Search

Guided by family systems theory, the present study sought to identify patterns of family functioning from observational assessments of interparental, parent-child, and triadic contexts. In addition, it charted the implications for patterns of family functioning for children's developmental trajectories of adjustment in the school context across the early school years. Two-hundred thirty-four kindergarten children (129 girls and 105 boys; mean age = 6.0 years, SD = 0.50 at Wave 1) and their parents participated in this multimethod, 3-year longitudinal investigation. As expected, latent class analyses extracted 3 primary typologies of functioning including: (a) cohesive, (b) enmeshed, and (c) disengaged families. Furthermore, family patterns were differentially associated with children's maladaptive adjustment trajectories in the school context. The findings highlight the developmental utility of incorporating pattern-based approaches to family functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined interrelationships among children's cortisol reactivity and their psychological reactivity to interparental conflict in a sample of 208 first graders (mean age = 6.6 years). Assessments of children's psychological reactivity to conflict distinguished among their distress, hostile, and involvement responses across multiple methods (i.e., observation, questionnaire) and informants (i.e., observer, parent). Relative to other forms of conflict reactivity, children's distress responses to interparental conflict were consistent, unique predictors of their elevated cortisol reactivity to interparental conflict even after inclusion of demographic factors as moderators and covariates. Moderator analyses further revealed that associations between distress and elevated cortisol levels in response to interparental conflict were particularly pronounced when children exhibited high levels of involvement in conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This multimethod, prospective study examined whether child and parent gender moderate the relation between interparental discord and changes in parenting practices over a 1-year time span. Design. Self-report questionnaires of interparental discord and parenting as well as an observational measure of interparental discord were collected from a sample of 226 mothers and fathers of kindergarten children. Results. Multigroup analyses using structural equation models indicated that the relation between a multimethod assessment of interparental discord and changes in parent-reported childrearing practices varied significantly as a function of child gender only. Interparental discord predicted decreases in parental responsiveness to boys' distress while predicting increases in parental responsiveness to girls' distress. Moderating analyses further indicated that interparental discord predicted significant increases in parental use of psychological control with boys only. Conclusions. The considerable heterogeneity in previous research examining prospective linkages between interparental discord and parenting practices may be attributable, in part, to the moderating role of child gender. Differences in the moderating role of child gender across separate dimensions of parenting highlight the importance of distinguishing among specific parenting practices in examining gender differences in family pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This study assessed the direct and indirect relations between 2 types of social support - parenting support and general social support - and optimal parenting. Design. Self-report data were gathered from 165 married mothers of firstborn 4th-graders between the ages of 9 and 11 years. Widely accepted measures of warmth, monitoring, general psychological distress, parenting stress, and general social support were used. A measure of parenting support from family and friends was developed for this study. Results. Path analysis indicated that the relation between specific parenting support and optimal parenting was completely mediated by parenting stress and not by general psychological distress. The relation between general social support and optimal parenting was not completely mediated by either parenting stress or general psychological distress. Conclusions. This study integrated essential components from the social support, stress and coping, and parenting research. The authors identify parenting stress as a mediator of the relation between parenting support and optimal parenting by focusing on the specificity of social support and stress in the domain of parenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental psychopathology has successfully advanced an understanding of risk and protective factors in multivariate models. However, many areas have relied on top-down approaches that define psychological constructs based largely or solely on their physical form. In this paper, we first describe how top-down approaches have significantly hindered progress by generating generic risk and protective models that yield little more than the conclusion that axiomatically positive and negative factors respectively beget an interchangeable array of positive and negative child sequelae. To advance precision and novelty as central priorities, we describe behavioral systems frameworks rooted in evolutionary theory that infuse both form (i.e., what it looks like) and function (what it is designed to do) into psychological constructs. We further address how this paradigm has generated new growing points for developmental models of interparental relationships and parenting. In the final section, we provide recommendations for expanding this approach to other areas of developmental psychopathology. Throughout the paper, we document how the focus on functional patterns of behavior in well-defined developmental contexts advance precision and novelty in understanding children's response processes to threats, opportunities, and challenges in associations between their developmental histories and their psychological sequelae.

Temperamental sensitivity (TS), which is a correlated suite of traits reflecting a lower threshold of environmental stimulation and heightened responsivity to a range of environmental contexts, is an empirically documented susceptibility factor that increases children's plasticity to supportive and harsh family environments. To expand the limited options for assessing TS, this article tested the psychometric properties of a new Q-set measure (i.e., TS Q-scale) derived from the California Child Q-Set (CCQ-Set) and completed by experimenters. Participants in Study 1 consisted of 243 mothers, their partners, and their preschool children ( M age = 4.60 years; 56% girls; 54% Black or multiracial; 16% Latinx). For Study 2, participants included 201 mothers and their young children ( M age = 2.25 years; 44% girls; 63% Black or multiracial; 11% Latinx). Both longitudinal studies utilized multimethod, multiinformant measurement batteries. The TS Q-scale evidenced satisfactory internal consistencies across both studies. Support for the convergent and discriminant validity in Study 1 was evident in its large, unique, and significantly stronger association with a standard, more extensive, observational assessment of TS when compared with conventional dimensions of temperament. In each study, the TS Q-scale significantly moderated the association between family functioning and latent change analyses of children's functioning for most of the forms of child adjustment. Supporting its predictive validity as a differential susceptibility attribute, children with higher scores on the TS Q-scale exhibited substantially better functioning than their peers in supportive socialization contexts and considerably worse functioning in harsh rearing conditions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined parental romantic attachment security as a mediator of prospective associations between hostile interparental conflict and parental discipline (i.e., power-assertive, permissive, and inductive discipline) for mothers and fathers of young children. Furthermore, this study utilized a novel, automatic assessment of romantic attachment security in examining whether romantic attachment assessed at controlled (i.e., self-reported) and automatic (i.e., a rapid word-sorting task) levels of representation differentially serve as spillover mechanisms. Participants included 235 mothers (62% White), fathers (55% White), and a target child between the ages of 2 and 4 ( M age = 2.97; 55% girls) recruited from a moderate-sized metropolitan area in the Northeastern United States. Families were assessed annually across three waves of data collection. Results from autoregressive structural equation model analyses revealed that romantic attachment operated as spillover mechanism for mothers. In particular, hostile interparental conflict was associated with power-assertive discipline through changes in mothers' automatic romantic attachment security. We also found that hostile interparental conflict was associated with inductive discipline through changes in mothers' romantic attachment avoidance. Neither controlled nor automatic romantic attachment representations served as spillover mechanisms for fathers. Findings are discussed within family systems and attachment frameworks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

There is a well-documented interdependency between destructive interparental conflict (IPC) and parenting difficulties (i.e., spillover effect), yet little is known about the mechanisms that "carry" spillover between IPC and parenting. Guided by a cascade model framework, the current study used a longitudinal, multimethod, multi-informant design to examine a process model of spillover that tested whether parental executive functioning (working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control) served as a mediator of the prospective associations between IPC and subsequent changes in parenting over a 2-year period. Mothers and fathers were separated into differentiated models and multiple domains of parenting were examined (i.e., authoritarian discipline and scaffolding behavior). Participants included 231 families (both mothers and fathers of preschoolers). Race was reported as White (62%), Black (21%), Mixed (8%), Asian (3%), or Other (6%) and 14% considered their ethnicity to be Hispanic/Latino. Median household income was $65,000. Results indicated that for fathers, IPC indirectly predicted domain-general parenting difficulties (increased authoritarian parenting and decreased scaffolding) via deficits in paternal cognitive flexibility (but not inhibitory control or working memory). In mothers, IPC directly predicted domain-specific parenting difficulties (decreased scaffolding only) that did not operate via maternal executive functions. Notably, these effects occurred over and above the influence of parental socioeconomic status. This study constitutes a first step toward documenting parental executive functioning as a mechanism underlying the spillover of IPC to the parent-child relationship. Family interventions intended to interrupt IPC spillover should emphasize father involvement and consider targeting parental executive functions as change mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

To better understand biology by environment interactions in early temperament, we examined whether children's respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; resting RSA and RSA reactivity) operated as a biological marker of differential susceptibility to maternal harsh parenting in predicting children's temperament. Participants were 133 mother-child dyads (53% male children) from families oversampled for lower income, higher life stress, and child maltreatment risk. Mothers reported harsh parenting at age 3 and children's temperament, including negative affectivity, effortful control, and surgency, at ages 3 and 4. Resting RSA was measured during a 3-min resting task. RSA reactivity was computed as a difference score between a 4-min toy cleanup task and the resting task. Results showed that the interaction between maternal harsh parenting and children's resting RSA significantly predicted negative affectivity, after controlling for sex, household income, and age 3 negative affectivity. Specifically, harsh parenting positively predicted negative affectivity among children with higher, but not lower, resting RSA. Similarly, maternal harsh parenting interacted with children's RSA reactivity to predict negative affectivity after adjusting for controls, such that harsh parenting positively predicted negative affectivity in children with higher, but not lower, RSA reactivity. These findings suggest that higher resting RSA and greater RSA reactivity may operate as markers of increased susceptibility to negative parenting in the development of negative affectivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

This multi-method longitudinal study sought to investigate linkage in parental neuroendocrine functioning - indicated by cortisol - over two measurement occasions. In addition, we examined how parental cortisol linkage may operate as an intermediate factor in the cascade of contextual risks and parenting. Participants were 235 families with a young child (Mage = 33.56, 36.00 years for mothers and fathers respectively), who were followed for two annual measurement occasions. Parental cortisol linkage was measured around a laboratory conflict discussion task at both measurement occasions (i.e., pre-discussion, 20- and 40-minute post-discussion for each measurement occasion). Maternal and paternal parenting behavior was observed during a parent-child discipline discussion task. Findings indicated similar levels of cortisol linkage between parents over the two measurement occasions. Furthermore, cortisol linkage between parents operated as an intermediate factor between contextual risks and more compromised parenting behavior. That is, greater contextual risks, indicated by greater neighborhood risk and interparental conflict, were linked to greater cortisol linkage between parents over time, which was in turn linked to greater authoritarian parenting during parent-child interaction. Findings highlighted the importance of understanding physiological-linkage processes with respect to the impact of contextual risks on family functioning and may have crucial implications for clinical work.

Maternal insensitivity to children's emotional distress (e.g., expressions of sadness or fearfulness) is one mechanism through which maternal alcohol dependence may increase children's risk for psychopathology. Although emotion dysregulation is consistently associated with psychopathology, it remains unclear how or why alcohol dependence's effects on caregiving responses to children's distress may impact children's emotion regulation over time, particularly in ways that may engender risks for psychopathology. This study examined longitudinal associations between lifetime maternal alcohol dependence symptoms, mothers' insensitivity to children's emotional distress cues, and children's emotional reactivity among 201 mother-child dyads ( M child age = 2.14 years; 56% Black; 11% Latino). Structural equation modeling analyses revealed a significant mediational pathway such that maternal alcohol dependence predicted increases in mothers' insensitivity to children's emotional distress across a one-year period ( β = .16, p = .013), which subsequently predicted decreases in children's emotional reactivity one year later ( β = -.29, p = .009). Results suggest that mothers with alcohol dependence symptoms may struggle to sensitively respond to children's emotional distress, which may prompt children to suppress or hide their emotions as an adaptive, protective strategy. The potential developmental benefits and consequences of early, protective expressive suppression strategies are discussed via developmental psychopathology frameworks.

This study examined children's exposure to family adversity, hostile reactivity to parental conflict, and negative family representations as mediators of the prospective relation between their temperamental exuberance and externalizing symptoms. Participants included 243 preschool children ( M age = 4.60 years; 56% girls) and parents (48% Black; 16% Latinx) in a multi-method and multi-informant study with three annual measurement occasions. Structural equation model results specifically supported children's hostile reactivity to parental conflict and negative family representations as mediators. Exuberance predicted residualized increases in children's hostile reactivity and negative family representations over a 1-year period. In turn, children's hostile reactivity and negative family representations predicted their greater externalizing symptoms 1 year later after controlling for prior externalizing symptoms. Results are discussed in the context of their relation and refinement of temperamental models of developmental psychopathology.

Child maltreatment constitutes a significant environmental risk for children, with carryover effects into future generations. There is a need to characterize protective factors that may buffer against the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment. The current study addresses this gap through two primary aims: 1) the development and validation of a novel measure assessing resolution of maternal childhood maltreatment trauma using narrative coding methods and 2) the evaluation of maternal maltreatment trauma resolution as a buffering factor that may moderate associations between maternal neglect histories and sensitive parenting of offspring. Results of reliability analyses from this sample of 210 diverse, low-income mothers suggest the novel childhood maltreatment trauma resolution measure is highly reliable. Furthermore, results highlight the generalizability, criterion validity, and concurrent and predictive validity of the measure. Results from cross-sectional analyses show that trauma resolution moderates associations between maternal physical neglect histories and sensitive parenting, such that under high maternal trauma resolution, there is no longer a negative association between neglect histories and sensitive parenting. Results from longitudinal analyses also show a protective effect of maternal trauma resolution, such that trauma resolution has a protective-enhancing effect on maternal sensitivity. Implications for research and clinical practice with families are discussed.

This multi-method longitudinal study evaluated how changes in maternal sensitive parenting may operate as an indirect factor linking family instability and the development of child externalizing problems over time. This study also investigated how mothers' stress reactivity within the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) may moderate the association between family instability and the development of maternal sensitivity. Participants were 235 families with a young child (M age = 2.97 years at the first measurement occasion) and these families were followed for two annual measurement occasions. Maternal sensitivity was observed during two discipline tasks (i.e., forbidden toy, discipline discussion tasks), and maternal SNS stress reactivity was indicated by their salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) reactivity to an interpersonal stressor. Findings revealed significant direct effects of family instability and family instability-x-sAA reactivity interaction in association with the change in maternal sensitivity over time. For both tasks, mothers with greater sAA reactivity exhibited stronger associations between family instability and the growth of their sensitivity. Tests of indirect effects indicated that change in maternal sensitivity operated as an indirect factor between family instability-x-sAA reactivity interaction and the change in child externalizing problems. The present findings have important implications for understanding parental and child sequelae associated with unstable family contexts.

Empirical research examining the Spillover Hypothesis has largely substantiated that interparental conflict comprised of hostility and anger has negative implications for parenting behaviors and cascading effects on children's development. However, less is known about how constructive forms of interparental conflict may operate in spillover processes. Toward this, the present study examined how interparental supportive and problem-solving approaches to conflict were associated with parental guided learning in the caregiving context and by extension young children's executive functioning. Participants included 231 families (mothers, fathers, and their child). Assessments of constructive interparental conflict were derived from both observational tasks and multi-informant report. Parental supportive problem solving was assessed observationally during a goal-directed parent-child interaction. Children's inhibitory control, working memory, and visual-spatial reasoning were assessed using validated tasks. Analyses were conducted in a structural equation modeling framework, and significance of indirect paths were tested using RMediation. Results showed constructive interparental conflict was associated with increases in maternal supportive problem solving, which in turn predicted increases in children's working memory. Furthermore, constructive interparental conflict was indirectly associated with increases in children's inhibitory control via paternal supportive problem solving. These findings were significant over two waves of data collection after controlling for child sex, maternal and paternal age, and maternal and paternal education. Findings underscore the potential utility of family resilience theory and domain approaches to parenting for increasing specificity and precision in identifying spillover processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

This study tested whether the associations between interparental conflict, children's emotional reactivity, and school adjustment were moderated by children's cortisol reactivity in a sample of young children (N = 243; mean age = 4.6 years at Wave 1; 56% female, 44% male) and their parents. Using a longitudinal, autoregressive design, observational assessments of children's emotional reactivity at Wave 2 mediated the relationship between an observational measure of Wave 1 conflict between parents and teacher's report of children's school adjustment at Wave 3. However, children's cortisol reactivity to parent conflict at Wave 1 moderated the first link, such that emotional reactivity operated as a mediator for children with heightened cortisol reactivity but not children with low cortisol reactivity. Moderation was expressed in a "for better" or "for worse" form hypothesized by biological sensitivity to context theory. Thus, children with high cortisol reactivity experienced greater emotional reactivity than their peers when faced with more destructive conflict but also lower emotional reactivity when exposed to more constructive interparental conflict. Results are discussed as to how they advance emotional security and biological sensitivity to context theories.

Guided by the evolutionary perspective and specialization hypothesis, this multi-method (behavioral observation, questionnaire) longitudinal study adopted a person-centered approach to explore children's problem-solving skills within different contexts. Participants were 235 young children (M age = 2.97 years at the first measurement occasion) and their parents assessed in two measurement occasions spaced one year apart. Latent profile analyses revealed four unique problem-solving profiles, capturing variability in children's performance, and observed engagement in abstract vs. reward-oriented (RO) problem-solving tasks at wave one. The four profiles included: (a) a high-abstract-high-RO, (b) a high-abstract-low-RO, (c) a low-abstract-high-RO, and (d) a low-abstract-low-RO classes. Contextual risks within and outside families during wave one, including greater neighborhood crime, impoverishment, and observed lower maternal sensitivity were linked to the elevated likelihood for children from the two profiles with low-abstract problem-solving, particularly those from the low-abstract-high-RO problem-solving profile. Furthermore, child problem-solving profiles were linked to meaningful differences in their socioemotional functioning one year later. The present finding has important implications in revealing the heterogeneity in child problem-solving within different contexts that responded differently to contextual risks. In addition, this study advanced the understanding of the developmental implications of child problem-solving capacity.

According to differential susceptibility theory (DST), some children may be more sensitive to both positive and negative features of the environment. However, research has generated a list of widely disparate temperamental traits that may reflect differential susceptibility to the environment. In addition, findings have implicated these temperament × environment interactions in predicting a wide variety of child outcomes. This study uses a novel evolutionary model of temperament to examine whether differential susceptibility operates in a domain-general or domain-specific manner. Using a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 243 preschoolers and their parents (56% female; 48% African American), we examined the interactions between maternal and paternal parenting quality and two evolutionary informed temperament profiles (i.e., Hawks and Doves) in predicting changes in teacher-reported conduct problems and depressive symptoms from preschool to first grade. Results suggest that differential susceptibility operates in a domain-specific fashion. Specifically, the "Hawk" temperament was differentially susceptible to maternal parenting in predicting externalizing problems. In contrast, the "Dove" temperament was susceptible to both paternal and maternal parenting quality in predicting changes in depressive symptoms. Findings provide support for an integrative framework that synthesizes DST with an evolutionary, function-based approach to temperament.

Research suggests that unsupportive parenting practices are consistent but modest risk factors for children's behavioral and social problems, emphasizing the importance in identifying sources of variability in children's vulnerability. To address this research direction, this study examined children's callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., affective indifference; lack of guilt or empathy), as a moderator of the associations among maternal and paternal unsupportive parenting and their externalizing symptoms. Participants included 240 mothers, partners, and their children ( M age = 4.6 years; 56% girls) from diverse backgrounds (48% Black; 16% Latinx) who took part in a longitudinal multi-method study with two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Findings from structural equation modeling indicated the prospective association between observational assessments of unsupportive maternal (but not paternal) parenting and residualized changes in teacher reports children's externalizing problems over 2 years was significantly moderated by maternal reports of children's callous-unemotional traits ( β = -.21, p < .05). Follow-up analyses of the interaction provided support for differential susceptibility. These findings highlight that children with elevated CU traits may experience diminished susceptibility to parenting, while children with lower levels of CU traits may exhibit plasticity in response to socialization environments.

Background: The dimensional model of environmental adversity highlighted the effects of an unpredictable environment in promoting risky development. Toward gaining greater specificity in understanding, this multimethod, longitudinal study investigated the role of two sources of environmental unpredictability-ancestral cues versus statistical learning, and their interaction with dove temperament conceptualized within the evolutionary model of temperament, in shaping adolescent functioning., Methods: Participants were 192 families with an adolescent (M age  = 12.4) followed for two annual waves. We measured unpredictability within the ancestral-cue approach as incidents of disruptive family events, and statistical-learning unpredictability as the random variability in observed moment-to-moment maternal hostility during parent-child interaction. We focused on dove temperament, which characterizes strategies of cautious and inhibited behavior in novel contexts and persistence and intrinsic engagement in benign contexts., Results: Findings indicated unique effects of ancestral-cue versus statistical-learning unpredictability-in interaction with dove temperament-in association with adolescent functioning. Ancestral-cue unpredictability interacted with dove temperament in association with vagal stress reactivity, and the interactive effects of statistical-learning unpredictability were only associated with set-shifting. Furthermore, the family instability-x-dove temperament interaction was linked to adolescent adjustment via vagal reactivity. Adolescents with lower dove temperament showed dampened vagal reactivity within the more unpredictable environments, which was in turn associated with a greater decrease in social withdrawal over time., Conclusions: The findings highlighted the specificity in different sources of environmental unpredictability in shaping adolescent development., (© 2022 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Parent self-regulation is multifaceted, involving emotional, cognitive, and biological processes that support or constrain parenting behavior. It is highly relevant to disciplinary contexts in which parents' regulatory difficulties can contribute to harsh discipline, which is linked to children's maladjustment. In this article, we address why parents' self-regulation is an essential focus for basic and applied research on parental discipline. We emphasize the need to 1) incorporate and test multiple domains of parent self-regulation to understand their respective and interactive contributions and 2) understand how parent self-regulation interfaces with parent-child coregulation in delineating mechanistic pathways of the effects of harsh discipline on children's adjustment. These foci will more fully inform the etiology of children's maladjustment related to harsh discipline and knowledge regarding specific, malleable intervention targets aimed at reducing harsh discipline., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: None

The study examined the moderating role of children's affect-biased attention to angry, fearful, and sad adult faces in the link between interparental conflict and children's distinct forms of involvement. Participants included 243 preschool children (M age  = 4.60 years, 56% female) and their parents from racially (48% African American, 43% White) and socioeconomically (median annual household income = $36,000) diverse backgrounds. Data collection took place in the Northeastern United States (2010-2014). Utilizing a multi-method, multi-informant, longitudinal design, attention away from anger selectively amplified the link between interparental conflict and children's subsequent coercive involvement (β = -.15). Greater attention to fear potentiated the pathway between interparental conflict and children's later cautious (β = .14) and caregiving involvement (β = .15). Findings are interpreted in the context of environmental sensitivity models., (© 2022 The Authors. Child Development © 2022 Society for Research in Child Development.)

Guided by emotional security theory, this study examined the family-level antecedents of children's reaction patterns to interparental conflict in a sample of 243 preschool children ( M age = 4.60 years; 48% Black; 16% Latinx; 56% girls) and their parents in the Northeastern United States. Behavioral observations of children's responses to interparental conflict over two annual measurement occasions assessed their tendencies to exhibit four patterns of defending against threat: secure (i.e., efficiently address direct threats), mobilizing (i.e., high reactivity to potential threat and social opportunities), dominant (i.e., directly defeat threat), and demobilizing (i.e., reduce salience as a target of hostility). Latent profile analyses of interparental, coparental, and parent characteristics derived from multiple methods at the first wave yielded four profiles corresponding with harmonious, enmeshed, compensatory, and detouring patterns of family-level functioning. Additional analyses revealed that children in harmonious and compensatory family profiles exhibited more secure patterns of reactivity over a 1-year period than children in the enmeshed family profile. In contrast, subsequent mobilizing reactivity was most pronounced for children in the enmeshed family profile. Finally, children in the detouring profile exhibited substantially higher levels of demobilizing reactivity to interparental conflict. Results are discussed in the context of how they inform and refine emotional security theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined children's duration of attention to negative emotions (i.e., anger, sadness, fear) as a mediator of associations among maternal and paternal unsupportive parenting and children's externalizing symptoms in a sample of 240 mothers, fathers, and their preschool children ( M age = 4.64 years). The multimethod, multi-informant design consisted of three annual measurement occasions. Analysis of maternal and paternal unsupportive parenting as predictors in latent difference changes in children's affect-biased attention and behavior problems indicated that children's attention to negative emotions mediated the specific association between maternal unsupportive parenting and children's subsequent increases in externalizing symptoms. Maternal unsupportive parenting at Wave 1 predicted decreases in children's attention to negative facial expressions of adults from Wave 1 to 2. Reductions in children's attention to negative emotion, in turn, predicted increases in their externalizing symptoms from Wave 1 to 3. Additional tests of children's fearful distress and hostile responses to parental conflict as explanatory mechanisms revealed that increases in children's fearful distress reactivity from Wave 1 to 2 accounted for the association between maternal unsupportive parenting and concomitant decreases in their attention to negative emotions. Results are discussed in the context of information processing models of family adversity and developmental psychopathology.

Previous research has highlighted the value in parsing unidimensional assessments of children's involvement in interparental conflict into distinct forms for advancing an understanding of children's development; however, little is known about the underlying antecedents of distinct forms of involvement. The present study provides the first systematic analysis of the interparental conflict and parenting predictors of residualized change in maternal reports of three forms of children's involvement in interparental conflict (i.e., cautious, caregiving, coercive). Participants in this multimethod, multi-informant longitudinal study included 243 preschool children ( M age = 4.60 years), mothers, and their partners from racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds. Multivariate analyses demonstrated selectivity in links between interparental conflict and parenting and children's involvement in interparental conflict. Findings from the interparental conflict analyses revealed that Wave 1 constructive conflict uniquely predicted lower Wave 2 cautious involvement, and Wave 1 hostile conflict uniquely predicted greater Wave 2 coercive involvement. Findings from the parenting analyses indicated that Wave 1 maternal responsiveness uniquely predicted lower Wave 2 cautious involvement and Wave 1 maternal vulnerability uniquely predicted greater Wave 2 coercive involvement. Although interparental conflict and parenting antecedents did not predict caregiving involvement, a series of follow-up analyses individually examining each form of interparental conflict and parenting as a predictor of children's involvement revealed that greater Wave 2 caregiving involvement was predicted by higher levels of Wave 1 disengaged conflict and lower levels of Wave 1 constructive conflict. Findings are interpreted in the context of developmental psychopathology models that emphasize children's response patterns to family adversity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Phenotypic resemblance refers to the degree of physical and behavioral similarity between parent and child. Evolutionary approaches to the determinants of parenting have consistently found father-child phenotypic resemblance to serve as a risk factor for harsh discipline, but we still know little about the mechanisms underlying these associations. To address this gap in the literature, the present study employed a mediated moderation model to understand how interparental conflict and dysfunctional child-oriented attributions for children's misbehavior can help explain associations between father-child phenotypic resemblance and harsh discipline during the period of adolescence. Participants included 151 parents of adolescents ( M age = 12.3, range = 12-14) recruited from a northeastern region in the United States. Fathers reported on father-child phenotypic resemblance, interparental conflict, dysfunctional child-oriented attributions, and harsh discipline. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed a significant moderating role of interparental conflict in amplifying associations between phenotypic resemblance and harsh discipline in a for-better-and-for-worse manner over a 1-year period. In support of mediated moderation, we further found that the interaction between phenotypic resemblance and interparental conflict in predicting harsh discipline was partially accounted for by increases in dysfunctional child-oriented attributions over a 1-year period, which in turn, was associated with harsh discipline concurrently. Findings are discussed within evolutionary and developmental frameworks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The present study investigated the interdependence in the moment-to-moment fluctuations in parenting behavior during a triadic family interaction. Furthermore, by considering parenting interdependence within the broader family context, we also evaluated the role of various family risks (i.e., family instability, coparenting conflict, child externalizing problems) on parenting behavior interdependence. Participants were 192 families with an adolescent ( M age = 12.4 years), and maternal and paternal parenting behavior were separately rated on a minute-to-minute basis during a triadic family conflict discussion. Between mothers and fathers, various patterns of interdependence in parental sensitivity and disengagement emerged such that on the minute-to-minute basis, (a) greater maternal sensitivity was linked to greater paternal disengagement, (b) greater maternal disengagement was linked to higher paternal sensitivity, and (c) greater maternal disengagement was associated with lower paternal disengagement. Furthermore, multiple family risk factors moderated the magnitude of parenting interdependence, with the pattern of the moderations being generally consistent such that greater family risks were associated with more dampened parenting interdependence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The present study examined the developmental value of parsing different forms of children's risky involvement in interparental conflict as predictors of children's subsequent psychological adjustment. Participants included a diverse sample of 243 preschool children ( M age = 4.6 years) and their mothers across two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Three forms of risky involvement (i.e., cautious, caregiving, and coercive) were identified using maternal narratives describing children's emotional and behavioral reactivity during and immediately following interparental conflict. Utilizing a multimethod, multi-informant design, findings revealed that each form of involvement prospectively predicted unique configurations of children's developmental outcomes. Greater coercive involvement was associated with higher levels of externalizing problems, callous and unemotional traits, and extraversion. Higher levels of caregiving involvement were linked with greater separation anxiety. Finally, cautious involvement predicted more separation anxiety and social withdrawal.

Guided by evolutionary-developmental models, this study tested the hypothesis that children's exposure to parental relationship instability, defined by initiation and dissolution of caregiver intimate relationships, has both costs in cognitive impairments and benefits in enhanced learning skills. Participants included 243 mothers and their preschool children ( M age 4.60 years; 56% girls) from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds (e.g., 46% Black; 19% Latinx). Consistent with hypotheses, higher levels of parental relationship instability during preschool predicted children's poorer performance on explicit, higher-order cognitive functioning tasks (e.g., IQ, working memory) and better performance in detecting reward probabilities in an implicit learning task 2 years later. Results of the piecewise latent growth curve analysis of the implicit learning task revealed that children experiencing greater family instability were able to more rapidly identify the locations of the hidden rewards in the early, rather than later, stages of the games. Additional findings supported the role of children's antagonistic representations of family relationships as an intermediary mechanism. More specifically, parental relationship instability significantly predicted higher levels of children's antagonistic representations of their families 2 years later after controlling for their earlier antagonistic representations and demographic covariates. Children's antagonistic representations, in turn, were concurrently linked with poorer explicit cognitive functioning and better implicit learning abilities when they were in first grade. The findings inform an understanding of cognitive tradeoffs of experiencing parental relationship instability and may have important implications for modifying educational and clinical programs to capitalize on the cognitive strengths of children who experience environmental unpredictability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Building on Ellis et al.'s theorization for potent dimensions of environmental adversity, the present work sought to evaluate how environmental harshness and unpredictability might function directly and in interaction with child sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) to shape the development of child socioemotional functioning. Participants were 235 young children ( M age = 2.97 at the first measurement occasion) and their parents, who were followed for two consecutive annual measurement occasions. Child SPS was measured through behavioral observation across multiple tasks within the laboratory setting. Greater environmental unpredictability was significantly associated with the development of children's externalizing problems over a year only for children with high SPS. Follow-up analyses indicated that the unpredictability-x-SPS interaction was consistent with differential susceptibility, such that high SPS children showed greater increases in externalizing problems under high unpredictability, but also lower increases/greater decreases in externalizing problems under low unpredictability. Such association did not apply to children with low SPS.

This study examined interparental conflict as a curvilinear predictor of children's reactivity to interparental conflict and, in turn, their school problems across three annual measurements. Participants included 243 preschool children (M age  = 4.60 years; 56% girls) and their parents from racially (e.g., 48% Black; 16% Latinx) diverse backgrounds. Interparental conflict was a significant quadratic predictor of children's emotional reactivity (β = .23) and behavioral dysregulation (β = .27) to conflict over a 1-year period. The robust association between interparental conflict and behavioral dysregulation weakened at high levels of interparental conflict. In contrast, interparental conflict more strongly predicted children's emotional reactivity as conflict exposure increased. Children's emotional reactivity, in turn, predicted their greater school problems 1 year later (β = .25)., (© 2021 The Authors. Child Development © 2021 Society for Research in Child Development.)

Guided by models of family unpredictability, this study was designed to identify the distinctive sequelae of disorganized interparental conflict, a dimension of interparental conflict characterized by abrupt, inexplicable changes in parental emotional lability, conflict tactics, and verbalizations. Participants included 208 kindergarten children (M age = 5.74 years; 56% girls), mothers, and their caregiving partners from racially diverse backgrounds (e.g., 44% Black) who participated in a longitudinal study with two annual measurement occasions. At Wave 1, trained observers assessed disorganized interparental conflict. Observational and survey assessments were used to assess several family (i.e., interparental conflict, parenting difficulties, parent psychopathology, family instability) and demographic (i.e., children's gender, household income, parent education) characteristics. Assessments of child functioning at each wave included psychological adjustment (i.e., externalizing and internalizing symptoms, prosocial behavior), social information processing difficulties, and attention to emotion cues. Findings from structural equation modeling analyses indicated disorganized interparental conflict significantly predicted decreases in children's prosocial behavior and increases in their externalizing problems, angry reactivity to social problems, and biased attention to angry and sad cues over a one-year period. Results were significant while controlling for established measures of interparental conflict, parenting difficulties, parent psychopathology, family instability, and demographic characteristics. The findings suggest that disorganized characteristics of interparental conflict may be an important domain of clinical change beyond the established targets of family harshness and adversity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Informed by the biological sensitivity to the context (BSC) theory, this multimethod, longitudinal study sought to examine how family context may be associated with the development of child sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) over a year. Participants were 235 young children (Mage = 2.97 at the first measurement occasion, 55.3% were girls) and their parents (median annual household income: $55,000 to 74,999), who were followed for two annual measurement occasions. These children consisted of 56.2% White, 21.3% African American, and 16.2% mixed race. Child SPS was measured via behavioral observation within multiple laboratory tasks at both waves and exhibited moderate stability over time. A curvilinear association between environmental harshness and the change in child SPS emerged, which proved consistent with the U-shaped pattern hypothesized by the BSC theory. Children remain at similar levels of SPS over the year under low and high levels of environmental harshness but exhibited decreases in SPS under moderate levels of environmental harshness. A follow-up exploration for the developmental implication of SPS change showed that children with higher SPS benefited more from the supportive environment by developing greater cognitive and behavioral functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

This multistudy article examines whether children's susceptibility to their socialization experiences varies as a function of their dove temperament dispositions, an evolutionarily informed pattern of traits marked by a low threshold of environmental stimulation and greater behavioral flexibility across environmental contexts. Participants in Study 1 consisted of 70 mothers and their 4- to 6-year-old children: M age = 4.79 years; 57% girls; 33% Black or multiracial; 14% Latinx; median annual income range = $55,000 - $74,999. For Study 2, participants were 243 families, including mothers, fathers, and preschool children: M age = 4.60 years; 56% girls; 54% Black or multiracial, 16% Latinx; median annual income = $36,000). The studies used multimethod, multiinformant measurement batteries within a cross-sectional design (i.e., Study 1) or longitudinal design with three annual measurement occasions (i.e., Study 2). Study 1 findings indicated that associations among maternal parenting quality and psychological problems were only significant for children who were high in dove temperament. Consistent with these findings, Study 2 latent growth curve analyses showed that children experiencing high family adversity (i.e., maternal and paternal parenting difficulties, interparental conflict) were more susceptible to subsequent internalizing and social problems only when they were high in dove temperament. Supporting its role as a susceptibility factor, findings revealed that children with dove temperaments evidenced lower levels of psychological problems under supportive family conditions and higher psychological difficulties in adverse family contexts. Analyses further showed that the composition and moderating effects of dove temperament were distinct from other temperamental susceptibility candidates. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Prior work suggests that substance-dependent mothers insensitively respond to their child's emotional needs, which can increase children's risk for psychopathology. However, the mechanisms and processes underlying these associations remain unclarified. Mothers' insensitivity to children's distress is an especially unique predictor of child maladjustment, yet no study has examined whether or how different types of insensitivity to child distress uniquely affect the development of internalizing problems in children of alcohol-dependent mothers. To bridge these gaps, this study examined longitudinal mediational pathways between maternal alcohol dependence symptoms, 2 types of maternal insensitivity to child distress (disengagement and intrusiveness), and 2 types of child internalizing symptoms (affective and anxiety problems) in a majority Black and Latinx sample of young children (Mage = 2.14 years) and their mothers. Results revealed that maternal disengagement mediated associations between maternal alcohol dependence symptoms and child internalizing problems such that alcohol dependence predicted increased disengagement to children's distress, which subsequently predicted increases in children's affective problems. Maternal alcohol dependence symptoms were not associated with intrusiveness to child distress; however, increased intrusiveness predicted later increases in child anxiety problems. Findings support a differentiated approach to studying maternal insensitivity to child distress, specifically indicating that mothers with alcohol dependence symptoms may be more or less likely to display certain types of insensitivity to child distress which may differentially influence children's risk for internalizing problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

This research investigated whether biases in processing threatening emotional cues operate as an indirect pathway through which parental harsh discipline is associated with adolescent socio-emotional functioning. Participants were 192 adolescents (M age = 12.4), and their parents assessed over two years. Findings revealed two significant indirect pathways involving fear processing. Greater parental harsh discipline was linked to more emotional response inhibition difficulty for fear, which was linked to more depressive symptoms in the following year. Greater parental harsh discipline was also associated with more emotional response inhibition difficulty for fear, and thereby, more peer problems later. Findings suggest that adolescent emotional processing operated as an indirect pathway linking parental harsh discipline and adolescent socio-emotional functioning within the broader social context., (© 2020 Society for Research on Adolescence.)

Guided by conceptualizations of relational boundaries from family systems theory, this study examined unique links between detouring (e.g., alliance between parents against child) and young children's psychological functioning after accounting for general family negativity and conflict. Participants in this longitudinal (i.e., 2 annual waves of data collection), multimethod (i.e., observation, survey, semistructured interview), multiinformant (i.e., parent, teacher, observer) study included 218 young children (mean [ M ] age = 5.76 years) and their families. The findings from cross-lagged panel analysis indicated that detouring uniquely predicted increases in children's externalizing problems, hostile attribution bias, and peer rejection and victimization over a 1-year period (i.e., the transition from kindergarten to first grade). Conversely, the findings failed to support a child effects model in that child adjustment problems did not predict increases in detouring or family negativity and conflict over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A considerable body of research has linked parenting to the development of children's self-regulation. However, few studies have considered different domains of self-regulation, the effects of early caregiving behaviors, and whether or not parenting influences children equally. Towards this, the present investigation tested how early maternal insensitivity was associated with difficulties in children's effortful control in early childhood and their regulation of negative emotions during the early school years. Further, we tested whether children's resting vagal tone may operate as a susceptibility factor, consistent with differential susceptibility models. The sample included 220 pairs of mothers and their children who were assessed at 18 months, 3.5 years and 5 years of age. Laboratory visits consisted of observational paradigms and survey assessments. Early maternal insensitivity at 18 months of age forecasted difficulties with effortful control at age 3.5. Moreover, effortful control at age 3.5 was associated with greater anger, but not sadness, regulation at age 5. Consistent with differential susceptibility, children's resting vagal tone at 18 months of age moderated the role of early caregiving on children's effortful control. The findings suggest that low resting vagal tone may operate as a differential susceptibility factor in process models testing associations between early caregiving environments and children's self-regulation.

Parental alcohol dependence is a significant risk factor for harsh caregiving behaviors; however, it is unknown whether and how harsh caregiving changes over time and across parenting contexts for alcohol-dependent mothers. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no studies have examined whether and how distinct dimensions of child characteristics, such as negative emotionality modulate harsh caregiving among alcohol-dependent mothers. Guided by parenting process models, the present study examined how two distinct domains of children's negative emotionality-fear and frustration-moderate the association between maternal alcohol dependence and maternal harshness across discipline and free-play contexts. A high-risk sample of 201 mothers and their two-year-old children were studied over a one-year period. Results from latent difference score analyses indicated that harsh parenting among alcohol-dependent mothers increased over time in the more stressful discipline context, but not in the parent-child play context. This effect was maintained even after controlling for other parenting risk factors, including other forms of maternal psychopathology. Furthermore, this increase in harsh parenting was specific to alcohol-dependent mothers whose children were displaying high levels of anger and frustration. Findings provide support for specificity in conceptualizations of child negative emotionality and parenting contexts as potential determinants of maladaptive caregiving among alcohol-dependent mothers.

The present study investigated physiological synchrony across mothers, fathers, and adolescents during a conflict discussion. In particular, a multilevel, within-dyad approach was used to parameterize synchrony within the parasympathetic nervous system. Moreover, we examined how domains of conflict within the larger family system influenced the level of synchrony between family members. Participants were 191 families with adolescents ( M age = 12.4 years), whose respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured during a triadic family conflict discussion. On the minute-to-minute basis, mothers and adolescents as well as mothers and fathers exhibited positive RSA concurrent synchrony, whereas no such concordance was observed between adolescents and fathers. In addition, the presence of conflict between parents with respect to coparenting moderated the level of mother-adolescent synchrony such that no concordant RSA synchrony emerged between mother and adolescents under high levels of coparenting conflict. In contrast, general interparental conflict did not moderate levels of physiological synchrony among any of the dyads. Findings suggest that mothers may be particularly physiologically in tune with family members in the context of conflict discussions and specific domains of family conflict may influence concordant physiological dynamics. Taken together, this is one of the first studies to examine physiological synchrony during the adolescent period and results suggest this may be an important developmental period for these dynamics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The present study investigated physiological synchrony in the parasympathetic nervous system among fathers, mothers, and adolescents during a real-time family interaction, and child characteristics that may moderate the level of physiological synchrony. Our sample consisted of 191 families with adolescents (M age  = 12.4 years) and both of their parents, who participated in a triadic family conflict discussion. During the discussion, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was measured for all three family members. Multilevel analysis indicated a significant positive concurrent synchrony between adolescents and their mothers, as well as between fathers and mothers on a minute-to-minute basis. No RSA synchrony was found between adolescents and their fathers. Furthermore, adolescent emotional insecurity significantly moderated mother-adolescent RSA synchrony. Whereas adolescents with low emotional insecurity exhibited positive synchrony with their mothers, no synchrony was observed when adolescent emotional insecurity was high. In conclusion, findings of the present study illuminate the patterns of RSA synchrony among parents and adolescents and highlight a link between adolescent emotional insecurity and attenuated mother-adolescent physiological synchrony., (© 2020 Society for Psychophysiological Research.)

This study examined children's insecure representations of the family as a mechanism accounting for the association between coparental discord and children's externalizing problems in a diverse sample of 243 preschool children (mean [M] age = 4.60 years). The results from a multimethod, multi-informant, prospective design indicated that coparental discord was indirectly related to children's externalizing behaviors through their insecure representations of the family. Higher levels of coparental discord were specifically linked with more insecure representations of the family, which in turn predicted higher levels of externalizing behaviors 2 years later. These pathways remained robust even after considering the roles of general family adversity, child gender, and family income per capita as predictors in the analyses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Little is known about the role children's processing of emotions plays in altering children's vulnerability to interparental conflict. To address this gap, the present study examined whether the mediational cascade involving children's exposure to interparental conflict, their insecure responses to interparental conflict, and their psychological problems varied as a function of children's preexisting biases to attend to angry, fearful, sad, and happy expressions. Participants included 243 children ( M age = 4.60 years) and their parents assessed at 3 annual measurement occasions. Moderated-mediation analyses within a cross-lagged autoregressive design indicated that the indirect paths among interparental conflict, emotional insecurity, and psychological problems were significant for children who exhibited greater attentional biases toward angry and fearful emotions. Greater attention to anger and fear specifically moderated the first link in the mediational path. Interparental conflict was a significantly stronger predictor of emotional insecurity for children who attended to angry and fearful cues longer. Consistent with environmental sensitivity theories, children with attentional biases to angry and fearful emotions exhibited disproportionately higher levels of emotional insecurity following exposure to heightened interparental conflict but also lower levels of emotional insecurity after experiencing minimal interparental conflict. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined the moderating role of effortful control in the association between interparental conflict and externalizing problems in a diverse sample of preschool children ( N = 243; M age = 4.60 years). Using a multimethod, multi-informant, prospective design, findings indicated that the relation between interparental conflict and externalizing problems was only significant among children with poor effortful control. Children with high effortful control appeared to be protected against the negative effects of interparental conflict exhibiting low levels of externalizing problems despite increasing levels of interparental conflict. Toward identifying the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of effortful control, mediated moderation analyses indicated that children's effortful control protects children against interparental conflict by reducing their angry reactivity to interparental conflict. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined temperament dimensions of emotion as precursors of children's social information processing (SIP) of stressful peer events. Two hundred and forty-three preschool children (M = 4.60 years) and their primary caregivers participated in two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Observations of temperamental anger, fearful distress, positive affect, and effortful control were assessed in multiple laboratory tasks across two visits at Wave 1. SIP assessments from vignettes of peer challenges were repeated across two waves and included: eye tracking measures of attention to peer emotion displays, hostile attribution bias, hostile solutions, and subjective distress. Findings from structural equation models with inclusion of autoregressive controls indicated that effortful control, fear, and anger predicted subsequent changes in specific SIP dimensions., (© 2018 Society for Research in Child Development.)

The parent-child relationship undergoes substantial reorganization over the transition to adolescence. Navigating this change is a challenge for parents because teens desire more behavioral autonomy as well as input in decision-making processes. Although it has been demonstrated that changes in parental socialization approaches facilitates adolescent adjustment, very little work has been devoted to understanding the underlying mechanisms supporting parents' abilities to adjust caregiving during this period. Guided by self-regulation models of parenting, the present study examined how parental physiological and cognitive regulatory capacities were associated with hostile and insensitive parent conflict behavior over time. From a process-oriented perspective, we tested the explanatory role of parents' dysfunctional child-oriented attributions in this association. A sample of 193 fathers, mothers, and their early adolescent (ages 12-14) participated in laboratory-based research assessments spaced approximately 1 year apart. Parental physiological regulation was measured using square root of the mean of successive differences during a conflict task; cognitive regulation was indicated by set-shifting capacity. Results showed that parental difficulties in vagal regulation during parent-adolescent conflict were associated with increased hostile conflict behavior over time; however, greater set-shifting capacity moderated this association for fathers only. In turn, father's dysfunctional attributions regarding adolescent behavior mediated the moderating effect. The results highlight how models of self-regulation and social cognition may explain the determinants of hostile parenting with differential implications for fathers during adolescence.

This study examined the mediating role of maternal unsupportive parenting in explaining associations between family instability and children's externalizing symptoms during the transition to formal schooling in early childhood. Participants included 243 preschool children (M age = 4.60 years) and their parents. Findings from cross-lagged autoregressive models conducted with multimethod (survey and observations), multi-informant (parent, teacher, and observer), longitudinal (three annual waves of data collection) data indicated that experiences with heightened family instability predicted decreases in supportive parenting, which in turn predicted increases in children's externalizing symptoms. Analyses also revealed a bidirectional association between parenting and family instability over time, such that higher levels of instability predicted decreases in supportive parenting, which in turn predicted increases in family instability.

This study investigated whether adolescent vagal stress reactivity to parent-adolescent conflict moderates the effects of family instability on the development of adolescent behavioral problems. Participants were 192 adolescents ( M age = 12.4) and their parents across 2 measurement occasions. Results indicated that the interaction between family instability and vagal stress reactivity significantly predicted change in externalizing problems. Greater family instability was associated with increases in externalizing problems only for adolescents showing greater vagal suppression (i.e., higher vagal reactivity) during a laboratory triadic family conflict discussion. Further tests suggested the interaction was consistent with diathesis stress, such that adolescents with higher vagal stress reactivity show higher increases in externalizing problems under high instability but not lower increases in externalizing symptoms with low family instability. Findings indicate disruptions in the proximal rearing contexts may differentially influence development for adolescents, but the impact may differ as a function of stress reactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Guided by a domain-specific approach to parenting framework, this research examined differential associations among three domains of parenting (e.g., guided learning, reciprocity, control) and children's executive function. The second aim was examine whether child surgency and negative emotionality temperament traits moderated associations among the parenting domains and children's executive function in a manner consistent with differential susceptibility theory. The sample consisted of 160 mothers and their 5-year-old children. Results showed that guided learning was positively and uniquely associated with children's executive function, even after controlling for the other parenting and covariate variables. Child surgency only moderated the association between guided learning and children's executive function, and it was in a manner that was consistent with differential susceptibility theory. Unexpectedly, child negative emotionality selectively moderated the association between the control domain and children's executive function in alignment with the vantage sensitivity model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).