title: Relations among positive parenting, children's effortful control, and externalizing problems: a three-wave longitudinal study.
abstract: In a 3-wave longitudinal study (with assessments 2 years apart) involving 186 early adolescents (M ages of approximately 9.3, 11.4, and 13.4), the hypothesis that parental warmth/positive expressivity predicts children's effortful control (EC) (a temperamental characteristic contributing to emotion regulation) 2 years later, which in turn predicts low levels of externalizing problems another 2 years later, was examined. The hypothesis that children's EC predicts parenting over time was also examined. Parents were observed interacting with their children; parents and teachers reported children's EC and externalizing problems; and children's persistence was assessed behaviorally. Children's EC mediated the relation between positive parenting and low levels of externalizing problems (whereas there was no evidence that children's EC predicted parenting).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. nancy.eisenberg@asu.edu
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Tracy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Spinrad
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Valiente
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Fabes
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liew
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires