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Background It is well documented that friends' externalizing problems and negative parent-child interactions predict externalizing problems in adolescence, but relatively little is known about the role of siblings. This four-wave, multi-informant study investigated linkages of siblings' externalizing problems and sibling-adolescent negative interactions on adolescents' externalizing problems, while examining and controlling for similar linkages with friends and parents. Methods Questionnaire data on externalizing problems and negative interactions were annually collected from 497 Dutch adolescents (M = 13.03 years, SD = 0.52, at baseline), as well as their siblings, mothers, fathers, and friends. Results Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed modest unique longitudinal paths from sibling externalizing problems to adolescent externalizing problems, for male and female adolescents, and for same-sex and mixed-sex sibling dyads, but only from older to younger siblings. Moreover, these paths were above and beyond significant paths from mother-adolescent negative interaction and friend externalizing problems to adolescent externalizing problems, 1 year later. No cross-lagged paths existed between sibling-adolescent negative interaction and adolescent externalizing problems. Conclusions Taken together, it appears that especially older sibling externalizing problems may be a unique social risk factor for adolescent externalizing problems, equal in strength to significant parents' and friends' risk factors. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2013 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Cannabis is the most widely produced and consumed illicit psychoactive substance worldwide. Occasional cannabis use can progress to frequent use, abuse and dependence with all known adverse physical, psychological and social consequences. Individual differences in cannabis initiation are heritable (40-48%). The International Cannabis Consortium was established with the aim to identify genetic risk variants of cannabis use. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data of 13 cohorts (N=32 330) and four replication samples (N=5627). In addition, we performed a gene-based test of association, estimated single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability and explored the genetic correlation between lifetime cannabis use and cigarette use using LD score regression. No individual SNPs reached genome-wide significance. Nonetheless, gene-based tests identified four genes significantly associated with lifetime cannabis use: NCAM1, CADM2, SCOC and KCNT2. Previous studies reported associations of NCAM1 with cigarette smoking and other substance use, and those of CADM2 with body mass index, processing speed and autism disorders, which are phenotypes previously reported to be associated with cannabis use. Furthermore, we showed that, combined across the genome, all common SNPs explained 13-20% (P

Het doel van dit onderzoek was om vast te stellen of er verschillen zijn in patronen van negativiteit in gezinsrelaties tussen gezinnen met en zonder een adolescent die externaliserend probleemgedrag vertoont. We hebben een Social Relations Model-analyse gebruikt om negativiteit te meten op drie niveaus van gezinsfunctioneren. De steekproef bestond uit 120 problematische en 153 niet-problematische gezinnen (twee ouders, twee kinderen), die negativiteit in de relatie met elk ander gezinslid beoordeelden. Op basis van verschiltoetsing van ruwe dyadische scores zouden we geneigd zijn om verschillen tussen gezinnen toe te schrijven aan de specifieke relatie tussen twee personen. Ons onderzoek laat echter zien dat deze verschillen in werkelijkheid gebaseerd zijn op verschillen in kenmerken van een problematisch kind.

Proactive and reactive functions of aggression are thought to manifest through different familial and emotional processes, even though they often co-occur. We investigated direct and indirect pathways through which maternal criticism and emotion regulation (ER) difficulties relate to reactive and proactive aggression in adolescence. Further, we examined how maternal criticism and emotion dysregulation interrelate, both concurrently and over time. Participants were 482 Dutch adolescents (M = 15.03, SD = 0.45, 57% boys) who self-reported on their ER difficulties, perceived maternal criticism, and reactive/proactive aggression. Cross-lagged panel modeling across four annual measurements revealed direct bidirectional links over time between maternal criticism and emotion dysregulation. Positive links over time from maternal criticism to proactive (but not reactive) aggression were also present. Emotion dysregulation and proactive aggression were linked only indirectly via maternal criticism. Gender did not significantly moderate these links. By revealing differential developmental pathways involving adolescents' ER and maternal criticism, the present study offers support for the dual function model of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 41:214–226, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This study explored the development of mood variability in 474 Dutch adolescents (56.8% male, 90.1% medium to high socioeconomic status) from a community sample, followed from ages 13 to 18 years. Three times per year, adolescents reported on daily happiness, anger, sadness, and anxiety for 5 days using Internet diaries (15 assessment weeks; from 2006 to 2010). Mood variability scores were calculated as means of absolute differences between consecutive days. Results showed that happiness, anger, and sadness variability continuously declined across adolescence, while anxiety variability increased initially, then decreased, and then increased toward late adolescence. Despite females experiencing higher happiness and sadness variability, the rate of change across adolescence was similar for both sexes. Implications for normative emotional development and future studies are discussed.

In deze longitudinale studie werd onderzocht of het verbieden van vriendschappen door ouders een effectieve strategie is om de invloed van delinquente vrienden tegen te gaan. 497 Nederlandse adolescenten (283 jongens, dertien jaar bij de eerste meting), hun beste vrienden en hun beide ouders vulden vragenlijsten in. Longitudinale ‘kruispad’-modellen toonden sterke effecten van omgang met delinquente vrienden op delinquentie van de adolescenten zelf. Het verbieden van vriendschappen door vaders of moeders hing samen met een toename in de omgang met delinquente vrienden, en hing indirect samen met meer delinquentie bij adolescenten. Deze resultaten suggereren dat verboden vrienden ‘verboden vruchten’ zouden kunnen worden, die bijdragen aan kleine criminaliteit bij adolescenten.

Spending leisure time with deviant peers may have strong influences on adolescents’ delinquency. The current 3‐wave multi‐informant study examined how parental control and parental prohibition of friendships relate to these undesirable peer influences. To this end, annual questionnaires were administered to 497 Dutch youths (283 boys, mean age = 13 years at baseline), their best friends, and both parents. Cross‐lagged panel analyses revealed strong longitudinal links from contacts with deviant peers to adolescent delinquency, but not vice versa. Parent‐reported prohibition of friendships positively predicted contacts with deviant peers and indirectly predicted higher adolescent delinquency. Similar indirect effects were not found for parental control. The results suggest that forbidden friends may become “forbidden fruit,” leading to unintended increases in adolescents’ own delinquency.

This study explored whether early elementary school aged children's externalizing problems impede academic functioning and foster negative social experiences such as peer victimization, thereby making these children vulnerable for developing internalizing problems and possibly increasing their externalizing problems. It also explored whether early internalizing problems contributed to an increase in externalizing problems. The study examined 1,558 Canadian children from ages 6 to 8years. Externalizing and internalizing problems, peer victimization, and school achievement were assessed annually. Externalizing problems lead to academic underachievement and experiences of peer victimization. Academic underachievement and peer victimization, in turn, predicted increases in internalizing problems and in externalizing problems. These pathways applied equally to boys and girls. No links from internalizing to externalizing problems were found. © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Background: Self-esteem has been the focus of a vast body of literature over the last decades because of its association with psychopathology (e.g. Baumeister, 2003). Most of the research into self-esteem focused on explicit self-esteem. Recently, however, it has been proposed that implicit self-esteem and the discrepancy between implicit and explicit self-esteem are important concepts to further explain the relationship between self-esteem and psychopathology (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995; Bosson, 2000, 2003). Although research is still scarce, discrepancies between implicit and explicit self-esteem seem to be related to psychological maladjustment. Moreover, the direction of this discrepancy seems to be associated with distinct patterns of problems (Bosson, 2003; Schroder-Abe, 2007). High levels of explicit self-esteem and low levels of implicit self-esteem (fragile self-esteem) are linked to e.g. narcissism and defensiveness (Jordan, 2003; Zeigler-Hill, 2006) whereas low levels of explicit and high levels of implicit self-esteem (damaged self-esteem) seem to be related to e.g. depressive symptoms (Creemers, 2012). To date, no studies into these associations and patterns of self-esteem in children exist. The aim of the present study is therefore to analyze the relationship between implicit self-esteem, explicit self-esteem, the discrepancy between the two and emotional, behavioral and social problems in children across the elementary school period.Method: Children (623) from elementary schools in the Netherlands were followed annually from kindergarten until fifth grade. Emotional, behavioral and social problems were obtained annually from multiple informants using a peer nomination procedure (Coie, Dodge et al., 1982) and the Problem Behavior at School Interview (Erasmus MC, 2000). The strength and difficulty questionnaire was used to measure self-reported problems. Implicit self-esteem was assessed using the self-esteem BIAT (Brief Implicit Association Test) (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Results: A significant association was found between the discrepancy of implicit and explicit self-esteem and self-reported problems measured at age 12. Additionally, initial results show significant associations between self-esteem discrepancy and teacher and peer reported emotional, behavioral and social problems over the elementary school period. Moreover, associations seem to be dependent on the direction of the discrepancy; fragile self-esteem seems to be related to different problems than damaged self-esteem. Conclusion: This study showed that the discrepancy between children’s implicit and explicit self-esteem is negatively associated with emotional, behavioral and social problems, measured through multiple informants over the elementary school period.

Background: In previous studies, maternal expressed emotion (EE) has been found to be a good predictor of the course of adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. However, these studies have been cross‐section as opposed to longitudinal. The goal of this study is to examine longitudinal data of perceived maternal EE and adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms to determine if maternal EE affected the course of adolescent symptoms (a parent effect model), or if the course of adolescent symptoms affected maternal EE (a child effect model), or if maternal EE and adolescent symptoms affected one another bidirectionally. Methods: Dutch adolescents (N = 497; 57% boys; M = 13 years) from the general community and their mothers were prospectively studied annually for three years. At all waves the mothers completed the Level of Expressed Emotion (LEE) questionnaire and the adolescents completed self‐rated measures of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the longitudinal data. Results: The results of the SEM analyses clearly demonstrate that a child effect model best describes the relationship between maternal EE and the course of adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Conclusions: This longitudinal study of the mothers’ EE perceptions suggests that it is the course of the internalizing and externalizing symptoms of adolescents from the general community that affects maternal EE, and not the mothers’ perceived EE influencing the course of the adolescents’ symptoms. Since this study was based on adolescents from the general community, it is suggested that these findings should also be replicated in clinical samples of adolescents.

Having friends who engage in disruptive behavior in childhood may be a risk factor for childhood tobacco experimentation. This study tested the role of friends' disruptive behavior as a mediator of the effects of a classroom based intervention on children's tobacco experimentation. 433 Children (52% males) were randomly assigned to the Good Behavior Game (GBG) intervention, a universal preventive intervention targeting disruptive behavior, and facilitating positive prosocial peer interactions. Friends' disruptive behavior was assessed from age 7-10 years. Participants' experimentation with tobacco was assessed annually from age 10-13. Reduced rates in tobacco experimentation and friends' disruptive behavior were found among GBG children, as compared to controls. Support for friends' disruptive behavior as a mediator in the link between intervention status and tobacco experimentation was found. These results remained after controlling for friends' and parental smoking status, and child ADHD symptoms. The results support the role of friends' disruptive behavior in preadolescents' tobacco experimentation. © 2010 The Author(s).

Background: Children with poorer language skills are more likely to show externalizing behavior problems, as well as to become rejected by their peers. Peer rejection has also been found to affect the development of externalizing behavior. This study explored the role of peer rejection in the link between language skills and the development of externalizing behavior. Methods: Six hundred and fifteen (615) children were followed from kindergarten to grade 4. Receptive language skills were measured with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test in grade 2. Teachers reported externalizing behavior and peer reports of social rejection were measured annually. Results: Children with poorer receptive language skills showed increasing externalizing behavior, while children with better receptive language skills showed decreases in externalizing behavior. Children with poorer receptive language skills experienced peer rejection most frequently. The link between receptive language skills and the development of externalizing behavior was mediated by the development of peer rejection. Findings suggested that this mediational link applied mostly to boys. Conclusion: Children with poorer language skills are at increased risk of becoming rejected by mainstream peers, which adds to the development of externalizing behavior. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. © 2010 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

The aim of the study was to determine whether there are differences in patterns of negativity between families with and without an adolescent with externalizing problem behavior. We used a structured means Social Relations Model in order to examine negativity in multiple levels of the family system. The sample consisted of 120 problematic and 153 nonproblematic families (two parents, two children), who rated the level of negativity in the relationship with each family member. Although a simple mean differences test would lead us to believe that differences in negativity between groups of families can be ascribed to the interaction between parent and adolescent, the results of the present study indicate that these differences are actually related to the characteristics of a problematic child. © 2011 American Psychological Association.

The present study was aimed at examining one relatively neglected part of the identity formation process: the short-term dynamics of identity formation. The short-term dynamics were assessed by examining (a) the day-to-day course of 2 key dimensions of identity formation (i.e., commitment and reconsideration) and (b) the impact of fluctuations in commitment and reconsideration on subsequent levels of these 2 dimensions. Longitudinal data on 580 early adolescents (54.8% boys, 45.2% girls) were used to test these assertions. The authors found evidence for a commitment-reconsideration dynamic that operated on a day-to-day basis. Furthermore, the findings confirmed E. H. Erikson's (1950) assertion that identity reflects a sense of sameness and continuity as a more stable identity (reflected by little day-to-day fluctuations) was predictive of higher levels of commitment and lower levels of reconsideration. Taken together, the present study underscores the importance of the short-term dynamics of identity formation. © 2010 American Psychological Association.