Pathways to children's externalizing behavior: a three-generation study.
In this study, based on Family Interactional Theory (FIT), the authors tested a longitudinal model of the intergenerational effects of the grandmothers' parent-child relationships and the grandparents' smoking on the grandchildren's externalizing behavior via parents' psychological symptoms, tobacco use, and child rearing. Using Mplus, the authors obtained a structural equation model that demonstrated generational associations from grandmothers (G1) to parents (G2) to their oldest children (G3) and thus was in accord with FIT. They identified a pathway from the grandmothers' parenting to the grandchildren's externalizing behavior via the parents' psychological symptoms, their smoking, and their child rearing. Parents' psychological symptoms in adolescence were associated with their tobacco use in their late twenties, controlling for the continuity of their psychological symptoms and their tobacco use. This 3-generational model adds to the literature on parent-child relationships (G1), smoking from adolescence to early adulthood (G2), and externalizing behavior in the G3 child.
New York University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, 215 Lexington Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA. judith.brook@nyumc.org
Judith S
JS
Brook
Chenshu
C
Zhang
Elinor B
EB
Balka
David W
DW
Brook
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D032721:Adult Children / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002668:Child Rearing; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009518:New York; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D012951:Socialization; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult