Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T15:33:55.965Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Toward a developmentally informed approach to parenting interventions: Seeking hidden effects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Rebecca L. Brock  and
Grazyna Kochanska
Rebecca L. Brock*
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
Grazyna Kochanska
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Rebecca L. Brock, Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1407; E-mail: rebecca-brock@uiowa.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Drawing from developmental psychology and psychopathology, we propose a new, developmentally informed approach to parenting interventions that focuses on elucidating changes in the unfolding developmental process between the parent and child. We present data from 186 low-income mothers of toddlers, randomly assigned to a child-oriented play group or a play-as-usual group. We examined the maladaptive cascade from child difficulty to mother adversarial, negative parenting to child maladjustment, well documented in the literature. The measures incorporated multiple observations and reports. As expected, the sequence from child difficulty (pretest) to mother adversarial, negative parenting (Posttest 1, after 3-month intervention) to child maladjustment (Posttest 2, 6 months later) was present in the play-as-usual group, but absent, or defused, in the child-oriented play group. The findings are consistent with a view of intervention presumably enhancing the mother–child relationship, which in turn served to moderate future mother–child dynamics, altering its otherwise anticipated negative trajectory. A closer examination of the cascade revealed that, at Posttest 1, mothers in the play-as-usual group engaged in more adversarial, negative parenting (controlling for pretest) than did mothers in the child-oriented play group when their children were of high difficulty. The intervention appears to exert its primary influence on the cascade by weakening the link between child difficulty and maternal adversarial, negative parenting.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 583 - 593
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Bell, S. M. V., & Stayton, D. J. (1971). Individual differences in strange-situation behavior in one-year-olds. In Schaffer, H. R. (Ed.), The origins of human social relations (pp. 17–57). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Barkley, R. A. (1981). Hyperactive children: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Bates, J. E., Schermerhorn, A. C., & Petersen, I. T. (2012). Temperament and parenting in developmental perspective. In Zentner, M. & Shiner, R. (Eds.), Handbook of temperament (pp. 425–441). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Bell, R. Q. (1968). A reinterpretation of the direction of effects in studies of socialization. Psychological Review, 75, 81–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blair, C. (2002). Early intervention for low birth weight, preterm infants: The role of negative emotionality in the specification of effects. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 311–332. doi:10.1017/S0954579402002079 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. F. (2013). From parent to child to parent … : Paths in and out of problem behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, 515–529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brock, R. L., Kochanska, G., O'Hara, M. W., & Grekin, R. (2015). Life satisfaction moderates the effectiveness of a play-based parenting intervention in low-income mothers and toddlers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s10802-015-0014-y CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cassidy, J., Woodhouse, S. S., Sherman, L. J., Stupica, B., & Lejuez, C. W. (2011). Enhancing infant attachment security: An examination of treatment efficacy and differential susceptibility. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 131–148. doi:10.1017/S0954579410000696 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D., & Hinshaw, S. P. (2002). Prevention and intervention science: Contributions to developmental theory. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 667–671.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coie, J. D., Watt, N. F., West, S. G., Hawkins, J. D., Asarnow, J. R., Markman, H. J., et al. (1993). The science of prevention: A conceptual framework and some directions for a national research program. American Psychologist, 48, 1013–1022.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, M. J., Mills-Koonce, R., Propper, C., & Gariépy, J. (2010). Systems theory and cascades in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 497–506.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dadds, M. R., & Salmon, K. (2003). Punishment insensitivity and parenting: Temperament and learning as interacting risks for antisocial behavior. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 6, 69–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dishion, T. J., & Patterson, G. R. (2006). The development and ecology of antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. In Cicchetti, D. & Cohen, D. J. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology (Vol. 3, 2nd ed., pp. 503–541). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Eyberg, S. M., & Bussing, R. (2010). Parent–child interaction therapy for preschool children with conduct problems. In Murrihy, R. C., Kidman, A. D., & Ollendick, T. H. (Eds.), Clinical handbook of assessing and treating conduct problems in youth (pp. 139–162). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Fukkink, R. G. (2008). Video feedback in widescreen: A meta-analysis of family programs. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 904–916. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2008.01.003 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gadow, K. D., & Sprafkin, J. (2000). Early Childhood Inventory—4: Screening manual. Stony Brook, NY: Checkmate Plus.Google Scholar
Hayes, A. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Kazdin, A. E., & Nock, M. K. (2003). Delineating mechanisms of change in child and adolescent therapy: Methodological issues and research recommendations. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 44, 1116–1129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein Velderman, M., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., Juffer, F., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2006). Effects of attachment-based interventions on maternal sensitivity and infant attachment: Differential susceptibility of highly reactive infants. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 266–274. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.20.2.266 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanska, G. (1995). Parenting Inventory. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., & Aksan, N. (1995). Mother–child mutually positive affect, the quality of child compliance to requests and prohibitions, and maternal control as correlates of early internalization. Child Development, 66, 236–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochanska, G., Barry, R. A., Stellern, S. A., & O'Bleness, J. J. (2009). Early attachment organization moderates the parent–child mutually coercive pathway to children's antisocial conduct. Child Development, 80, 1288–1300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanska, G., & Kim, S. (2012). Toward a new understanding of legacy of early attachments for future antisocial trajectories: Evidence from two longitudinal studies. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 783–806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochanska, G., Kim, S., Boldt, L. J., & Nordling, J. K. (2013). Promoting toddlers’ positive social–emotional outcomes in low-income families: A play-based experimental study. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 42, 700–712.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanska, G., Kim, S., & Koenig Nordling, J. K. (2012). Challenging circumstances moderate the links between mothers’ personality traits and their parenting in low-income families with young children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103, 1040–1049.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraemer, H. C., Wilson, G. T., Fairburn, C. G., & Agras, W. S. (2002). Mediators and moderators of treatment effects in randomized clinical trials. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59, 877–883.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lipscomb, S. T., Leve, L. D., Harold, G. T., Neiderhiser, J. M., Shaw, D. S., Ge, X., et al. (2011). Trajectories of parenting and child negative emotionality during infancy and toddlerhood: A longitudinal analysis. Child Development, 82, 1661–1675.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lorber, M. F., & Egeland, B. (2011). Parenting and infant difficulty: Testing a mutual exacerbation hypothesis to predict early onset conduct problems. Child Development, 82, 2006–2020.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mackinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., & Williams, J. (2004). Confidence limits for the indirect effect: Distribution of the product and resampling methods. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39, 99–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masten, A. S., & Cicchetti, D. (2010). Developmental cascades. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 491–495.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McMahon, R. J., & Forehand, R. (2003). Helping the noncompliant child: A clinician's guide to effective parent training. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Moss, M., Dubois-Comtois, K., Cyr, C., Tarabulsy, G. M., St-Laurent, D., & Bernier, A. (2011). Efficacy of a home-visiting intervention aimed at improving maternal sensitivity, child attachment, and behavioral outcomes for maltreated children: A randomized control trial. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 195–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nowak, C., & Heinrichs, N. (2008). A comprehensive meta-analysis of Triple P-Positive Parenting Program using hierarchical linear modeling: Effectiveness and moderating variables. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 11, 114–414.Google Scholar
Pardini, D. A. (2008). Novel insights into longstanding theories of bidirectional parent-child influences: Introduction to the special section. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 627–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, G., DeBaryshe, B., & Ramsey, E. (1989). A developmental perspective on antisocial behavior. American Psychologist, 44, 329–335.Google Scholar
Preacher, K. J., Rucker, D. D., & Hayes, A. F. (2007). Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 37–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Putnam, S. P., Gartstein, M. A., & Rothbart, M. K. (2006). Measurement of fine-grained aspects of toddler temperament: The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire. Infant Behavior and Development, 29, 386–401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Putnam, S. P., Sanson, A. V., & Rothbart, M. K. (2002). Child temperament and parenting. In Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 1. Children and parenting (2nd ed., pp. 255–277). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Reid, J. B., & Patterson, G. R. (1989). The development of antisocial behaviour patterns in childhood and adolescence. European Journal of Personality, 3, 107–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandler, I. N., Schoenfelder, E. N., Wolchik, S. A., & MacKinnon, D. P. (2011). Long-term impact of prevention programs to promote effective parenting: Lasting effects but uncertain processes. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 299–329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaw, D. S., & Bell, R. Q. (1993). Developmental theories of parental contributors to antisocial behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 21, 493–518.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shelleby, E. C., & Shaw, D. S. (2014). Outcomes of parenting interventions for child conduct problems: A review of differential effectiveness. Child Psychiatry and Human Development. Advance online publication.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7, 422–445.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sitnick, S. L., Shaw, D. S., Gill, A., Dishion, T., Winter, C., Waller, R., et al. (2015). Parenting and the Family Check-Up: Changes in observed parent-child interaction following early childhood intervention. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/15374416.2014.940623 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, J. D., Dishion, T. J., Shaw, D. S., Wilson, M. N., Winter, C. C., & Patterson, G. R. (2014). Coercive family process and early-onset conduct problems from age 2 to school entry. Development and Psychopathology. Advance online publication.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sroufe, L. A. (2005). Attachment and development: A prospective, longitudinal study from birth to adulthood. Attachment and Human Development, 7, 349–367. doi:10.1080/14616730500365928 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Webster-Stratton, C., & Reid, M. J. (2011). The Incredible Years program for children from infancy to pre-adolescence: Prevention and treatment of behavior problems. In Murrihy, R. C., Kidman, A. D., & Ollendick, T. H. (Eds.), Clinical handbook of assessing and treating conduct problems in youth (pp. 117–138). New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar