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We examined how mothers' daily parenting cognitions and behaviors implicated by different theoretical perspectives (i.e., relational, learning theory, and cognitive perspectives) associated in linear or nonlinear ways with disruptive child behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined levels of heterogeneity between families in these patterns and whether this heterogeneity could be explained by mother and child characteristics. Mothers of 150 children, 3-8 years; 48% girls; 68% (sub)clinical conduct problems, completed 14 daily assessments ( N assessments = 1,993). Multilevel models indicate significant associations with daily disruptive child behavior for each of the parenting indicators, except for lax discipline. Positive involvement-implicated by relational perspectives-had a consistent, negative cubic association across families. Other associations were quadratic (for parental self-efficacy) or linear (for positive reinforcement, harsh discipline, and nonviolent discipline) and differed between families. Parenting behaviors indicative of learning theory and cognitive perspectives appeared more important in families with more maternal and child mental health problems; learning theory perspectives appeared more important also in families with older children. Our findings indicate the importance of considering nonlinear patterns of parent-child interactions in the context of disruptive behavior, at least in times where families are under pandemic-related stress. The identified between-family variation could potentially provide guidance as to what parenting support is most likely to benefit different families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Although many studies have shown that personality-as a relatively stable characteristic-is a predictor of parenting behavior, personality changes occur during adulthood. Therefore, we do not know whether previous findings based on personality assessed (long) after the birth of the child indicate that personality as assessed before the child is born predicts behaviors parents eventually display. Possibly, personality changes are additionally predictive for parenting behavior. With this three-wave longitudinal study, we aimed to examine whether mothers' personality change from pregnancy to postpartum predicts maternal parenting behavior above and beyond personality traits as assessed during pregnancy. A sample of 239 pregnant women participated in the study ( M age = 29.95 years, SD = 4.08, range 20-43; 53% primiparous; 95% of Dutch descent). Women reported their big five personality traits during pregnancy (T1), at six- (T2), and 12 months postpartum (T3). At the postpartum assessments, mothers also reported on their affectionate and hostile parenting behavior. Latent Difference Score models indicated that personality at T1 predicted hostile but not affectionate parenting behavior at T2. Changes in personality from T1 to T2 were associated with maternal hostile and affectionate parenting at T2, whereas changes from T2 to T3 were unrelated to parenting. Personality as assessed during pregnancy may thus be helpful in identifying mothers at risk of early hostile parenting behavior. Identifying predictors of personality change may inform preventive efforts aimed at reducing this risk, as personality changes from pregnancy to 6 months postpartum were more predictive of maternal parenting than initial levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Although temper tantrums are considered a normal part of emotional development in toddlerhood, for some they foreshadow more serious behavioral and emotional problems. Parental discipline techniques may play a role in explaining why this behavior worsens for some children whereas for others it fades away. With this three-wave longitudinal study, we examined bidirectional associations between specific discipline techniques - ignoring, power assertion, and consistency - and intra-individual changes in the severity of tantrum behavior. We observed tantrum behavior in a standardized clean-up task, overcoming the limitation of most earlier work that relied on parent-report for associated changes in parenting and child behavior over time. For 94 children (53 boys; M age = 30 months, range 20-43 months), mothers filled out the Parenting Dimensions Inventory, and temper tantrum severity (i.e., duration and aggressiveness) was coded three times across one year. Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models suggested parent-effects rather than child-effects: more maternal power assertion and less consistency predicted increases in tantrum severity over time (ignoring did not), but temper tantrum severity did not predict changes in parenting over time. Results indicate that reducing power assertion and increasing consistency may be especially helpful in reducing temper tantrums in children. Findings add to previous findings indicating that mothers' parenting may be driven less by objective child behavior than by her own perceptions of her child's behavior., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Childhood adversity (CA) is associated with increased risk for physical and mental health problems, with alterations in vagal regulation (an aspect of autonomic functioning indexed by vagally-mediated heart rate variability [vmHRV]) implicated as a mechanism. Three-level meta-analyses were conducted to synthesize research on the relationship between CA and 1) baseline vagal activity, and 2) vagal reactivity to challenges including stress tests, emotion-eliciting tasks and cognitive tasks. No significant overall association was found between CA and vagal activity (r = -.015; p = .11) or vagal reactivity (r = -.017; p = .13). However, analyses controlling for moderator interrelatedness revealed an association between CA and lower baseline vagal activity in samples including participants diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, and for direct adversities such as maltreatment. For vagal reactivity, CA was associated with lower reactivity if the adversity was experienced less recently, and for studies operationalizing reactivity using task mean levels of vmHRV. These findings indicate that small alterations in vagal functioning occur for specific CA subtypes and subgroups of individuals., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Prenatal expectations about what children will be like after birth may provide a context for how parents perceive their infant's actual temperament. We examined how these expectations and perceptions are associated and together predict early parenting behavior, with parenting behavior in turn predicting changes in temperament. Reports of 125 families ( N = 122 fathers; N = 123 mothers; sample 1) about their expectations of their unborn child's temperament (negative affectivity, surgency, regulation, T1), their infant's temperament at 4 and 12 months post-partum (T2 and T3), and their hostile, responsive, warm, and overprotective parenting (T2) were included. We also included data from an independent sample of 168 mothers (sample 2), with the same measures, except that mothers reported on Big Five personality traits at T1. Results indicated that in both samples, parents' expectations were positively associated with perceptions of infant temperament. Prenatal expectations and newborn temperament independently predicted parenting behavior, and maternal and paternal parenting in turn predicted infant temperament at T3, controlling for infant temperament at T2. Although overall findings indicated associations between (expectations of) a more difficult temperament and more negative/less positive parenting, significant combinations of specific traits and parenting behaviors were sample-specific-indicating that more research is necessary to draw a conclusion about specific links. Both maternal and paternal expectations about their unborn child's temperament appear to carry over into the postpartum reality and provide a context for shaping early interactions between caregivers and their children, which may further shape the developing temperament of the child., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Van den Akker, Majdandzic, de Vente, Asscher and Bögels.)

Objective: We examined parent reports of temper tantrum characteristics (e.g., frequency, duration, and behavioral profile) in toddlers and preschoolers and their longitudinal association with internalizing and externalizing adjustment problems., Methods: Parents of 1- to 5-year-olds (N = 861, M age = 36 months, 47% girls) reported their child's temper tantrum frequency, duration, and behaviors. A subsample also reported on their child's tantrums and adjustment problems 1 year later (n = 252). We first compared the distribution of temper tantrum frequency and duration for different ages. Next, we examined which factors underlie the tantrum behaviors and whether behavioral profiles could be distinguished based on configurations of these factors within children. Finally, we performed regression analyses predicting internalizing and externalizing adjustment problems by temper tantrum frequency, duration, and behavioral profile, controlling for child sex and age., Results: Chi-square tests indicated that overall, tantrum frequency declined, whereas tantrum duration increased across the 1- to 5-year age range. We found that based on 4 tantrum behavior factors (anger, distress, aggression, and self-injurious behavior), 3 profiles characterized the tantrum behavior of children in the sample: a low-intensity profile (26%), a moderate-intensity profile (32%), and a high aggressive/self-injurious profile (42%). More frequent tantrums predicted more externalizing problems, whereas longer tantrum duration predicted internalizing problems. The high aggressive/self-injurious profile predicted adjustment problems above and beyond tantrum duration and frequency., Conclusion: Parent reports of different tantrum characteristics are uniquely predictive of different types of problems and may each be important to include in screening efforts for adjustment problems in young children., Competing Interests: Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

This study is the first to distinguish two possible predictive directions between trauma exposure and executive functioning in children in a community sample. The sample consists of 1006 children from two time points with a seven years' time interval of a longitudinal Dutch birth cohort study, the ABCD-study (Van Eijsden et al., 2011). We analyzed the longitudinal associations between trauma exposure and executive functioning using structural equation modeling. The results demonstrated that (after controlling for prenatal substance exposure and mothers' educational level) trauma exposure before age 5 is predictive of poorer executive functioning at age 12 and trauma exposure between age 6 and 12. However, the association between executive functioning at age 5 and trauma exposure between age 6 and 12 was not statistically significant. Our results indicate that early life trauma exposure has a long term impact on later executive functioning and not the other way around. On top of that, trauma exposure seems to accumulate across childhood when children are exposed to a traumatic event before the age of 5. When looking at the potential moderating role of parenting behavior we found no evidence for such a moderating effect of parenting behavior. Our findings showed that children exposed to trauma early in life may experience problems in executive functioning later in life and they seem at higher risk for cumulative trauma exposure. Clinical practice should take this into account in both the way they provide (early) mental health care and in prevention and recognition of early trauma exposure., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Prior research has related children's prosocial behavior to overall well-being, and stimulating prosocial behavior is the aim of many social-emotional skills interventions. This study assessed if affirming children's autonomy stimulates their psychosocial behavior. We conducted a three-arm microtrial with four repeated measures to assess if a social-emotional skills intervention with an autonomy affirmation component had an additive effect on children's behavior as compared to a "regular" intervention focused exclusively on teaching social-emotional skills and a no-treatment control condition. Our sample consisted of 779 children in Grades 4-6 (M age  = 10.61, SD = 0.93). Findings from latent change modeling demonstrated that the social-emotional skills intervention with an autonomy affirmation component yielded superior effects as compared to the "regular" intervention and the no-treatment control condition on the improvement of internalizing and externalizing problem behavior in the three-month period after the intervention. The intervention with autonomy affirmation did not yield superior effects on prosociality and social skills, self-efficacy, and self-esteem or self-perceived competence. The absence of these effects may be attributed to the dosage of the interventions implemented-the affirmation of children's autonomy may require more than four sessions to sort observable effects. Overall, however, the findings of this study provide an initial suggestion that it may be beneficial to affirm children's autonomy and prosocial intentions when enhancing children's behavior., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

In early adolescence, levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness have been found to temporarily decrease, with levels of neuroticism increasing, indicating a dip in personality maturation. It is unknown whether these changes are related to the process of puberty, a major developmental milestone with numerous changes for children. Here, we first replicated the dip in personality maturity in early adolescence ( N = 2640, age range 8-18, 51% girls, 65% non-Hispanic white, 21% Hispanic/Latino, 10% African American, 9% other, roughly 33% of families received means-tested public assistance) and tested associations between the Big Five personality dimensions and pubertal development and timing across late childhood and adolescence ( n = 1793). Pubertal development was measured using both hormonal assays (DHEA, testosterone, and progesterone) and self-reports of secondary sex characteristics. Of hormonal measures, only higher DHEA concentrations were associated with lower conscientiousness and openness. Nonparametric moderation analyses using LOSEM indicated Complex Age × Sex interactions involving all three hormones. Self-reported pubertal development was associated with lower extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness. More advanced pubertal timing was also related to lower levels of extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. All associations were small. As some evidence was found for small associations between pubertal development and lower levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness, a dip in personality maturation in these personality traits may be partly due to pubertal development in early adolescence. Overall, results did not indicate that pubertal development was the primary explanation of the maturity dip in adolescent personality. Many small influences likely accumulate to explain the dip in personality maturity in early adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: This study investigated how genetic susceptibility may affect children's sensitivity to parenting practices in their development of externalizing behavior. We created a continuous polygenic index composed of 5 dopamine polymorphisms to investigate the moderating role of dopamine-related genes in shaping parent-child gene-by-environment (Gc×E) interactions. Accumulating research supports that differences in children's dopamine neurotransmission make certain children more susceptible to both negative and positive parenting practices, a "for-better and for-worse" effect., Methods: Data from a 3-wave longitudinal study (4 months between waves) on 190 at-risk families with children aged 4 to 8 were used to investigate whether a heightened polygenic index score amplified the associations between negative and positive parenting and later children's externalizing behavior. Parenting practices and child externalizing behavior were assessed by parent-reported questionnaires., Results: Findings were not in line with the expectation that there was a stronger association between positive and negative parenting and later externalizing behavior for children with higher scores on the polygenic susceptibility index. Rather, children with a lower score on the polygenic susceptibility index showed more later externalizing behavior in response to positive parenting behavior, whereas for children with a higher score on the polygenic index, positive parenting was predictive of relatively lower levels of later child externalizing behavior., Conclusion: The results indicate that not only are children with higher but also lower scores on the polygenic index sensitive to parenting, they suggest that different phenotypical characteristics related to reward processing might underlie these genetic susceptibilities to parenting practices.

Alliance has been shown to predict treatment outcome in family-involved treatment for youth problems in several studies. However, meta-analytic research on alliance in family-involved treatment is scarce, and to date, no meta-analytic study on the alliance-outcome association in this field has paid attention to moderating variables. We included 28 studies reporting on the alliance-outcome association in 21 independent study samples of families receiving family-involved treatment for youth problems (N = 2126 families, M age youth ranging from 10.6 to 16.1). We performed three multilevel meta-analyses of the associations between three types of alliance processes and treatment outcome, and of several moderator variables. The quality of the alliance was significantly associated with treatment outcome (r = .183, p < .001). Correlations were significantly stronger when alliance scores of different measurement moments were averaged or added, when families were help-seeking rather than receiving mandated care and when studies included younger children. The correlation between alliance improvement and treatment outcome just failed to reached significance (r = .281, p = .067), and no significant correlation was found between split alliances and treatment outcome (r = .106, p = .343). However, the number of included studies reporting on alliance change scores or split alliances was small. Our findings demonstrate that alliance plays a small but significant role in the effectiveness of family-involved treatment. Future research should focus on investigating the more complex systemic aspects of alliance to gain fuller understanding of the dynamic role of alliance in working with families.

An earlier meta-analysis and review indicated that trauma exposure may be related to lower levels of executive functioning in youth. Since different developmental trajectories were found for three core executive functions, the present study focused on working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility specifically. We conducted a multi-level meta-analysis on 55 studies and 322 effect sizes published between 2001 and 2017 that were retrieved from MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO. The 8070 participants in selected studies were aged 2-25 years. We investigated whether the association between constructs would be moderated by trauma-specific moderators (onset, duration, and type), and study (age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status) and measurement (quality) characteristics. We found small to medium effect sizes for working memory ( d  = -0.49), inhibition ( d  = -0.46), and cognitive flexibility ( d  = -0.44). Moderator analyses showed that, for working memory, when studies used low-quality measurements the effect size was significantly stronger than when studies used high-quality measurements.Compared to single trauma-exposed youth, violence-exposed/abused and foster care/adopted youth showed more problems in inhibition, and foster care/adopted youth showed more problems in cognitive flexibility. Our findings imply that trauma-exposed youth have lower levels of executive functions. Clinical practice should incorporate problems in executive functioning, especially working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility, in assessment and treatment guidelines., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

This study increases knowledge on effectiveness of treatment for extremely violent (EV) youth by investigating their response to multisystemic therapy (MST). Using data of a randomized controlled trial on effectiveness of MST, we investigated differences in treatment response between EV youth and not extremely violent (NEV) youth. Pre- to post-treatment comparison indicated MST was equally effective for EV and NEV youth, whereas treatment as usual was not effective for either group. Growth curves of within-treatment changes indicated EV youth responded differently to MST than NEV youth. The within-treatment change was for EV youth non-linear: Initially, they show a deterioration; however, after one month, EV juveniles respond positively to MST, indicating longer lasting, intensive programs may be effective in treating extreme violence.

This study examined trajectories of aggression and rule breaking during the transition from childhood to adolescence (ages 9-15), and determined whether these trajectories were predicted by lower order personality facets, overreactive parenting, and their interaction. At three time points separated by 2-year intervals, mothers and fathers reported on their children's aggression and rule breaking (N = 290, M age = 8.8 years at Time 1). At Time 1, parents reported on their children's personality traits and their own overreactivity. Growth mixture modeling identified three aggression trajectories (low decreasing, high decreasing, and high increasing) and two rule-breaking trajectories (low and high). Lower optimism and compliance and higher energy predicted trajectories for both aggression and rule breaking, whereas higher expressiveness and irritability and lower orderliness and perseverance were unique risk factors for increasing aggression into adolescence. Lower concentration was a unique risk factor for increasing rule breaking. Parental overreactivity predicted higher trajectories of aggression but not rule breaking. Only two Trait × Overreactivity interactions were found. Our results indicate that personality facets could differentiate children at risk for different developmental trajectories of aggression and rule breaking.

To investigate validity of the dimensions that underlie pathological personality in adolescence, we delineated the hierarchical structure of the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Short Form-Adolescent version (DAPP-SF-A; Tromp & Koot, 2008) and examined longitudinal associations with Big Five personality dimensions assessed four times from middle childhood to late adolescence. A total of 426 adolescents provided self-reports on the DAPP-SF-A (age M = 18.6, SD = 1.17; 53% female). Mothers provided information on their child's personality eleven, eight, five, and three years earlier. Previous findings on the hierarchical structure of the DAPP-BQ replicated up to the four-component solution (emotional dysregulation, dissocial behavior, inhibition, and compulsivity). In the solution, a thought disturbance component emerged. Interestingly, the five-component solution already showed most differentiated associations with childhood personality in middle childhood. Childhood personality dimensions predicted four out of five adolescent pathological personality traits, indicating continuity of normal and abnormal personality across childhood and adolescence.

This study examined separate developmental trajectories of anxious and depressive symptoms from childhood to adolescence (9-15 years) in a community-based sample (N = 290). At three measurement points, mothers and fathers reported on their children's anxious and depressive symptoms, and at Time 1 they reported on lower order child personality facets and on their parenting. By means of growth mixture modeling, three developmental trajectories were identified for anxious symptoms: steady low (82%), moderate increasing-decreasing (5.9%), and high declining groups (12.1%). For depressive symptoms, two developmental trajectories were found: steady low (94.1%) and moderate increasing groups (5.9%). Higher shyness, irritability, and altruism predicted membership in more problematic anxious and depressive groups. The personality facets energy, optimism, compliance, and anxiety were unique predictors for class membership for anxious symptoms, and the effects of shyness, irritability, and compliance were moderated by overreactive parenting. Shyness and irritability increased the probability of following the moderate increasing-decreasing anxiety trajectory, but only in the context of high or average levels of overreactive parenting. Compliance increased the probability of following the moderate increasing-decreasing and high decreasing trajectories in the context of high overreactive parenting. Our results indicate that childhood personality facets differentiate trajectories of anxious and depressive symptoms in theoretically compelling ways.

In this study, we investigated mean-level personality development in children from 6 to 20 years of age. Additionally, we investigated longitudinal, bidirectional associations between child personality and maternal overreactive and warm parenting. In this 5-wave study, mothers reported on their child's personality from Time 1 (T1) through Time 4 (T4), and children provided self-reports from Time 2 (T2) through Time 5 (T5). Mothers reported on their levels of overreactive and warm parenting from T2 through T4. Using cohort-sequential latent growth curve modeling, we investigated mother reported child personality from 6 to 17 years of age and child reported personality from 9 to 20 years of age. Extraversion decreased linearly across the entire study. Benevolence and conscientiousness increased from middle to late childhood, temporarily declined from late childhood to mid-adolescence, and increased again thereafter. Imagination decreased from middle childhood to mid-adolescence and also increased thereafter. Mothers reported a temporary decline in emotional stability with an increase thereafter, whereas children did not. Boys and girls differed in mean-levels of the personality dimensions and, to a lesser extent, in the degree and direction of changes. Latent difference score modeling showed that child personality predicted changes in parenting and that, to a lesser extent, parenting predicted changes in child traits. Additionally, changes in child personality were associated with changes in maternal parenting. Results of the present study show that personality change is not directed at increasing maturity from childhood to mid-adolescence and that it elicits and is shaped by both positive and negative parenting., (2014 APA, all rights reserved)

This study investigated the development of personality extremity (deviation of an average midpoint of all 5 personality dimensions together) across childhood and adolescence, as well as relations between personality extremity and adjustment problems. For 598 children (mean age at Time 1 = 7.5 years), mothers and fathers reported the Big Five personality dimensions 4 times across 8 years. Children's vector length in a 5-dimensional configuration of the Big Five dimensions represented personality extremity. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported children's internalizing and externalizing problems at the 1st and final measurement. In a cohort-sequential design, we modeled personality extremity in children and adolescents from ages 6 to 17 years. Growth mixture modeling revealed a similar solution for both mother and father reports: a large group with relatively short vectors that were stable over time (mother reports: 80.3%; father reports: 84.7%) and 2 smaller groups with relatively long vectors (i.e., extreme personality configuration). One group started out relatively extreme and decreased over time (mother reports: 13.2%; father reports: 10.4%), whereas the other group started out only slightly higher than the short vector group but increased across time (mother reports: 6.5%; father reports: 4.9%). Children who belonged to the increasingly extreme class experienced more internalizing and externalizing problems in late adolescence, controlling for previous levels of adjustment problems and the Big Five personality dimensions. Personality extremity may be important to consider when identifying children at risk for adjustment problems., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.)

This study examined whether changes in children's self-reported Big Five dimensions are represented by (developmental) personality types, using a cohort-sequential design with three measurement occasions across 5 years (four cohorts, 9-12 years at T1; N = 523). Correlates of, and gender differences in, type membership were examined. Latent class growth modeling yielded three personality types: Resilients (highest initial levels on all Big Five), Overcontrollers (lowest Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Imagination), and Undercontrollers (lowest Benevolence, Conscientiousness). Gender differences in type membership were small. Warm parenting, but not overreactive discipline, in childhood was associated with type membership. The types differed in adjustment problems by the end of middle adolescence. Personality change more likely occurs at the level of dimensions within types than in type membership., (© 2013 The Authors. Child Development © 2013 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

This study investigated relations among children's personality types, trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems, and overreactive parenting across 6 years. Latent Class Analysis of the Big 5 personality dimensions (modeled as latent factors, based on mother, father and teacher reports) for 429 children (mean age 8 years at Time 1) replicated the Resilient, Under-, and Overcontroller types. Latent Class Growth Analysis of externalizing and internalizing problems (modeled as latent factors, based on mother and father reports), revealed that Undercontrollers were at greater risk of belonging to a high/decreasing externalizing problem class and a high/stable co-occurring problem class than were Resilients. Overcontrollers were more likely to be in a high/stable internalizing class and less likely to be in the externalizing problem class, but only at low levels of parental overreactivity. Undercontrollers appeared at double risk as they were at risk for high overreactive parenting, which was an independent risk-factor for the elevated problem trajectories. Because childhood personality types were a risk factor for adjustment problems that persisted into adolescence, Under- and Overcontrollers might be considered as a target for early intervention, with a focus on overreactive parenting for Undercontrollers specifically.

This longitudinal study examined the bidirectional associations between parents' sense of competence and children's externalizing problems, mediation of these associations by parenting behaviors, and differences between mothers and fathers concerning these associations. A sample of 551 families with children (49.9% girls; mean age = 7.83 years, SD = 1.08) participated. We found children's externalizing problems to predict parents' sense of competence 6 years later, both directly and, for mothers but not for fathers, indirectly through inept discipline. Parents' sense of competence did not predict children's externalizing problems, either directly or indirectly via parenting behaviors. Some differences were found between mothers and fathers in the associations between parenting behaviors and sense of competence.

The present study examined how changes in child Big Five personality characteristics and overreactive parenting during the transition from childhood to adolescence predict adolescent adjustment problems. The sample included 290 children, aged 8-9 years. At three moments, with 2-year intervals, mothers, fathers, and a teacher reported on the child's personality, and mothers and fathers reported on their parenting behavior. At the third measurement moment, mothers, fathers, and children reported on the child's adjustment problems. Rank-order stability of the personality dimensions and overreactive parenting were high. Univariate latent growth models revealed mean-level decreases for extraversion, conscientiousness, and imagination. Mean levels of benevolence, emotional stability, and overreactive parenting were stable. Multivariate latent growth models revealed that decreases in extraversion and emotional stability predicted internalizing problems, whereas decreases in benevolence, conscientiousness, and emotional stability predicted externalizing problems. Increases in overreactive parenting predicted externalizing, but not internalizing problems. The associations were similar for boys and girls. The results indicate that changes in child personality and overreactive parenting during the transition to adolescence are associated with adolescent adjustment problems. Overall, child personality was more important than overreactive parenting, and children were more likely to "act out" than to "withdraw" in reaction to overreactive parenting.

The present study aimed to (1) determine the long-term effectiveness of Home-Start, a preventive parenting program, and (2) test the hypothesis that changes in maternal sense of competence mediate the program's effects. Participants were 124 mothers (n = 66 intervention, n = 58 comparison). Four assessments took place during a 1-year period. Latent growth modeling showed that Home-Start enhanced growth in maternal sense of competence and supportive parenting, and led to a decrease in the use of inept discipline. Results of mediational and cross-lagged analyses were consistent with the hypothesized model: Participation in Home-Start was related to the changes in maternal sense of competence, which in turn predicted changes in parenting. The results affirm the importance of directly targeting parental sense of competence in the context of prevention work with parents.

This study investigated the type and stability of temperament profiles in toddlers, and relations of profile probability to negative and positive parenting trajectories. Mothers (N = 96) rated their child's (41 girls and 54 boys) Sociability, Anger Proneness, and Activity Level four times during 1 year. The assessment of parenting included both maternal self-reports and observational measures. Latent profile analysis indicated three child temperament profiles: a well-adjusted 'typical' profile, an 'expressive' profile with heightened externalizing problems, and a 'fearful' profile with heightened internalizing problems. Although toddlers' profile classifications were highly stable across 1 year, individual differences in (changes in) toddlers' temperament profile probability occurred. We identified negative and positive parenting as environmental mechanisms that were related to the development of temperament profiles over time. These results support the notion that, in addition to having a genetic base, temperament is subject to maturation and experience over time.