2 research outputs found
The complex role of parental separation in the association between family conflict and child problem behavior
Parental separation is a major adverse childhood experience. Parental separation is generally
preceded by conflict, which is itself a risk factor for child problem behavior. Whether
parental separation independent of conflict has negative effects on child problem behavior
is unclear. This study was embedded in Generation R, a population-based cohort followed
from fetal life until age 9 years. Information on family conflict was obtained from 5,808
mothers and fathers. The 4-way decomposition method was used to apportion the effects of
prenatal family conflict and parental separation on child problem behavior into 4 nonoverlapping
components. Structural equation modeling was used to test bidirectional effects of
child problem behavior and family conflict over time. Family conflict from pregnancy
onward and parental separation each strongly predicted child problem behavior up to
preadolescence according to maternal and paternal ratings. Using the 4-way decomposition
method, we found evidence for a strong direct effect of prenatal family conflict on child
problem behavior, for reference interaction, and for mediated interaction. The evidence for
interaction implies that prenatal family conflict increased the children’s vulnerability to the
harmful effect of parental separation. There was no evidence of a pure indirect effect of
parental separation on child problem behavior. Overall, results indicated that if parental
separation occurs in families with low levels of conflict, parental separation does not predict
more child problem behavior. Moreover, the bidirectional pattern suggested that child
problem behavior influences the persistence of family conflic
From Parent to Child to Parent: Associations Between Parent and Offspring Psychopathology
Parental psychopathology can affect child functioning, and vice versa. We examined bidirectional associations between parent and offspring psychopathology in 5,536 children and their parents. We asked three questions: (a) are parent-to-child associations stronger than child-to-parent associations? (b) are mother-to-child associations stronger than father-to-child associations? and (c) do within- and between-person effects contribute to bidirectional associations between parent and offspring psychopathology? Our findings suggest that only within-rater bidirectional associations of parent and offspring psychopathology can be consistently detected, with no difference between mothers and fathers. Child psychopathology was hardly associated with parental psychopathology. No evidence for cross-rater child-to-parent associations was found suggesting that the within-rater child-to-parent associations reflect shared method variance. Moreover, within-person change accounted for a part of the variance observed