title: Parenting practices as mediating variables between parents' psychopathology and oppositional defiant disorder in preschoolers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is very frequent in preschoolers. The severity and the long-term negative outcomes make the understanding of this disorder a priority. The goal in this study was to assess the mediating role of parenting practices in the relationship between parents' psychopathology and ODD in preschoolers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A community sample of 622 children was assessed longitudinally at age 3 and age 5. Parents reported on children's psychopathology through a diagnostic interview, and on their own psychological state and parenting style through questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At ages 3 and 5, corporal punishment mediated the relationships between mothers' anxiety-depression and ODD (in girls), between mothers' aggressive behavior and ODD (in boys), and between parents' rule-breaking and ODD both in boys and girls. For both sexes, there was a direct association between mothers' aggressive behavior score and ODD. The association between fathers' psychopathology and ODD was not mediated by the fathers' parenting practices. Fathers' anxiety-depression and aggressive behavior scores were directly associated with ODD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parents' psychopathology must be explored and, in families where such psychopathology is a relevant variable, parenting practices must be addressed with a view to the prevention and treatment of children's ODD in the preschool years.
authors.affiliation: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Trepat
authors.forename: Roser
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Granero
authors.forename: Lourdes
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ezpeleta
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D001007:Anxiety; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents