Transactional Process of African American Adolescents’ Family Conflict and Violent Behavior

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109569/1/jora12056.pd

The interaction between monoamine oxidase A and punitive discipline in the development of antisocial behavior: Mediation by maladaptive social information processing.

Previous studies demonstrate that boys' monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) genotype interacts with adverse rearing environments in early childhood, including punitive discipline, to predict later antisocial behavior. Yet the mechanisms by which MAOA and punitive parenting interact during childhood to amplify risk for antisocial behavior are not well understood. In the present study, hostile attributional bias and aggressive response generation during middle childhood, salient aspects of maladaptive social information processing, were tested as possible mediators of this relation in a sample of 187 low-income men followed prospectively from infancy into early adulthood. Given racial-ethnic variation in MAOA allele frequencies, analyses were conducted separately by race. In both African American and Caucasian men, those with the low-activity MAOA allele who experienced more punitive discipline at age 1.5 generated more aggressive responses to perceived threat at age 10 relative to men with the high-activity variant. In the African American subsample only, formal mediation analyses indicated a marginally significant indirect effect of maternal punitiveness on adult arrest records via aggressive response generation in middle childhood. The findings suggest that maladaptive social information processing may be an important mechanism underlying the association between MAOA × Parenting interactions and antisocial behavior in early adulthood. The present study extends previous work in the field by demonstrating that MAOA and harsh parenting assessed in early childhood interact to not only predict antisocial behavior in early adulthood, but also predict social information processing, a well-established social-cognitive correlate of antisocial behavior

Interactions between empathy and resting heart rate in early adolescence predict violent behavior in late adolescence and early adulthood.

BackgroundAlthough resting heart rate (RHR) and empathy are independently and negatively associated with violent behavior, relatively little is known about the interplay between these psychophysiological and temperament-related risk factors.MethodsUsing a sample of 160 low-income, racially diverse men followed prospectively from infancy through early adulthood, this study examined whether RHR and empathy during early adolescence independently and interactively predict violent behavior and related correlates in late adolescence and early adulthood.ResultsControlling for child ethnicity, family income, and child antisocial behavior at age 12, empathy inversely predicted moral disengagement and juvenile petitions for violent crimes, while RHR was unrelated to all measures of violent behavior. Interactive effects were also evident such that among men with lower but not higher levels of RHR, lower empathy predicted increased violent behavior, as indexed by juvenile arrests for violent offenses, peer-reported violent behavior at age 17, self-reported moral disengagement at age 17, and self-reported violent behavior at age 20.ConclusionsImplications for prevention and intervention are considered. Specifically, targeting empathic skills among individuals at risk for violent behavior because of specific psychophysiological profiles may lead to more impactful interventions

Inhibitory control as a mediator of bidirectional effects between early oppositional behavior and maternal depression.

Maternal depression is an established risk factor for child conduct problems, but relatively few studies have tested whether children's behavioral problems exacerbate mothers' depression or whether other child behavioral characteristics (e.g., self-regulation) may mediate bidirectional effects between maternal depression and child disruptive behavior. This longitudinal study examined the parallel growth of maternal depressive symptoms and child oppositional behavior from ages 2 to 5; the magnitude and timing of their bidirectional effects; and whether child inhibitory control, a temperament-based self-regulatory mechanism, mediated effects between maternal depression and child oppositionality. A randomized control trial of 731 at-risk families assessed children annually from ages 2 to 5. Transactional models demonstrated positive and bidirectional associations between mothers' depressive symptoms and children's oppositional behavior from ages 2 to 3, with a less consistent pattern of reciprocal relations up to age 5. Mediation of indirect mother-child effects and child evocative effects depended on the rater of children's inhibitory control. Findings are discussed in regard to how child evocative effects and self-regulatory mechanisms may clarify the transmission of psychopathology within families

Transactions between Family Psychosocial Stressors and Externalizing Symptoms from Infancy to Adolescence: Interactions with Gender and Self- regulation.

Family psychosocial stressors are key risk factors for children’s externalizing symptoms, yet we understand relatively little of their transactional interplay or their interaction with children’s individual characteristics. Recent evidence has indicated that children’s externalizing problems exacerbate family risk factors, and that children with poor self-regulation and boys are more vulnerable to stressors that contribute to externalizing problems. My research aims to clarify the etiology and development of externalizing symptoms by examining their transactions and interactions with family psychosocial risk factors. Three longitudinal studies collectively spanning across infancy to young adulthood examined transactional models of externalizing symptoms and family stressors and tested whether self-regulation and gender moderated their relations. Study 1 examined whether infants’ functional self-regulation moderated transactions of externalizing behavior and maternal depressive symptoms in toddlerhood. Study 2 investigated whether children’s effortful control moderated transactions of maternal depressive symptoms and externalizing behavior from the preschool years to middle childhood. Study 3 examined whether adolescents’ active coping moderated bidirectional effects of their violent behavior and family conflict during high school. Structural equation modeling results demonstrated evidence of transactional processes involving family psychosocial stressors and youths’ externalizing symptoms that were moderated by self-regulatory processes and gender. Findings across the studies indicated increasingly advanced self-regulatory responses to stress that contributed to individual differences in risk, as well as elevated periods of vulnerability in early childhood. I discuss the transactional nature of maladjustment in families and individual characteristics that moderate effects of risk factors and alter vulnerability to stress. I conclude with an integrative discussion and address implications for prevention and intervention of externalizing symptoms.Ph.D.PsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91587/1/danieewo_1.pd