When crying turns to hitting: Examining maternal responses to negative affect.

Physical aggression in toddlerhood is empirically linked to anger and often conceptualized as a byproduct of frustration and related negative affect. Further, parenting is the major environmental construct implicated in the development of aggressive behaviors. Given parents' role as "external regulators," parents' responses to their toddlers' negative affect may serve to escalate or de-escalate their toddlers' affective experience, thereby impacting the likelihood of subsequent aggression. In the present study, we examined whether parents' negative affect, harsh, soothing, and distracting responses to their toddlers' negative affect mediated the relation between toddlers' negative affect and their aggressive behavior in brief conflict episodes. During a laboratory visit, a community sample of 69 mother-toddler dyads was observed in a structured interaction task. We found that child negative affect is associated with subsequent aggressive behavior by way of maternal harsh responses to negative affect. Negative emotional expression, soothing, and distraction neither facilitated or hindered children's escalation from negative affect to aggression. Our findings support a dyadic intervention in which patterns of coercive parent-child interactions are targets for prevention and intervention of toddler aggression.

Provoked and unprovoked aggression in toddlerhood: Evaluating measurement invariance and latent means across gender, age, and time.

This paper re-examined the factor structure of a recently developed parent report of aggression, the Provoked and Unprovoked Aggression Questionnaire, and evaluated measurement invariance and latent mean differences across gender, age, and time. Participants were 333 mothers of toddlers (younger age group: n = 167, 53.9% boys, Mage Time 1 = 18.30 months, SD = 0.45; older age group: n = 166, 48.8% boys, Mage Time 1 = 24.29 months, SD = 0.38) who filled out provoked (eight items) and unprovoked (five items) aggression scales twice over a 3-month period. We found evidence for the configural, metric, and scalar measurement invariance-a requirement needed to make a meaningful comparison between aggression means across gender, age groups, and time. When comparing means for boys and girls, gender differences emerged earlier for unprovoked than provoked aggression. Also, the frequency of provoked aggression increased among younger, but not older, toddlers. By developing a brief parental report of aggression in toddlerhood, we hope to fill a void of early aggression measures that tap the contextual variability in aggressive behaviors, and thereby stimulate more research to further our understanding of different types of aggression and their correlates in toddlerhood.

Measures of executive function may not be indicators of latent constructs.

Executive function (EF) is represented by a multidimensional set of measures. The central EFs considered are inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility (task shifting). Unlike other ability constructs, it has proven difficult to identify latent factors that underlie EF. Research has often taken a factor analytic approach for grouping executive functioning tasks. However, this approach has often proven unsuccessful. We aimed to compare factor analysis to a network analytic approach, as network analysis can summarize the pattern of relationships among elements without creating latent constructs. One hundred and thirteen undergraduate students completed a series of nine executive functioning tasks. In comparing exploratory factor analysis to network analysis, we found neither approach provided a compelling higher order grouping of EF measures.

Predictors of help-seeking behavior in mothers of preschoolers.

Mental health difficulties in the preschool years require early intervention, but preschool children are underserved in mental healthcare. One explanation might be that parents do not seek services because their problem recognition, or labeling, ability is lacking. While previous research demonstrates that labeling is positively associated with help-seeking, interventions aimed at improving help-seeking by improving labeling are not always successful. Parental perceptions of severity, impairment, and stress also predict help-seeking, but have not been examined alongside labeling. Thus, it is unclear how much they add to the parental help-seeking process. The present study simultaneously examined labeling and parental perceptions of severity, impairment, and stress on help-seeking. Participants (82 adult mothers of children ages 3-5 years) read vignettes describing preschool-aged children with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and ADHD, and answered a series of questions to assess their labeling and likelihood of help-seeking for each of the problems presented. Help-seeking was found to be positively associated with labeling (r = .73; r = .60), severity (r = .66), impairment (r = .31), and stress (r = .25). Furthermore, severity, impairment, and stress predicted endorsements of help-seeking above and beyond what was predicted by labeling alone (R2 change = .12; χ2 (3) = 20.03, p < .01). These results underscore the importance of parental perceptions of children's behavior to the help-seeking process.

Normative Trends in Physically Aggressive Behavior: Age-Aggression Curves from 6 to 24 Months.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate age-related trends in physically aggressive behaviors in children before age 2 years. STUDY DESIGN: A normative US sample of 477 mothers of 6- to 24-month-old children reported on the frequency of 9 interpersonally directed aggressive child behaviors, and hurting animals, in the past month. RESULTS: Almost all (94%) of the children were reported to have engaged in physically aggressive behavior in the past month. Based on 2-part regression models, the prevalences of kicking (OR, 1.70; P = .023), pushing (OR, 3.22; P < .001), and swiping (OR, 1.78; P = .018) increased with years of age, but the prevalence of hair pulling decreased with age (OR, 0.55; P = .020). The prevalences of hitting and throwing increased initially, then plateaued at age 18-20 months, and then decreased (quadratic aOR, 0.13 and 0.16; P < .001 and .010, respectively). The frequencies of hitting (R2 = .05; P < .001) and throwing (R2 = .03; P = .030) increased, and the frequencies of hair pulling (R2 = .07; P < .001) and scratching (R2 = .02; P = .042) decreased with age (P values adjusted for false discovery rate). CONCLUSIONS: Physically aggressive behavior in the 6- to 24-month age range appears to be nearly ubiquitous. Most, but not all, forms of physical aggression increase with age. These results can guide pediatricians as they educate and counsel parents about their child's behavior in the first 2 years of life.

The development of individual physically aggressive behaviors from infancy to toddlerhood.

In the present investigation, we studied the development of 6 physically aggressive behaviors in infancy and toddlerhood, posing 3 questions (a) How do the prevalences of individual physically aggressive behaviors change from 8, 15, and 24 months? (b) Are there groups of children who show distinctive patterns in the way individual physically aggressive behaviors develop over time? (c) What are the behavioral pathways leading from 8- to 24-month acts of physical aggression? Mothers and fathers (N = 272) from a moderately at-risk population reported on their children's physical aggression at each time point. The results revealed the commonality of physical aggression at all ages studied and the diverging developmental patterns of individual behaviors. Some physically aggressive behaviors became less common (e.g., hair pulling), while others became more common (e.g., hitting), with age. Roughly 42% of the children exhibited an increased propensity, relative to their peers, to aggress at all ages. Kicking, biting, hair pulling, and pinching/scratching at 8 months were the first steps on behavioral pathways leading to physical aggression at 24 months. These pathways principally suggested heterotypic continuity in physical aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record

Psychometric characteristics of the Parenting Scale in a Vietnamese sample.

The Parenting Scale (PS) is a well-established instrument for measuring discipline practices in Western populations. However, whether the PS is a valid and reliable measure in Eastern populations is not known. Thus, this study examined the psychometric properties of the PS in a sample of 433 Vietnamese parents of children aged 2-7 years. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) examined the commonly used Reitman et al.'s two-factor and Rhoades and O'Leary's three-factor solutions. Neither factor structure fit the data. An exploratory factor analysis identified a 12-item one-factor and 14-item two-factor solutions that overlapped substantially with established factor structures. The one-factor solution reflected Lax/Overreactive parenting and the two-factor solution consisted of Lax/Overreactive and Hostile subscales. The factor structures were confirmed via multigroup CFA. Internal consistencies were acceptable and ranged between .70 and .85. Each factor was positively associated with parent anger, dysfunctional cognitions about child behaviour, and externalising child behaviour problems. However, when entered simultaneously in a regression, Hostile discipline was not uniquely associated with child behaviour. Overall, results support the potential utility of the 12-item one-factor PS as a measure of dysfunctional parenting practices for Vietnamese parents.

Parental Flooding During Conflict: A Psychometric Evaluation of a New Scale.

Parents who are overwhelmed by the intensity and aversive nature of child negative affect - those who are experiencing flooding - may be less likely to react effectively and instead may focus on escaping the aversive situation, disciplining either overly permissively or punitively to escape quickly from child negative affect. However, there are no validated self-report measures of the degree to which parents experience flooding, impeding the exploration of these relations. Thus, we created and evaluated the Parent Flooding scale (PFS), assessing the extent to which parents believe their children's negative affect during parent-child conflicts is unexpected, overwhelming and distressing. We studied its factorial validity, reliability, and concurrent validity in a community sample of 453 couples with 3- to 7-year-old children (51.9 % girls) recruited via random digit dialing. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated a one-factor solution with excellent internal consistency. Test-retest stability over an average of 5.6 months was high. Concurrent validity was suggested by the associations of flooding with parents' aggression toward their children, overreactive and lax discipline, parenting satisfaction, and parents' anger, as well as with child externalizing behavior and negative affect. Incrementally concurrent validity analyses indicated that flooding was a unique predictor of mothers' and fathers' overreactive discipline and fathers' parent-child aggression and lax discipline, over and above the contributions of parents' anger and children's negative affect. The present results support the psychometric validity of the PFS.

The emergence and evolution of infant externalizing behavior.

In the present investigation, we examined the developmental viability of the externalizing behavior construct spanning the period from 8 to 24 months of age. A sample of 274 psychologically aggressive couples was recruited from hospital maternity wards and followed from childbirth through 24 months of age. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaire measures of infant physical aggression, defiance, activity level, and distress to limitations at 8, 15, and 24 months. The developmental viability of externalizing behavior at each age studied was suggested by several results. Physical aggression, defiance, activity level, and distress to limitations reflected the operation of a single underlying externalizing behavior factor. In some cases, these individual facets of externalizing behavior became more strongly associated with one another over time. The externalizing construct exhibited remarkable longitudinal stability, with the stability of physical aggression and defiance increasing with age. The externalizing behavior construct was concurrently and prospectively associated with several factors in its nomological network (e.g., interparental conflict and poor parental bond with the infant). Our findings suggest that externalizing behaviors coalesce into a psychologically meaningful construct by 8 months of infant life. Researchers who seek to chart the emergence of the externalizing behavior construct may now need to look to earlier months.

Infant externalizing behavior as a self-organizing construct.

We evaluated the extent to which the externalizing behavior construct is self-organizing in the first 2 years of life. Based on dynamic systems theory, we hypothesized that changes in physical aggression, defiance, activity level, and distress to limitations would each be predicted by earlier manifestations of one another. These hypotheses were evaluated via mothers' and fathers' reports of 274 infants' externalizing behaviors at 8, 15, and 24 months of child age. Eight-month measures of physical aggression, activity level, and/or distress to limitations explained increases in physical aggression, defiance, activity level, and distress to limitations from 8 to 15 months. Increases in defiance and activity level from 15 to 24 months were predicted by 15-month physical aggression and/or distress to limitations. These findings suggest that the externalizing behavior construct is formed by dynamic interplay among its individual elements, particularly between 8 and 15 months.

Cultural diversity: do we need a new wake-up call for parent training?

In 1996, Forehand and Kotchick concluded that parent-training (PT) interventions largely ignored cultural influences on parenting behavior. They reasoned that the failure to integrate the influence of ethnicity into theories of parenting behavior could result in culturally biased and less effective interventions. The present article addresses whether their "wake-up call" went unheard. We review research on PT treatment studies and examine (a) the rate of inclusion of ethnic minority parents in PT research, (b) the effectiveness of PT across ethnic groups, and (c) the effectiveness of culturally adapted PT interventions. Results show that there has been an increase in the ethnic diversity of PT treatment studies over the past three decades, yet only one methodologically sound study directly examined ethnicity as a moderator of PT treatment outcome. Despite the paucity of evidence that ethnicity is a moderator of parent-training outcomes, a number of culturally adapted PT treatments have been developed. These adapted interventions have rarely been tested against the unadapted interventions on which they are based. The results fail to support the current emphasis on ethnicity in efforts to improve the effectiveness of PT. We present methodological and conceptual limitations in the existing literature and provide recommendations for researchers studying the effects of ethnicity on PT outcomes.

Bidirectional Influences in Mother-Toddler Dyads: An Examination of the Relative Influence of Mothers' and Children's Behaviors.

This study examined bidirectional relations between mothers' lax and overreactive discipline and children's misbehavior and negative affect. We examined the moment-to-moment stability of mothers' and children's behaviors (actor effects) and mothers' and children's influence on their partners' subsequent behaviors (partner effects). Participants were 71 mothers and their 24-48-month-old children observed during a thirty-minute interaction. Both children and mothers exhibited stability in their own behaviors and influenced the subsequent behaviors of their partners. Additionally, a comparison of partner effects indicated that overreactive discipline more strongly predicted child negative affect than child negative affect predicted overreactive discipline. In contrast, although a child's negative affect predicted lax discipline, lax discipline did not predict subsequent child negative affect.

Affective and physiological factors predicting maternal response to infant crying.

This study evaluated physiological, affective, and perceptual factors hypothesized to predict how quickly 45 primiparous mothers of 7-9-month-old infants would respond to non-distressed infant crying. Aversiveness ratings of the non-distressed cries of one's "own" infant and physiological reactivity to one's "own" infant crying accounted for a significant amount of the variance in a Cox proportional hazards regression analysis of speed of response. These findings suggest that mothers who have strong affective and physiological responses to non-distressed infant cries may be more likely to respond indiscriminately to attention-seeking infant behaviors.

Antecedents of toddler aggression: dysfunctional parenting in mother-toddler dyads.

Aggression is stable as early as 2 years of age and predicts many negative adult outcomes. Although longitudinal predictors of child aggression have been identified, information is lacking regarding the proximal precursors of toddlers' aggression. During a 30-min interaction, 54 mother-toddler dyads were observed. Toddlers were categorized as aggressive or nonaggressive based on whether they exhibited aggression toward their mothers within the interaction. Most toddlers in both groups escalated from mild to more severe forms of misbehavior. Mothers of aggressive toddlers displayed more lax and over-reactive discipline when addressing misbehaviors that preceded aggression than did mothers of nonaggressive toddlers. Mothers of aggressive toddlers either ignored or attended neutrally or positively to the aggression. Implications for parenting interventions are discussed.

Effectiveness of anger treatments for specific anger problems: a meta-analytic review.

This meta-analytic review analyzed the effects of anger treatment on various aspects of anger with 65% of studies not previously reviewed. To improve on past reviews, this review included only noninstitutionalized adults with demonstrable anger as determined by standardized measures. The studies were compiled from a computer search of published and unpublished anger treatment studies conducted between January 1980 and August 2002. The search resulted in 23 studies containing one or more treatment groups and a control group, with effect sizes derived for each anger problem within each treatment category. The meta-analysis resulted in medium to large effect sizes across therapies. Further analyses of effect sizes within treatment groups by the kind of anger reported support the implementation of cognitive therapies for driving anger, anger suppression, and trait anger. In contrast, relaxation is recommended in cases of state anger. Other implications for treatment and future research directions are discussed, including a special need for research with treatment-seeking individuals and clinical populations.