John E. Bates

Developmental Trajectories of Childhood Disruptive Behaviors and Adolescent Delinquency: A Six-Site, Cross-National Study

This study used data from 6 sites and 3 countries to examine the developmental course of physical aggression in childhood and to analyze its linkage to violent and nonviolent offending outcomes in adolescence. The results indicate that among boys there is continuity in problem behavior from childhood to adolescence and that such continuity is especially acute when early problem behavior takes the form of physical aggression. Chronic physical aggression during the elementary school years specifically increases the risk for continued physical violence as well as other nonviolent forms of delinquency during adolescence. However, this conclusion is reserved primarily for boys, because the results indicate no clear linkage between childhood physical aggression and adolescent offending among female samples despite notable similarities across male and female samples in the developmental course of physical aggression in childhood.

Measurement of Infant Difficultness.

The Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ) was developed as a short, factor-analytic screening device for difficultness. Responses of 322 mothers of 4-6-month-old infants suggested that they regard the fussy, hard-to-soothe, labile infant as difficult. Mother report on the ICQ, particularly on the main fussy-difficult factor was found to have adequate reliability over time and convergence with the Carey Survey of Temperamental Characteristics, with father report on the ICQ, and, to a lower degree, with home data collected by independent observers. It was also found that mother characteristics may affect perceptions of infant difficultness: multiparous, extraverted mothers tended to rate their infants as easy.

Reactive and proactive aggression in school children and psychiatrically impaired chronically assaultive youth.

The authors proposed that reactively aggressive and proactively aggressive types of antisocial youth would differ in developmental histories, concurrent adjustment, and social information-processing patterns. In Study 1, 585 boys and girls classified into groups called reactive aggressive, proactive aggressive, pervasively aggressive (combined type), and nonaggressive revealed distinct profiles. Only the reactive aggressive groups demonstrated histories of physical abuse and early onset of problems, adjustment problems in peer relations, and inadequate encoding and problem-solving processing patterns. Only the proactive aggressive groups demonstrated a processing pattern of anticipating positive outcomes for aggressing. In Study 2, 50 psychiatrically impaired chronically violent boys classified as reactively violent or proactively violent demonstrated differences in age of onset of problem behavior, adjustment problems, and processing problems.

Physical discipline among African American and European American mothers: Links to children's externalizing behaviors.

The aim of this study was to test whether the relation between physical discipline and child aggression was moderated by ethnic-group status. A sample of 466 European American and 100 African American children from a broad range of socioeconomic levels were followed from kindergarten through 3rd grade. Mothers reported their use of physical discipline in interviews and questionnaires, and mothers, teachers, and peers rated childrens externalizing problems annually. The interaction between ethnic status and discipline was significant for teacher- and peer-rated externalizing scores; physical discipline was associated with higher externalizing scores, but only among European American children. These findings provide evidence that the link between physical punishment and child aggression may be culturally specific.

Peer Rejection and Social Information-Processing Factors in the Development of Aggressive Behavior Problems in Children

The relation between social rejection and growth in antisocial behavior was investigated. In Study 1,259 boys and girls (34% African American) were followed from Grades 1 to 3 (ages 6-8 years) to Grades 5 to 7 (ages 10-12 years). Early peer rejection predicted growth in aggression. In Study 2,585 boys and girls (16% African American) were followed from kindergarten to Grade 3 (ages 5-8 years), and findings were replicated. Furthermore, early aggression moderated the effect of rejection, such that rejection exacerbated antisocial development only among children initially disposed toward aggression. In Study 3, social information-processing patterns measured in Study 1 were found to mediate partially the effect of early rejection on later aggression. In Study 4, processing patterns measured in Study 2 replicated the mediation effect. Findings are integrated into a recursive model of antisocial development.

Social information-processing patterns partially mediate the effect of early physical abuse on later conduct problems

The authors tested the hypothesis that early physical abuse is associated with later externalizing behavior outcomes and that this relation is mediated by the intervening development of biased social information-processing patterns. They assessed 584 randomly selected boys and girls from European American and African American backgrounds for the lifetime experience of physical abuse through clinical interviews with mothers prior to the childs matriculation in kindergarten. Early abuse increased the risk of teacher-rated externalizing outcomes in Grades 3 and 4 by fourfold, and this effect could not be accounted for by confounded ecological or child factors. Abuse was associated with later processing patterns (encoding errors, hostile attributional biases, accessing of aggressive responses, and positive evaluations of aggression), which, in turn, predicted later externalizing outcomes.

Supportive Parenting, Ecological Context, and Children's Adjustment: A Seven-Year Longitudinal Study

Two major questions regarding the possible impact of early supportive parenting (SP) on childrens school adjustment were addressed:(1) Does SP assessed prekindergarten predict grade 6 adjustment after controlling for early barsh parenting (HP)? (2) Does SP moderate (buffer) the impact of early family adversity on grade 6 adjustment? Parenting and family adversity data were drawn from home-visit interviews with 585 mothers conducted prekindergarten. Four SP measure were derived: mother-to-child warmth, proactive teaching, inductive discipline, and positive involvement. HP was indexed as the use of harsh, physical disciple. Family adversity indicators were socioeconomic disadvantage, family stress, and single parenthood. Children s adjustment (behavior problems, social skills, and academic performance) in kindergarten and grade 6 was assessedvia teacher ratings and school records. SP predicted adjustment in grade 6, even after controlling for kindergarten adjustment and HP. High levels of SP mitigated the effects of family adversity on later behavior problems. These findings implicate both direct (main effect)and indirect (moderator of adversity) processes in the linkage between positive and supportive aspects of parenting and childrens school adjustment.

Multiple risk factors in the development of externalizing behavior problems: group and individual differences.

The aim of this study was to test whether individual risk factors as well as the number of risk factors (cumulative risk) predicted childrens externalizing behaviors over middle childhood. A sample of 466 European American and 100 African American boys and girls from a broad range of socioeconomic levels was followed from age 5 to 10 years. Twenty risk variables from four domains (child, sociocultural, parenting, and peer-related) were measured using in-home interviews at the beginning of the study, and annual assessments of externalizing behaviors were conducted. Consistent with past research, individual differences in externalizing behavior problems were stable over time and were related to individual risk factors as well as the number of risk factors present. Particular risks accounted for 36% to 45% of the variance, and the number of risks present (cumulative risk status) accounted for 19% to 32% of the variance, in externalizing outcomes. Cumulative risk was related to subsequent externalizing even after initial levels of externalizing had been statistically controlled. All four domains of risk variables made significant unique contributions to this statistical prediction, and there were multiple clusters of risks that led to similar outcomes. There was also evidence that this prediction was moderated by ethnic group status, most of the prediction of externalizing being found for European American children. However, this moderation effect varied depending on the predictor and outcome variables included in the model.

Interaction of Temperamental Resistance to Control and Restrictive Parenting in the Development of Externalizing Behavior

Child temperament and parental control were studied as interacting predictors of behavior outcomes in 2 longitudinal samples. In Sample 1, data were ratings of resistant temperament and observed restrictive control in infancy-toddlerhood and ratings of externalizing behavior at ages 7 to 10 years; in Sample 2, data were retrospective ratings of temperament in infancy-toddlerhood, observed restrictive control at age 5 years, and ratings of externalizing behavior at ages 7 to 11 years. Resistance more strongly related to externalizing in low-restriction groups than in high-restriction groups. This was true in both samples and for both teacher- and mother-rated outcomes. Several Temperament x Environment interaction effects have been reported previously, but this is one of very few replicated effects.

Temperament : individual differences at the interface of biology and behavior

Attempts to bridge the gap between behaviourally-oriented and biologically-oriented approaches to the study of temperament. This volume highlights the major brain systems implicated and considers the neurochemical processes, the behavioural systems and genetics thought be involved in temperament.