title: Longitudinal pathways from marital hostility to child anger during toddlerhood: genetic susceptibility and indirect effects via harsh parenting.
abstract: We examined direct and indirect pathways from marital hostility to toddler anger/frustration via harsh parenting and parental depressive symptoms, with an additional focus on the moderating role of genetic influences as inferred from birth parent anger/frustration. Participants were 361 linked triads of birth mothers, adoptive parents, and adopted children who were 9 (T1) and 18 (T2) months old across the study period. Results indicated an indirect effect from T1 marital hostility to T2 toddler anger/frustration via T2 parental harsh discipline. Results also indicated that the association between marital hostility and toddler anger was moderated by birth mother anger/frustration. For children whose birth mothers reported high levels of anger/frustration, adoptive parents' marital hostility at T1 predicted toddler anger/frustration at T2. This relation did not hold for children whose birth mothers reported low levels of anger/frustration. The results suggest that children whose birth mothers report elevated frustration might inherit an emotional lability that makes them more sensitive to the effects of marital hostility.
authors.affiliation: Oregon Social Learning Center, 10 Shelton McMurphey Boulevard, Eugene, OR 97401, USA. kimberlyr@oslc.org
authors.forename: Kimberly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Rhoades
authors.forename: Leslie D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Leve
authors.forename: Gordon T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Harold
authors.forename: Jenae M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Neiderhiser
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reiss
mesh_terms: D000300:Adoption / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult