Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T19:00:13.617Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Longitudinal associations between mother–child conflict and child internalizing problems in mid-childhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2020

Jessica P. Lougheed Open the ORCID record for Jessica P. Lougheed [Opens in a new window] ,
Robert J. Duncan ,
Gizem Keskin  and
Kristine Marceau Open the ORCID record for Kristine Marceau [Opens in a new window]
Jessica P. Lougheed*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, BC, Canada Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
Robert J. Duncan
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA Department of Public Health, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
Gizem Keskin
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
Kristine Marceau
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
*
Author for Correspondence: Jessica P. Lougheed, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 3187 University Way, Kelowna, BC, CanadaV1V 1V7; E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Several aspects of mother–child relationships are associated with children's internalizing problems. We examined longitudinal associations between mother–child conflict and children's internalizing problems in middle childhood. Specifically, we examined whether conflict and children's internalizing problems predict each other longitudinally in a sample of children from 3rd through 6th grade (N = 1,364) and their mothers using a cross-lagged panel model with random intercepts. In line with expectations, we found stable between-family differences in both mother–child conflict and children's internalizing problems. Contrary to expectations, we did not find that mother–child conflict and children's internalizing problems showed significant cross-lagged associations. However, mother–child conflict and children's internalizing problems had correlated errors at each wave, indicating that these two constructs covary with each other concurrently at multiple times across development, independent of stable between-family associations (i.e., as one increases, so does the other, and vice versa). The results of this study point to the importance of using statistical approaches that can disentangle between-family differences from within-family processes. In future studies, shorter time scales (e.g., weeks or months) may better capture dynamic associations between parent–child conflict and internalizing problems.

Keywords

internalizing problemsmiddle childhoodparent–child conflict
Type
Regular Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 263 - 272
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the child behavior checklist/4-18 and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2000). Manual for the ASEBA preschool forms and profiles (Vol. 30). Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families.Google Scholar
Acock, A. C. (2012). What to do about missing values. In Cooper, H., Camic, P. M., Long, D. L., Panter, A. T., Rindskopf, D. & Sher, K. J. (Eds.), Data analysis and research publication. APA Handbook of research methods in psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 27–50). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Allen, J. P., Insabella, G., Porter, M. R., Smith, F. D., Land, D., & Phillips, N. (2006). A social–interactional model of the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 55–65. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.74.1.55CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bosmans, G., & Kerns, K. A. (2015). Attachment in middle childhood: Progress and prospects. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 148, 1–14).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branje, S. J. T., Hale, W. W., Frijns, T., & Meeus, W. H. J. (2010). Longitudinal associations between perceived parent-child relationship quality and depressive symptoms in adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 751. doi:10.1007/s10802-010-9401-6CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brière, F. N., Archambault, K., & Janosz, M. (2013). Reciprocal prospective associations between depressive symptoms and perceived relationship with parents in early adolescence. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 58, 169–176.10.1177/070674371305800307CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brock, R., & Kochanska, G. (2015). Decline in the quality of family relationships predicts escalation in children's internalizing symptoms from middle to late childhood. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 43, 1295–1308.10.1007/s10802-015-0008-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chaplin, T. M., & Aldao, A. (2013). Gender differences in emotion expression in children: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 735–765. doi:10.1037/a0030737CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D., & Cohen, D. J. (2006). Developmental psychopathology (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D., & Rogosch, F. A. (1996). Equifinality and multifinality in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 597–600.10.1017/S0954579400007318CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, W. A., & Laursen, B. (2004). Changing relationships, changing youth. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 24, 55–62. doi:10.1177/0272431603260882CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cyranowski, J. M., Frank, E., Young, E., & Shear, K. (2000). Adolescent onset of the gender difference in lifetime rates of major depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57, 21–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1981). Peabody picture vocabulary test—revised manual for forms L and M. Bloomington, MN: NCS Pearson, Inc.Google Scholar
Epkins, C. C., & Heckler, D. R. (2011). Integrating etiological models of social anxiety and depression in youth: Evidence for a cumulative interpersonal risk model. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 14, 329–376.10.1007/s10567-011-0101-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finan, L. J., Ohannessian, C. M., & Gordon, M. S. (2018). Trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to emerging adulthood: The influence of parents, peers, and siblings. Developmental Psychology, 54, 1555–1567.10.1037/dev0000543CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilliom, M., & Shaw, D. S. (2004). Codevelopment of externalizing and internalizing problems in early childhood. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 313–333.10.1017/S0954579404044530CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, R. J., Samek, D. R., Wilson, S., Iacono, W. G., & McGue, M. (2019). Close relationships and depression: A developmental cascade approach. Development and Psychopathology, 31, 1451. doi:10.1017/S0954579418001037CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Granic, I. (2005). Timing is everything: Developmental psychopathology from a dynamic systems perspective. Developmental Review, 25, 386–407. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2005.10.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granic, I., & Lougheed, J. P. (2016). The role of anxiety in coercive family processes with aggressive children. In Dishion, T. J. & Snyder, J. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of coercive relationship dynamics (pp. 231–248). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hamaker, E. L., Kuiper, R. M., & Grasman, R. P. P. P. (2015). A critique of the cross-lagged panel model. Psychological Methods, 20, 102–116. doi:10.1037/a0038889CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hipwell, A., Keenan, K., Kasza, K., Loeber, R., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., & Bean, T. (2008). Reciprocal influences between girls’ conduct problems and depression, and parental punishment and warmth: A six year prospective analysis. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 663–677. doi:10.1007/s10802-007-9206-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hollenstein, T., & Lougheed, J. P. (2013). Beyond storm and stress: Typicality, transactions, timing, and temperament to account for adolescent change. American Psychologist, 68, 444. doi:10.1037/a0033586CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holsen, I., Kraft, P., & Vittersø, J. (2000). Stability in depressed mood in adolescence: Results from a 6-year longitudinal panel study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29, 61–78.10.1023/A:1005121121721CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joiner, T., Coyne, J. C., & Blalock, J. (1999). On the interpersonal nature of depression: Overview and synthesis. In Joiner, T. & Coyne, J. C. (Eds.), The interactional nature of depression: Advances in interpersonal approaches: Vol. xiv (pp. 3–19). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laursen, B., & Hafen, C. (2010). Future directions in the study of close relationships: Conflict is bad (except when it's not). Social Development, 19, 858–872. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00546.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, G., Collishaw, S., Thapar, A., & Harold, G. T. (2014). Parent-child hostility and child and adolescent depression symptoms: The direction of effects, role of genetic factors and gender. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 23, 317–327. doi:10.1007/s00787-013-0460-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lougheed, J. P. (2019). Conflict dynamics and the transformation of the parent-adolescent relationship. In Kunnen, S., van der Gaag, M., de Ruiter-Wilcox, N. & Jeronimus, B. (Eds.), Psychosocial development in adolescence: Insights from the dynamic systems approach. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lougheed, J. P. (2020). Parent-adolescent dyads as temporal interpersonal emotion systems. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 30, 26–40. doi:10.1111/jora.12526CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marceau, K., Ram, N., & Susman, E. J. (2015). Development and lability in the parent–child relationship during adolescence: Associations with pubertal timing and tempo. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 25, 474–489. doi:10.1111/jora.12139CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLellan, L. F., & Hudson, J. L. (2017). Generalised anxiety disorder. In Goldstein, S. & DeVries, M. (Eds.), Handbook of DSM-5 disorders in children and adolescents (pp. 193–212). Cham: Springer International.10.1007/978-3-319-57196-6_9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, A. S., Cui, L., Criss, M. M., & Simmons, W. K. (2018). Emotion regulation dynamics during parent-child interactions: Implications for research and practice. In Cole, P. M. & Hollenstein, T. (Eds.), Emotion regulation: A matter of time. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Steinberg, L., Myers, S. S., & Robinson, L. R. (2007). The role of the family context in the development of emotion regulation. Social Development, 16, 361–388. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00389.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2017). Mplus user's guide (Version 8). Retrieved from https://www.statmodel.com/download/usersguide/MplusUserGuideVer_8.pdf.Google Scholar
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2005). Child care and child development: Results from the NICHD study of early child care and youth development. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2012). Emotion regulation and psychopathology: The role of gender. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 161–187. doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032511-143109CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paikoff, R. L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1991). Do parent-child relationships change during puberty? Psychological Bulletin, 110, 47–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pianta, R. C. (1994). Patterns of relationships between children and kindergarten teachers. Journal of School Psychology, 32, 15–31. doi:10.1016/0022-4405(94)90026-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pianta, R. C. (2001). Student-teacher relationship scale. Lutz, FL: PAR, Inc.Google Scholar
Powell, A. K., Ocean, S. E., & Stanick, C. F. (2017). Depressive disorders. In Goldstein, S. & De Vries, M. (Eds.), Handbook of DSM-5 disorders in children and adolescents (pp. 151–172). Cham: Springer International.10.1007/978-3-319-57196-6_7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self report depression scale for research in general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401. doi:10.1177/014662167700100306CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ram, N., & Diehl, M. (2015). Multiple time-scale design and analysis: Pushing towards real-time modeling of complex developmental processes. In Diehl, M., Hooker, K. & Sliwinski, M. J. (Eds.), Handbook of intraindividual variability across the lifespan (pp. 308–323). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rudolph, K. D., Flynn, M., & Abaied, J. L. (2008). A developmental perspective on interpersonal theories of youth depression. In Abela, J. R. & Hankin, B. L. (Eds.), Handbook of depression in children and adolescents (pp. 79–102). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Samek, D. R., Wilson, S., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2018). Genetic and environmental influences on parent-child conflict and child depression through late adolescence. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47, S5–S20. doi:10.1080/15374416.2016.1141357CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sheeber, L. B., Davis, B., Leve, C., Hops, H., & Tildesley, E. (2007). Adolescents’ relationships with their mothers and fathers: Associations with depressive disorder and subdiagnostic symptomatology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 144–154. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.116.1.144CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smetana, J. G., Campionne-Barr, N., & Metzger, A. (2006). Adolescent development in interpersonal and societal contexts. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 255–284. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190124CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, O., Nelson, J., & Adelson, M. (2019). Interparental and parent–child conflict predicting adolescent depressive symptoms. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28, 1965–1976. doi:10.1007/s10826-019-01424-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
StataCorp. (2017). Stata statistical software: Release 15. College Station, TX: StataCorp LP.Google Scholar
Stuart Parrigon, K., & & Kerns, K. (2016). Family processes in child anxiety: The long-term impact of fathers and mothers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 44, 1253–1266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tomarken, A. J., & Waller, N. G. (2003). Potential problems with “well fitting” models. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 578–598. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.112.4.578CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yong, M., Fleming, C. B., McCarty, C. A., & Catalano, R. F. (2014). Mediators of the associations between externalizing behaviors and internalizing symptoms in late childhood and early adolescence. Journal of Early Adolescence, 34, 967–1000.10.1177/0272431613516827CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zeman, J., & Shipman, K. (1997). Social-contextual influences on expectancies for managing anger and sadness: The transition from middle childhood to adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 33, 917–924.10.1037/0012-1649.33.6.917CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Lougheed et al. supplementary material

Tables S1-S2 and Figures S1-S3

Download Lougheed et al. supplementary material(File)
File 182.7 KB