Conduct disorder in girls: neighborhoods, family characteristics, and parenting behaviors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Little is known about the social context of girls with conduct disorder (CD), a question of increasing importance to clinicians and researchers. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between three social context domains (neighborhood, family characteristics, and parenting behaviors) and CD in adolescent girls, additionally testing for race moderation effects. We predicted that disadvantaged neighborhoods, family characteristics such as parental marital status, and parenting behaviors such as negative discipline would characterize girls with CD. We also hypothesized that parenting behaviors would mediate the associations between neighborhood and family characteristics and CD.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We recruited 93 15–17 year-old girls from the community and used a structured psychiatric interview to assign participants to a CD group (n = 52) or a demographically matched group with no psychiatric disorder (n = 41). Each girl and parent also filled out questionnaires about neighborhood, family characteristics, and parenting behaviors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Neighborhood quality was not associated with CD in girls. Some family characteristics (parental antisociality) and parenting behaviors (levels of family activities and negative discipline) were characteristic of girls with CD, but notll. There was no moderation by race. Our hypothesis that the association between family characteristics and CD would be mediated by parenting behaviors was not supported.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study expanded upon previous research by investigating multiple social context domains in girls with CD and by selecting a comparison group who were not different in age, social class, or race. When these factors are thus controlled, CD in adolescent girls is not significantly associated with neighborhood, but is associated with some family characteristics and some types of parental behaviors. However, the mechanisms underlying these relationships need to be further investigated. We discuss possible explanations for our findings and suggest directions for future research.</p

A Three-Generational Study of Risk Factors for Childhood Externalizing Behavior among African Americans and Puerto Ricans

This is the first prospective study to examine the precursors of child externalizing behavior across three generations of African Americans and Puerto Ricans. Participants comprised a community cohort of male and female African Americans and Puerto Ricans (N = 366, \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\overline{X}$$\end{document} age = 29.4 years), who are part of an ongoing study of drug use and problem behaviors, and who had a child. Data were collected at four time waves, spanning the participants’ adolescence to adulthood. Questionnaires were initially self-administered in schools in East Harlem, NY, USA (time 1). Subsequently, structured interviews were conducted by trained interviewers (times 2 and 3), and self-administered via mail (time 4). The independent variables consisted of the participants’ prospective reports of their (a) relationships with their parents during adolescence, (b) depressive mood and drug use (adolescence to adulthood), (c) relationship with their oldest child between the ages of 6–13, and (d) perceptions of neighborhood crime and deterioration (in adulthood). The dependent variable was externalizing behavior in the participant’s oldest child (\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\overline{X}$$\end{document} age = 9.6 years; SD = 2.0). Structural equation modeling showed that the parent–child relationship during participants’ adolescence was linked with the participants’ depressive mood and drug use which, in turn, were associated with the participants’ relationship with their own child, as well as with neighborhood crime and deterioration when participants were adults. The participants’ depressive mood, and relationship with their own child, as well as neighborhood crime and deterioration, each had a direct pathway to externalizing behavior in the participant’s child. Findings suggest that intervention programs and public policy should address parental attributes, neighborhood factors, and, especially, parenting skills, to reduce risk factors for the intergenerational transmission of externalizing behavior

Differential effects of parental controls on adolescent substance use:for whom is the family most important?

Objective Social control theory assumes that the ability of social constraints to deter juvenile delinquency will be invariant across individuals. This paper tests this hypothesis and examines the degree to which there are differential effects of parental controls on adolescent substance use. Methods Analyses are based on self-reported data from 7,349 10th-grade students and rely on regression mixture models to identify latent classes of individuals who may vary in the effects of parental controls on drug use. Results All parental controls were significantly related to adolescent drug use, with higher levels of control associated with less drug use. The effects of instrumental parental controls (e.g., parental management strategies) on drug use were shown to vary across individuals, while expressive controls (e.g., parent/child attachment) had uniform effects in reducing drug use. Specifically, poor family management and more favorable parental attitudes regarding children’s drug use and delinquency had stronger effects on drug use for students who reported greater attachment to their neighborhoods, less acceptance of adolescent drug use by neighborhood residents, and fewer delinquent peers, compared to those with greater community and peer risk exposure. Parental influences were also stronger for Caucasian students versus those from other racial/ethnic groups, but no differences in effects were found based on students’ gender or commitment to school. Conclusions The findings demonstrate support for social control theory, and also help to refine and add precision to this perspective by identifying groups of individuals for whom parental controls are most influential. Further, they offer an innovative methodology that can be applied to any criminological theory to examine the complex forces that result in illegal behavior