Uniting the unit: Trivariate latent difference score modeling of the parent–child triad

Previous research on child psychological functioning has emphasized the role of maternal psychopathology. In the literature on paternal psychopathology's effect on children, they are studied independently of mothers. The interaction between paternal and maternal psychopathology likely affects the child. The present study utilizes novel longitudinal techniques to assess how each parent influences one another, how parents influence the child, and how the child's internalizing and externalizing problems influence the parents. This modeling allows for exploration of the child's trajectory in the context of the family dynamics. By emphasizing the processes between each member of the family, the role one plays in the functioning is emphasized. Models focused on maternal anxiety, paternal anxiety and depression, and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Paternal psychopathology impacts maternal anxiety and child problem behavior (internalizing and externalizing) consistently, with the child and father reciprocally influencing one another. The results indicate that parental psychological distress differentially influences the child's internalizing/externalizing behavior depending on the interaction between maternal and psychological distress. Intervention that emphasizes the family system or shifts the focus to overall reduction of psychological distress in the family unit is implicated from these results. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).