Conduct problems that emerge in childhood often persist into adolescence and are associated with a range of negative outcomes. It is therefore important to identify the factors that predict conduct problems in early childhood. The present study investigated the relations among maternal attachment status, mother-child emotion talk, child emotion understanding, and conduct problems in a sample of 92 (46 males) typically developing children (M age = 61.3 months, SD = 8.3 months). The results support a model in which maternal attachment status predicts the level of appropriate/responsive mother-child emotion talk, which predicts child emotion understanding, which in turn negatively predicts child conduct problems. These findings further underline the developmental role of mother-child emotion talk as well as the importance of involving parents in programs designed to increase children’s emotion understanding and/or decrease the incidence of conduct problems. 1. Introduction Conduct problems involve atypical levels of oppositional behavior, aggression, stealing, and physical destructiveness [1]. These problems can begin in childhood [2] or adolescence [3] and may continue through the lifecycle [4]. Children who display conduct problems in the preschool years are at high risk of having problems that persist into adolescence (see [5] for a brief review). Indeed, this pattern, described as early starter [6], early onset [7], or life-course-persistent [8], is associated with the most negative prognosis including diagnoses of conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, antisocial personality disorder, juvenile delinquency, school dropout, drug abuse, and criminality [1, 4, 9–11]. There is fairly broad theoretical agreement that conduct problems develop and are maintained through dynamic interactions among child, parental, peer, and environmental factors [1, 3, 12–14]. These factors include attachment patterns [15], emotion socialization [16], parenting [14], emotion understanding, and regulation skills [17] among others. These findings fit well with social-constructivist perspectives in which individual characteristics influence the parent-child interaction/socialisation which facilitate children’s sociocognitive and behavioral development [18, 19]. Crittenden [20] argued that attachment patterns are self-protective strategies that are initially learned in interactions with attachment figures in early childhood and continue to develop across the lifespan. Securely attached adults are comfortable depending on others, find it relatively easy to get close to
References
[1]
R. J. McMahon, K. C. Wells, and J. S. Kotler, “Conduct problems,” in Treatment of Childhood Disorders, E. J. Mash and R. A. Barkley, Eds., pp. 137–268, Guilford Press, New York, NY, USA, 3rd edition, 2006.
[2]
P. M. Cole, L. O. Teti, and C. Zahn-Waxler, “Mutual emotion regulation and the stability of conduct problems between preschool and early school age,” Development and Psychopathology, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–18, 2003.
[3]
A. M. Klahr, M. McGue, W. G. Iacono, and S. A. Burt, “The association between parent-child conflict and adolescent conduct problems over time: results from a longitudinal adoption study,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 120, no. 1, pp. 46–56, 2011.
[4]
J. H. Satterfield, K. J. Faller, F. M. Crinella, A. M. Schell, J. M. Swanson, and L. D. Homer, “A 30-year prospective follow-up study of hyperactive boys with conduct problems: adult criminality,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 601–610, 2007.
[5]
S. B. Campbell, “Behavior problems in preschool children: a review of recent research,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 113–149, 1995.
[6]
G. Patterson, D. Capaldi, and L. Bank, “An early starter model for predicting delinquency,” in The Development and Treatment of Childhood Aggression, D. J. Pepler and K. H. Rubin, Eds., pp. 139–168, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, USA, 1991.
[7]
C. Webster-Stratton and M. Hammond, “Treating children with early-onset conduct problems: a comparison of child and parent training interventions,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 93–109, 1997.
[8]
T. E. Moffitt, “Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: a developmental taxonomy,” Psychological Review, vol. 100, no. 4, pp. 674–701, 1993.
[9]
S. B. Campbell, “Longitudinal studies of active and aggressive preschoolers: individual differences in early behavior and outcomes,” in InternalizIng and ExternalizIng Expressions of Dysfunction, D. Cicchetti and S. L. Toth, Eds., pp. 57–89, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, USA, 1991.
[10]
R. Loeber, “Antisocial behavior: more enduring than changeable?” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 393–397, 1991.
[11]
H. L. Gelhorn, J. T. Sakai, R. K. Price, and T. J. Crowley, “DSM-IV conduct disorder criteria as predictors of antisocial personality disorder,” Comprehensive Psychiatry, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 529–538, 2007.
[12]
C. Webster-Stratton and M. Reid, “The Incredible Years parents, teachers, and children training series: a multifaceted treatment approach for young children with conduct disorders,” in Evidence-Based Psychotherapies for Children and Adolescents, J. R. Weisz and A. E. Kazdin, Eds., pp. 194–210, Guilford Press, New York, NY, USA, 2nd edition, 2010.
[13]
C. Zahn-Waxler, E. A. Shirtcliff, and K. Marceau, “Disorders of childhood and adolescence: gender and psychopathology,” Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, vol. 4, pp. 275–303, 2008.
[14]
S. A. Denham, E. Workman, P. M. Cole, C. Weissbrod, K. T. Kendziora, and C. Zahn-Waxler, “Prediction of externalizing behavior problems from early to middle childhood: the role of parental socialization and emotion expression,” Development and Psychopathology, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 23–45, 2000.
[15]
J. Vando, D. M. Rhule-Louie, R. J. McMahon, and S. J. Spieker, “Examining the link between infant attachment and child conduct problems in grade 1,” Journal of Child and Family Studies, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 615–628, 2008.
[16]
J. N. Cunningham, W. Kliewer, and P. W. Garner, “Emotion socialization, child emotion understanding and regulation, and adjustment in urban African American families: differential associations across child gender,” Development and Psychopathology, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 261–283, 2009.
[17]
C. Webster-Stratton and M. J. Reid, “Treating conduct problems and strengthening social and emotional competence in young children: the dina dinosaur treatment program,” Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 130–143, 2003.
[18]
D. A. Murphey, “Constructing the child: relations between parents' beliefs and child outcomes,” Developmental Review, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 199–232, 1992.
[19]
N. Eisenberg, A. Cumberland, and T. L. Spinrad, “Parental socialization of emotion,” Psychological Inquiry, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 241–273, 1998.
[20]
P. M. Crittenden, Raising Parents: Attachment, Parenting and Child Safety, Willan Publishing, Devon, UK, 2008.
[21]
C. Hazan and P. Shaver, “Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 511–524, 1987.
[22]
D. Oppenheim and N. Koren-Karie, “Mothers' insightfulness regarding their children's internal worlds: the capacity underlying secure child-mother relationships,” Infant Mental Health Journal, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 593–605, 2002.
[23]
I. Bretherton, “From dialogue to internal working models: the co-construction of self in relationships,” in Memory and Affect in Development, pp. 237–263, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, USA, 1993.
[24]
M. J. Farrar, L. G. Fasig, and M. K. Welch-Ross, “Attachment and emotion in autobiographical memory development,” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 389–408, 1997.
[25]
R. A. Thompson, D. J. Laible, and L. L. Ontai, “Early understandings of emotion, morality, and self: developing a working model,” Advances in Child Development and Behavior, vol. 31, pp. 137–171, 2004.
[26]
S. A. Denham, S. Caverly, M. Schmidt et al., “Preschool understanding of emotions: contributions to classroom anger and aggression,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, vol. 43, no. 7, pp. 901–916, 2002.
[27]
S. F. Waters, E. A. Virmani, R. A. Thompson, S. Meyer, H. A. Raikes, and R. Jochem, “Emotion regulation and attachment: unpacking two constructs and their association,” Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 37–47, 2010.
[28]
P. W. Garner, J. C. Dunsmore, and M. Southam-Gerrow, “Mother-child conversations about emotions: linkages to child aggression and prosocial behavior,” Social Development, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 259–277, 2008.
[29]
D. Laible and J. Song, “Constructing emotional and relational understanding: the role of affect and mother-child discourse,” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 44–69, 2006.
[30]
T. P. Racine, J. I. M. Carpendale, and W. Turnbull, “Parent-child talk and children's understanding of beliefs and emotions,” Cognition and Emotion, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 480–494, 2007.
[31]
J. C. Dunsmore and M. A. Karn, “Mothers' beliefs about feelings and children's emotional understanding,” Early Education and Development, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 117–138, 2001.
[32]
J. Dunn, J. Brown, and L. Beardsall, “Family talk about feeling states and children's later understanding of others' emotions,” Developmental Psychology, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 448–455, 1991.
[33]
S. A. Denham, D. Zoller, and E. A. Couchoud, “Socialization of preschoolers' emotion understanding,” Developmental Psychology, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 928–936, 1994.
[34]
A. Shields, S. Dickstein, R. Seifer, et al., “Emotional competence and early school adjustment: a study of preschoolers at risk,” Early Education and Development, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 73–96, 2001.
[35]
S. L. Kidwell, M. E. Young, L. D. Hinkle, A. D. Ratliff, M. E. Marcum, and C. N. Martin, “Emotional competence and behavior problems: differences across preschool assessment of attachment classifications,” Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 391–406, 2010.
[36]
R. J. Casey, “Emotional competence in children with externalizing and internalizing disorders,” in Emotional Development in Atypical Children, M. Lewis and M. W. Sullivan, Eds., pp. 161–183, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, USA, 1996.
[37]
C. A. Cervantes and M. A. Callanan, “Labels and explanations in mother-child emotion talk: age and gender differentiation,” Developmental Psychology, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 88–98, 1998.
[38]
N. L. Collins and S. J. Read, “Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 644–663, 1990.
[39]
M. D. Harwood and M. J. Farrar, “Conflicting emotions: the connection between affective perspective taking and theory of mind,” British Journal of Developmental Psychology, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 401–418, 2006.
[40]
R. Ensor and C. Hughes, “More than talk: relations between emotion understanding and positive behaviour in toddlers,” British Journal of Developmental Psychology, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 343–363, 2005.
[41]
M. B. P. Rivera and J. C. Dunsmore, “Mothers' acculturation and beliefs about emotions, mother-child emotion discourse, and children's emotion understanding in Latino families,” Early Education and Development, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 324–354, 2011.
[42]
P. Ekman and W. V. Friesen, Pictures of Facial Affect, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, Calif, USA, 1976.
[43]
R. Goodman, “The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: a research note,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 581–586, 1997.
[44]
A. Goodman and R. Goodman, “Population mean scores predict child mental disorder rates: validating SDQ prevalence estimators in Britain,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 100–108, 2011.
[45]
R. Goodman, “Psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 40, no. 11, pp. 1337–1345, 2001.
[46]
D. Mellor, “Normative data for the strengths and difficulties questionnaire in Australia,” Australian Psychologist, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 215–222, 2005.
[47]
K. A. Bollen, Structural Equations with Latent Variables, Wiley Series in Probability and Mathematical Statistics Applied Probability and Statistics Section, John Wiley & Sons, Oxford, UK, 1989.
[48]
G. E. Gignac, “Self-reported emotional intelligence and life satisfaction: testing incremental predictive validity hypotheses via structural equation modeling (SEM) in a small sample,” Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 40, no. 8, pp. 1569–1577, 2006.
[49]
L.-T. Hu and P. M. Bentler, “Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives,” Structural Equation Modeling, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1–55, 1999.
[50]
T. Lewis, J. Kotch, R. Thompson et al., “Witnessed violence and youth behavior problems: a multi-informant study,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol. 80, no. 4, pp. 443–450, 2010.
[51]
E. Youngstrom, R. Loeber, and M. Stouthamer-Loeber, “Patterns and correlates of agreement between parent, teacher, and male adolescent ratings of externalizing and internalizing problems,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, vol. 68, no. 6, pp. 1038–1050, 2000.
[52]
J. M. Nelson and H. R. Harwood, “A meta-analysis of parent and teacher reports of depression among students with learning disabilities: evidence for the importance of multi-informant assessment,” Psychology in the Schools, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 371–384, 2011.
[53]
M. H. Van Ijzendoorn, “Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: a meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the adult attachment interview,” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 117, no. 3, pp. 387–403, 1995.
[54]
C. Leaper, K. J. Anderson, and P. Sanders, “Moderators of gender effects on parents' talk to their children: a meta-analysis,” Developmental Psychology, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 3–27, 1998.
[55]
H. Chambers, J. Amos, S. Allison, and L. Roeger, “Parent and child therapy: an attachment-based intervention for children with challenging problems,” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 68–74, 2006.
[56]
S. S. Havighurst, K. R. Wilson, A. E. Harley, M. R. Prior, and C. Kehoe, “Tuning in to Kids: improving emotion socialization practices in parents of preschool children-findings from a community trial,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, vol. 51, no. 12, pp. 1342–1350, 2010.
[57]
C. E. Izard, K. A. King, C. J. Trentacosta et al., “Accelerating the development of emotion competence in Head Start children: effects on adaptive and maladaptive behavior,” Development and Psychopathology, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 369–397, 2008.
[58]
C. Webster-Stratton, J. Rinaldi, and J. M. Reid, “Long-term outcomes of Incredible Years parenting program: predictors of adolescent adjustment,” Child and Adolescent Mental Health, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 38–46, 2011.
[59]
E. V. Brestan and S. M. Eyberg, “Effective psychosocial treatments of conduct-disordered children and adolescents: 29 years, 82 studies, and 5,272 kids,” Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 180–189, 1998.
[60]
R. R. Kobak, H. E. Cole, R. Ferenz-Gillies, W. S. Fleming, and W. Gamble, “Attachment and emotion regulation during mother-teen problem solving: a control theory analysis,” Child Development, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 231–245, 1993.
[61]
M.-C. O. Tidwell, H. T. Reis, and P. R. Shaver, “Attachment, attractiveness, and social interaction: a diary study,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 71, no. 4, pp. 729–745, 1996.
[62]
P. R. Shaver and K. A. Brennan, “Attachment styles and the, “Big Five” personality traits: their connections with each other and with romantic relationship outcomes,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 536–545, 1992.
