Infant Behavior and Development Relations among temperament, parenting and problem behavior in young children

Thefirst objective of this studywas to investigatewhich aspects of temperament are related to externalizing problem behavior and which aspects are related to internalizing problem behavior. The second objective was to investigate how parenting influences the link between temperament and problem behavior. The sample included 89 two-parent families and their firstborn 36-month-old children, and 81 day care and preschool playgroup teachers. Mothers, fathers and teachers filled in questionnaires and home observations took place. The results showed that different temperament characteristics predict externalizing and internalizing problems. Further, the results indicate that parenting moderates the relation between temperament and problem behavior. More specifically, positive control of the father buffered the relation between impulsivity and externalizing problems, whereas negative control of the mother and father strengthened the relation between fear and internalizing problems. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Approximately 10–15% of preschoolers have mild to moderate problems (Campbell, 1995). In the dimensional approach to psychopathology these problems can be classified into two broadband syndromes: externalizing and internalizing problems (Wenar & Kerig, 2000). Both types of problem behavior refer to expressions of dysfunction (Mesman, Bongers, & Koot, 2001). Externalizing problems include aggressive and delinquent behavior (e.g., disobedience). Internalizing problems refer to anxiety, depression, somatic complaints and withdrawn behavior (Bongers, Koot, Van der Ende, & Verhulst, 2003). Research on childhood pathology has focused mostly on externalizing problems, probably because parents and teachers perceive children with externalizing problems as disruptive and children with externalizing problems are likely to experience social and academic difficulties later in life (Wenar & Kerig, 2000). Internalizing problems have received less attention, although internalizing problems such as anxiety and withdrawn behavior at a young age have considerable consequences for the development of children too. Early internalizing problems have been found to predict internalizing problems in later childhood and pre-adolescence (Mesman et al., 2001). Therefore, efforts need to be made to prevent both externalizing and internalizing problem behavior, which requires the understanding of related and predictive factors, both within the young child and within the environment. In previous research, temperament and parenting have been identified as two important predictors of problem behavior in young children (Putnam, Sanson, & Rothbart, 2002). Temperament is defined as “constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, as seen in the emotional, motor, and attentional domains” (Rothbart, Ellis, & Posner, 2004, p. 357). By constitutionally based, it is meant that temperament is biologically based, but influenced over time by genes, environment, and experience. Temperament ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Developmental, Clinical and Crosscultural Psychology, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, PO Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Karreman). 0163-6383/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2009.10.008 40 A. Karreman et al. / Infant Behavior & Development 33 (2010) 39–49 encompasses the way situations are approached and includes several child characteristics, such as impulsivity, and the level of negative affectivity (Rothbart et al., 2004). Negative affectivity or negative emotionality includes anger/frustration, fear and sadness (Eisenberg et al., 2005). Children who are characterized by frequently and intensely showing impulsive, angry or frustrated, fearful and sad behavior, can be described as difficult. The opposite pole can be described as easy (Putnam et al., 2002). Nigg (2006) has proposed two alternativemodels to clarify the relation between temperament andproblembehavior. The firstmodel, the spectrummodel, assumes thatproblembehavior is anextremeof commonchild characteristics and thatmany aspects of problembehavior reflect the sameunderlying structure as the normal range of temperamental characteristics. The secondmodel, the vulnerabilitymodel, assumes that certain types of temperament predispose children to problembehavior, especially in some contexts. In empiricalwork, some support for the spectrummodel has been found. For example, biometric twin data suggest that ADHD is an extreme of a continuous dimension of inattentive and impulsive behavior (Nigg, 2006). Consequently, if problem behavior is assumed to reflect extremes of underlying temperamental dimensions, measures of temperament and problem behavior would have some overlap in their item content. Indeed, ratings of temperament and problem behavior often include identical items. However, Lengua, West, and Sandler (1998) and Lemery, Essex, and Smider (2002) have analyzed the association between temperament and problem behaviorwith andwithout the overlapping items. Thecorrelationbetween temperament characteristics andproblembehavior remainedessentiallyunchanged, indicating that item overlap cannot explain the relation between temperament and problem behavior. Further, results of a parent-training intervention study showed that mothers in the intervention group reported less externalizing and internalizing problems, than mothers in the control group, but the ratings of temperament did not change after the intervention (Lemery et al., 2002). These results suggest that temperamental characteristics do not reflect the same underlying structure as problem behavior (Egger & Angold, 2006), which is in line with the vulnerability model. Belsky, Hsieh, and Crnic (1998) have studied observed general negative emotionality as ameasure of temperament.With this composite measure they have not found a relation between negative emotionality and problem behavior. However, when different aspects of negative emotionality are investigated separately, childhood temperament is found to contribute differently to the development of externalizing and internalizing problems (Eisenberg et al., 2001). Research has shown that externalizing problems in school-aged children are associated with high impulsivity. Also, school-aged externalizers are more prone to anger than internalizers (Eisenberg et al., 2001, 2005). School-aged internalizers are low in impulsivity, compared to non-disturbed children. Internalizers seem to be more prone to sadness and fear (Eisenberg et al., 2001, 2005) and to fear/shyness (Bates, Pettit, Dodge, & Ridge, 1998; Leve, Kim, & Pears, 2005). However, the relation between sadness and fear and internalizing problems has not been found consistently (Eisenberg et al., 2001). Also, conflicting evidence exists with regard to the relation between anger and internalizing problems. Some researchers have found low associations between anger and internalizing problems, whereas when older children and more serious levels of internalizing problems are investigated, stronger relations between anger and internalizing problem behavior have been found (Eisenberg et al., 2005; Morris et al., 2002). Although there are still some inconsistencies with regard to the relation between negative emotionality and internalizing problems, the associations between temperament and problem behavior are seen as promising for the understanding of the roots of these problems (Nigg, 2006). Research on the influence of parents on child behavior has highlightedparenting as an important environmental predictor of problem behavior (Aunola & Nurmi, 2005). It has been found that preschoolers’ externalizing problems are predicted longitudinallybynegative control, suchasparent’s criticizingand ignoring thechild, andparent’s overinvolvement (Bradley& Corwyn, 2008; Campbell, 1995; DeKleyn, Speltz, &Greenberg, 1998;Mantymaa, Puura, Luoma, Salmelin, & Tamminen, 2004; Morris et al., 2002). Further, externalizing problems are predicted by less frequent displays of warmth and responsiveness, such as encouragement, smiles, laughs, and physical affection (Olson, Sameroff, Kerr, Lopez, & Wellman, 2005). Positive control, such as limit setting, provision of structure and sensitivity, is associated with less externalizing problems (Newby & Fischer, 1991). Less research has been done on the relation between preschooler’s internalizing problems and parenting. One study has shown that negative control and lack of warmth during infancy is associated with preschoolers’ internalizing problem behavior (Mantymaa et al., 2004). To conclude, previous research has shown that both temperamental child characteristics and parenting are related to problem behavior in young children. To further the understanding of the processes bywhich temperament affects the development of problem behavior, the influence of parenting on the link between temperament and problem behavior needs to be studied (Lerner, Castellino, Patterson, Villaruel, & McKinsey, 1995). Parenting can influence the relation between temperament and problem behavior in two possible ways (Baron & Kenny, 1986). First, parenting may moderate the relation between temperament and problem behavior (Belsky, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & van Ijzendoorn, 2007). Research suggests that negative control may strengthen the relation between temperament and problem behavior and that positive control and parental warmth may buffer this relation. For example, negative emotionality and measures of difficult temperament are found to be linked to externalizing and internalizing problems in toddlers, especially in families with parents high on negative control (Morris et al., 2002; Putnam et al., 2002; Van Aken, Junger, Verhoeven, Van Aken, & Deković, 2007). Oversolicitous parenting, intrusiveness and derisiveness were related to greater internalizing type behavior among inhibited or fearful children only (Rubin, Burgess, & Hastings, 2002; Rubin, Hastings, Stewart, Henderson, & Chen, 1997). The relation between toddlers’ impulsivity and externalizing behavior at age 7–10 years was less strong when the mother was relatively high in positive control (Bates et al., 1998). Other studies found that preschool-aged children with difficult temperaments seem to benefit from positive control and sensitive parenting by showing fewer externalizing problems (Bradley & Corwyn, A. Karreman et al. / Infant Behavior & Development 33 (2010) 39–49 41 2008; Karreman, Van Tuijl, Van Aken, & Deković, 2009). Second, parenting maymediate the relation between temperament and problem behavior (Putnam et al., 2002). As a result of temperamental differences, children present different stimuli to parents. Parents who are stimulated differently may react differently, which results in further individual developmental differences (Lerner et al., 1995). For example, difficult children are found to elicit more negative control from their parents, which in turn predicts later externalizing problems (Campbell, 1995). Infants’ difficult temperament is related to less maternal warmth (Lerner et al., 1995), which in turn predicts externalizing problems (Olson et al., 2005) In sum, previous research has shown that there is a relation between temperament, parenting and problem behavior, but there are still some gaps in this research area. First, conflicting evidence exists regarding the relation between negative emotionality and internalizing problems. Therefore, the first aimof this study is to investigatewhich aspects of temperament are related to externalizing problem behavior and which aspects are related to internalizing problem behavior. In line with previous research (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2005), it is expected that externalizing and internalizing problem behavior are predictedbydifferent temperamental factors. Externalizingproblembehavior is expected tobepredictedbyhigh impulsivity and high anger or frustration, whereas internalizing problem behavior is expected to be predicted by high fear, high sadness and low impulsivity. Second, the relation between parenting and internalizing problems has not received much attention in earlier research. Furthermore, a shortcoming of many previous studies on parenting is the focus on mothers (Park, Belsky, Putman, & Crnic, 1997) or the focus on familieswith themother as theprimary caregiver. The latter studies generally have shown that problem behavior is more strongly related to maternal than paternal parenting (Rothbaum & Weisz, 1994). Nowadays fathers have a greater role in the parenting of children, especially in double income families (Bonney, Kelley, & Levant, 1999). Moreover, mothers and fathers do not fulfil the same role in their families. Mothers normally provide more caregiving than fathers do, whereas fathers engage more in playtime. Therefore, the influence of both mothers and fathers on their child’s behavior needs to be studied (DeKleyn et al., 1998). Thus, the second aimof this study is to investigate howbothmaternal and paternal parenting influence the link between temperament and externalizing as well as internalizing problem behavior of Dutch preschoolers living in double income families. Two alternative models are tested: parenting as moderator and parenting as mediator. We expect to find strongest support for the moderating model. The relation between temperament and problem behavior is hypothesized to be strengthened by negative control, and buffered by positive control and by parental warmth. Due to the scarcity of studies focusing on bothmothers and fathers, no specific hypotheses about differences between fathers and mothers are formulated.