Lynn M. Schrepferman

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.

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.

Contribution of Peer Deviancy Training to the Early Development of Conduct Problems: Mediators and Moderators

Three variables were tested as moderators of the relationship between peer deviancy training and child antisocial behavior in a longitudinal study of 267 boys and girls from ages 5.3 to 9.3 years. Deviancy training was directly measured by observation of the discourse and play of children with same-gender classmates. Peer deviancy training was significantly related to multi-setting child antisocial behavior from ages 5.3 to 9.3 years. Child impulsivity, poor parental discipline, and peer rejection were all significant moderators of that relationship, even in the context of their direct association with trajectories of antisocial behavior and after controlling for deviant peer affiliation. These moderator effects appeared to be associated with childrens increased sensitivity to peer modeling and reinforcement of deviant discourse and play. Not all children are equally affected by peer deviancy training, and an array of intervention strategies are described that may serve to protect children from deviant peer influence.

Coercion: The link between treatment mechanisms in behavioral parent training and risk reduction in child antisocial behavior

Coercive parent-child interaction, child oppositional behavior, and parental reinforcement contingencies for child misbehavior were observed before and after treatment in the families of 46 boys referred for serious conduct problems. Reliable pre- to posttreatment reductions in coercive interaction and child noncompliance, and reliable increases in parental reinforcement of constructive child behavior, were found. Posttreatment parental contingencies for coercive child behavior predicted child arrests over the subsequent 2 years. Children from families whose observed posttreatment coercive interaction, parental contingencies, and child compliance failed to reach levels observed in nonreferred, normative families were more likely to evidence arrests and out-of-home placement during the 2 years after treatment. The implications of using observational data to identify critical mechanisms that mediate change in child antisocial behavior as a result of behavioral parent training are described in terms of developmental theory, the dosage of intervention, and the development of more powerful interventions for child conduct problems.

Early Affiliation and Social Engagement With Peers Prospective Risk and Protective Factors for Childhood Depressive Behaviors

The authors of this article sought to determine how poor peer social relationships are related to childrens future depressive behaviors. They used direct observations of disengagement in a peer social setting, a peer nomination measure of peer affiliates, and teacher reports of depressive behaviors during kindergarten and first grade to model risk for depressive behaviors in the third/fourth grades. Dependable and enduring peer affiliations in kindergarten were significantly negatively associated with a multi-informant construct of depressive behaviors at the higher grade for both girls and boys. Disengagement was positively related to depressive behaviors for girls but not for boys.

The Contribution of Child Anger and Fear, and Parental Discipline to Early Antisocial Behavior: An Integrative Model

This chapter examines how parental discipline, child propensities to displays of anger and fear, and child frontal executive inhibition and verbal skills additively and synergistically contribute to overt (aggressive) and covert (sneaky) forms of antisocial behavior. Overt and covert forms of antisocial behavior emerge on different developmental timetables and result from both common and unique sets of variables and variable combinations. Covert antisocial behaviors such as stealing and lying are associated with harsh and angry parental discipline, good child verbal skills and their interaction. Overt antisocial behaviors such as aggression and defiance are associated with parental nattering and inconsistent discipline, especially in the context of poor child frontal inhibition, and low child fear. The chapter exemplifies models which describe development in ways that integrate children’s socialization, emotion expression, and capacity for behavior and emotion regulation.