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Background: Although numerous studies have examined parental influence on adolescent alcohol misuse, few have examined how adolescents impact parental behavior or the reciprocal nature of parent-adolescent behavior relative to alcohol misuse., Objectives: This study assessed bidirectional relationships between adolescent alcohol misuse and three alcohol-specific parenting behaviors (substance-specific monitoring, permissive communication messages about alcohol, and cautionary communication messages about alcohol)., Methods: Data were from 1,645 parent-adolescent dyads drawn from a longitudinal study spanning grades 6-10. A multivariate latent curve model with structured residuals was used to test study hypotheses., Results: One marginally significant result emerged (increased alcohol misuse leads to greater substance-specific monitoring) after accounting for underlying developmental processes., Conclusions: Though practical implications are limited based on the results of the study, further directions for research regarding study design and measurement are provided to more fully examine dynamic processes between parents and adolescents relative to alcohol use.

This study examined the development of baseline autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) physiological activity from 12 to 36 months as well as antecedents (poverty) and consequents (behavior problems) of individual differences in physiological development. Children (N=179; 50% poor; 56% African American; 52% male) provided saliva samples at 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age. Latent growth curve models indicated that nonlinear change was evident for both sAA and cortisol, with sAA increasing and cortisol decreasing with age. Children residing in poor households exhibited lower initial levels of sAA, but not cortisol. African-American children showed slightly smaller decreases in cortisol over time. Initial levels of sAA predicted higher levels of internalizing behaviors at 36 months and both initial levels of and total change in sAA predicted higher levels of externalizing behaviors at 36 months. There was no evidence that sAA or cortisol mediated the relationship between poverty and later behavior problems., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The current study examined the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV), maternal parenting behaviors, and child effortful control in a diverse sample of 705 families living in predominantly low-income, rural communities. Using structural equation modeling, the authors simultaneously tested whether observed sensitive parenting and/or harsh-intrusive parenting over the toddler years mediated the relationship between early IPV and later effortful control. Results suggest that parenting behaviors fully mediate this relationship. Although higher levels of IPV were associated with both higher levels of harsh-intrusive parenting and lower levels of sensitive supportive parenting, only sensitive supportive parenting was associated with later effortful control when both parenting indices were considered in the same model.