Infancy Parenting and Externalizing Psychopathology from Childhood through Adulthood: Developmental Trends

摘要

Developmental models and previous findings suggest that early parenting is more strongly associated with externalizing problems in early childhood than in adolescence. In this brief report, we addressed the question of whether the association of poor quality infancy parenting and externalizing problems “rebounds” in adulthood. Poor quality infancy parenting was associated with externalizing problems at kindergarten and first grade (mother report), as well as at 23 and 26 years (self-report). Infancy parenting was not significantly associated with either mothers' or youths' reports of externalizing problems at 16 years. These findings are consistent with the notion that poor quality infancy parenting is a risk factor for externalizing problems in developmental periods for which externalizing behavior is most deviant.