Relations Among Positive Parenting, Children's Effortful Control, and Externalizing Problems: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

• Published in: Child development Vol. 76; no. 5; pp. 1055 - 1071
• Main Authors: Eisenberg, Nancy, Zhou, Qing, Spinrad, Tracy L., Valiente, Carlos, Fabes, Richard A., Liew, Jeffrey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing 01.09.2005; Blackwell Publishers; Blackwell; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescents; Affect; Behavior disorders; Behavior Problems; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child Behavior Disorders - diagnosis; Child Behavior Disorders - epidemiology; Child development; Child Rearing; Children; Developmental psychology; Early Adolescents; Emotional development; Emotional expression; Emotional regulation; Emotional Response; Emotions; Externalizing problems; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Modeling; Origami; Parent Child Relationship; Parent-Child Relations; Parent-Child relationships; Parenting; Parenting Skills; Parenting Styles; Parents; Parents & parenting; Personality Traits; Predictor Variables; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Regulation; Self Control; Socioeconomic status; Surveys and Questionnaires; Human; Affect affectivity; Parental behavior; Emotion emotionality; Temperament; Parent child relation; Behavioral disorder; Regulation(control); School age; Follow up study; Adolescent; Self control; Child
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00897.x

In a 3-wave longitudinal study (with assessments 2 years apart) involving 186 early adolescents (M ages of approximately 9.3, 11.4, and 13.4), the hypothesis that parental warmth/positive expressivity predicts children's effortful control (EC) (a temperamental characteristic contributing to emotion regulation) 2 years later, which in turn predicts low levels of externalizing problems another 2 years later, was examined. The hypothesis that children's EC predicts parenting over time was also examined. Parents were observed interacting with their children; parents and teachers reported children's EC and externalizing problems; and children's persistence was assessed behaviorally. Children's EC mediated the relation between positive parenting and low levels of externalizing problems (whereas there was no evidence that children's EC predicted parenting).