Do the Predictors of Child Conduct Problems Vary by High- and Low-Levels of Socioeconomic and Neighborhood Risk? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Behavioral Medicine, 2014
Minority children attending schools in urban socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods are at high risk for conduct problems. Although a number of family and neighborhood characteristics have been implicated in the onset and progression of conduct problems, there remains incomplete understanding of the unique contributions of povertyrelated factors early in development. This prospective study of 298 black public school children considered family-and neighborhood-level predictors of teacher-reported conduct problems from pre-kindergarten through first grade. Results from multi-level analyses indicate that percentage of poor residents in a student's neighborhood made a robust independent contribution to the prediction of development of conduct problems, over and above family-and other neighborhood-level demographic factors. For children of single parents, the percentage of black residents in the neighborhood also predicted the development of conduct problems. School-based interventions to prevent conduct problems should consider impact for children at highest risk based on neighborhood poverty.
Risk Factors for Boy’s Conduct Problems in Poor and Lower–middle-class Neighborhoods
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 2007
The joint trajectory analysis version of Nagin's (Group-based modeling of development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005) semiparametric, groupbased approach for modeling trajectories was used to assess how boy's trajectories of conduct problems (CP) and neighborhood SES covaried from ages 5 to 12. Participants were recruited from Women, Infants, and Children clinics when they were 18 months old. Subsequent analyses examined whether boys from poor and more prosperous neighborhoods differed in the degree to which they were exposed to familial risk factors for CP during early childhood and the extent to which risk factors for CP were generalizable across communities. Findings revealed a small, but positive relationship, between boy's trajectories of CP and neighborhood SES. In addition, chronic CP boys from more prosperous communities were found to have more child/individual risk factors for CP than their counterparts from poorer communities. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 2009
This study tested several theoretically important differences between youth with a childhood-onset and youth with an adolescent-onset to their severe conduct problems. Seventy-eight pre-adjudicated adolescent boys (ranging in age from 11 to 18) housed in two short-term detention facilities and one outpatient program for youth at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system participated in the current study. The sample was divided into those with a childhood-onset to their serious conduct problem behavior (n=47) and those with an adolescentonset (n=31). The childhood-onset group showed greater levels of dysfunctional parenting, callous-unemotional traits, and affiliation with delinquent peers. The only variable more strongly associated with the adolescent-onset group was lower scores on a measure of traditionalism.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2019
Pathways into and out of conduct problems differ by circumstances experienced since infancy. There is a research gap in understanding how these developmental patterns vary according to the timing and persistence of risk and whether there are differences across ecological domains. This study examines variations in trajectories of conduct problems between ages 3 to 14 years and associated child, family and socioeconomic risk factors from ages 9 months to 14 years, drawing on the UK Millennium Cohort Study (n = 17,206, 49% female), a nationally representative longitudinal study of children born between 2000/02. Group-based modeling was used to identify four distinct trajectories of conduct problems: low (56%), persistent high (8%), childhood-limited (23%) and adolescent-onset (13%). All three problem pathways were associated with high levels of exposure to risk, particularly early socioeconomic and persisting child and family risks. However, while for the persistent and adolescent-onset pathways, exposure to higher levels of family and child risks continued through adolescence, it receded for the childhood-limited trajectory. The effects of early socioeconomic disadvantage persisted for those on the adolescent-onset trajectory, highlighting the importance of early markers for this later onset group. Maternal smoking in pregnancy continued to be a significant predictor for all three conduct problem groups, even up to age 14 years. The findings indicate that different influences and processes may explain diverse pathways of conduct problems. This offers insights into who and what might be targeted and when might be the most effective developmental window for intervention.
Early-onset conduct problems: intersection of conduct problems and poverty
The current article reviews extant literature on the intersection between poverty and the development of conduct problems (CP) in early childhood. Associations between exposure to poverty and disruptive behavior are reviewed through the framework of models emphasizing how the stressors associated with poverty indirectly influence child CP by compromising parent psychological resources, investments in children's welfare, and/or caregiving quality. We expand on the best-studied model, the family stress model, by emphasizing the mediating contribution of parent psychological resources on children's risk for early CP, in addition to the mediating effects of parenting. Specifically, we focus on the contribution of maternal depression, in terms of both compromising parenting quality and exposing children to higher levels of stressful events and contexts. Implications of the adapted family stress model are then discussed in terms of its implications for the prevention and treatment of young children's emerging CP.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2012
A quasi-experimental comparison of cousins differentially exposed to levels of neighborhood disadvantage (ND) was used with extensive measured covariates to test the hypothesis that neighborhood risk has independent effects on youth conduct problems (CPs). Multilevel analyses were based on mother-rated ND and both mother-reported CPs across 4-13 years (n = 7,077) and youth-reported CPs across 10-13 years (n = 4,524) from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. ND was robustly related to CPs reported by both informants when controlling for both measured risk factors that are correlated with ND and unmeasured confounds. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that ND has influence on conduct problems. Children growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods characterized by poverty, low levels of social organization and cohesion, and high levels of residential instability and crime, are at increased risk for a host of negative outcomes, including academic failure, depression and anxiety, teenage pregnancy, and conduct problems (Harding, 2003; Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Sampson, Raudenbush, & Earls, 1997). These children may experience increased risk for these outcomes for several reasons. One possibility is that environmental factors inherent in such high-risk neighborhoods exert causal influences on conduct problems (CPs). Another possibility is that individual-and family-level factors that are correlated with neighborhood disadvantage (ND), such as inadequate parental supervision and low family income, actually cause increased risk for CPs, with the relation between ND and youth CPs being non-causal. At present, the existing research literature does not clearly support either of these alternative explanations more than the other. This is an important shortcoming, as determining if ND is a causal risk factor for CPs or only a spurious correlate
Innovative Approaches and Methods to the Study of Children's Conduct Problems
Social Development, 2003
In this special issue, the focus is on research that introduces novel approaches and methods for studying the development of children's conduct problems. During the past two decades, a consensus has been reached that the development of conduct problems (CP) has multiple pathways and correlates. During this period there has been a marked increase in the number of studies devoted to establishing relationships between risk factors and child CP. Domains of study have included child (e.g., Bates, Moffitt, Raine), family (Egeland, Patterson, Pettit), peer (Coie, Dishion, Dodge) and broader community (Earls, Sampson, Tolan) factors. The result has been a rapid increase in our knowledge base of the effects of individual risk factors on children's CP. More recently, research in the area has focused on integrating the influence of multiple risk factors within or across domains, investigating both mediating and moderating relationships among risk factors in relation to CP. At the microsocial level, much research has been generated on patterns of reciprocal influences children have with caregivers, and more recently, with peers. At the macro level, researchers have also spent considerable effort to apply Sameroff's (1990) transactional perspective to the study of CP, demonstrating bidirectional influences between child and proximal factors over time (Coie & Dodge, 1998; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992). Advances in quantitative methods have also permitted researchers to more fully capture microsocial processes within observational assessments (Stoolmiller) and macrosocial processes over time (Brown, Nagin, Methun, Raudenbusch). The present group of papers provides a sampling of these and other innovative directions within the field. These papers apply novel methodologies, test the validity of understudied constructs, and apply previously studied risk factors to novel populations or contexts. The developmental periods studied range from infancy to adolescence, and the domains of influence include child attributes, family relations, and peer friendships. A focus on mechanisms that underlie social processes in the development or maintenance of conduct problems is a common thread. Individually the papers represent the state of the art in developmentally guided social research. Cumulatively, they should prove to be of considerable heuristic value, encouraging researchers in the field to expand their own conceptual frameworks and methods for pursuing related research.
Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 2003
Conducted a pilot study to test the feasibility of a prevention program for promoting parenting in families of preschoolers at high risk for behavior problems. Risk status was based on a family history of antisocial behavior and residence in a low-income, urban community. Thirty preschoolers (ages 2½ to 5) and their parents were randomly assigned to a 1-year, home-and clinic-based intervention or to a no-intervention control condition. Despite families'multiple risk factors, high rates of attendance and satisfaction were achieved. Relative to controls, intervention parents were observed to be significantly more responsive and use more positive parenting practices. Results support the feasibility of engaging high-risk families in an intensive prevention program. The meaningful changes achieved in parenting suggest that a preventive approach is promising for families with multiple risk factors.
Development and psychopathology, 2015
Several studies suggest that neighborhood deprivation is a unique risk factor in child and adolescent development of problem behavior. We sought to examine whether previously established intervention effects of the Family Check-Up (FCU) on child conduct problems at age 7.5 would persist through age 9.5, and whether neighborhood deprivation would moderate these effects. In addition, we examined whether improvements in parent-child interaction during early childhood associated with the FCU would be related to later reductions in child aggression among families living in the highest risk neighborhoods. Using a multisite cohort of at-risk children identified on the basis of family, child, and socioeconomic risk and randomly assigned to the FCU, intervention effects were found to be moderated by neighborhood deprivation, such that they were only directly present for those living at moderate versus extreme levels of neighborhood deprivation. In addition, improvements in child aggression w...
Protective factors in the development of early child conduct problems
Family relations, 2015
The present study utilized a resilience model to investigate child, family, and community protective factors in toddlerhood as they relate to low levels of conduct problems at age 5 in a sample of low income children at risk for early disruptive problem behavior. Child, family, and community factors were associated with lower levels of conduct problems at age 5. Child, family, and community protective factors also distinguished between children who remained below and above a clinical threshold for aggressive problems between age 2 and 5. Finally, each domain of protective factors made small but significant unique contributions to lower aggression at age 5. These results emphasize the importance of multivariate analysis of the ecology of development predicting child outcome, and suggest potential areas for intervention with children at high risk for conduct problems.