self-instruction, contingency awareness, or assessment control. School attendance, frequency of impulsive behaviors, and performance in daily living requirements were assessed before and after treatment, and at a 6-week follow-up. The cognitive self-instruction procedure resulted in significant improvements in performance of daily living requirements and a decrease in impulsive behaviors after treatment compared to both the contingency awareness and assessment control procedures. These effects were either maintained or augmented at follow-up.

Peer Deviancy Training and Peer Coercion: Dual Processes Associated With Early-Onset Conduct Problems

The prospective relationships of conduct problems and peer coercion and deviancy training during kindergarten (mean age = 5.3 years) to overt and covert conduct problems in third-fourth grade were examined in a sample of 267 boys and girls. Coercion and deviancy training were distinct peer processes. Both were associated with earlier child conduct problems but were differentially associated with child impulsivity, verbal ability, anxiety, peer rejection, and deviant peer affiliation. Coercion by peers predicted overt conduct problems and peer deviancy training and the interaction of deviancy training and coercion predicted covert conduct problems in third-fourth grade. Peer deviancy training occurs in early childhood and may serve as an independent risk mechanism in addition to peer coercion for early-onset, persisting conduct problems.

The Role of Behavior Observation in Measurement Systems for Randomized Prevention Trials

The role of behavior observation in theory-driven prevention intervention trials is examined. A model is presented to guide choice of strategies for the measurement of five core elements in theoretically informed, randomized prevention trials: (1) training intervention agents, (2) delivery of key intervention conditions by intervention agents, (3) responses of clients to intervention conditions, (4) short-term risk reduction in targeted client behaviors, and (5) long-term change in client adjustment. It is argued that the social processes typically thought to mediate interventionist training (Element 1) and the efficacy of psychosocial interventions (Elements 2 and 3) may be powerfully captured by behavior observation. It is also argued that behavior observation has advantages in the measurement of short-term change (Element 4) engendered by intervention, including sensitivity to behavior change and blinding to intervention status.

A social learning model of peer choice in the natural environment

The social processes used by preschool-aged children to choose peer affiliates were assessed in a natural classroom setting. The results indicated that children were quite selective in their affiliation with peers; they spent substantial social time with a small number of peers and little time with remaining peers. Childrens initial affiliation with each of an array of same- and opposite-gender peers and temporal changes in those affiliations were strongly related to the relative proportion of positive consequences the children experienced during social interaction with those peers. Strong mutual affiliations or friendships were established between children who provided each other with the highest levels of positive social consequences available from peers in the classroom.

Effects of the Oregon model of Parent Management Training (PMTO) on marital adjustment in new stepfamilies: a randomized trial

Effects of intervention with the Oregon model of Parent Management Training (PMTO) on marital relationship processes and marital satisfaction in recently married biological mother and stepfather couples were examined. Sixty-seven of the 110 participating families were randomly assigned to PMTO, and 43 families to a non-intervention condition. Intervention had reliable positive indirect effects on marital relationship processes 24 months after baseline which in turn were associated with higher marital satisfaction. These indirect effects were mediated by the impact of PMTO on parenting practices 6 months after baseline. Enhanced parenting practices resulting from PMTO prevented escalation of subsequent child behavior problems at school. Consistent with a family systems perspective and research on challenges to marital quality in stepfamilies, improved co-parenting practices were associated with enhanced marital relationship skills and marital satisfaction as well as with prevention of child behavior problems.

The Effects of Consequences on Patterns of Social Interaction: A Quasi-Experimental Approach to Reinforcement in Natural Interaction.

Research on social interaction has consistently documented the existence of mutual interdependencies between the behavior of 1 person and reactions to that behavior by others in the social environment. The concept of social reinforcement, although often used to explain acquisition and change in interaction patterns defined by such interdependencies, is difficult to apply to interaction observed in natural settings. On the basis of extended observation of the interaction of 2 mother-child dyads, the procedures needed to assess the effects of naturally occurring consequences on interactional patterns are detailed in this study. Reliable mother action-child reaction patterns were first identified, and the effect of maternal consequences for those patterns on the probability of their subsequent occurrence was assessed. Positive consequences were associated with increases, and negative consequences with decreases, in the probability of a child reacting to the next occurrence of the maternal action when compared to the base-rate probability of that action-reaction pattern. Thus consequences affect momentary shifts around the baseline probability of interactional patterns. Positive consequences were also associated with short-term increases, and negative consequences with short-term decreases, in the base-rate probability of interactional patterns.