title: Parenting stress and child behavior problems within families of children with developmental disabilities: Transactional relations across 15 years.
abstract: Parents of children with developmental disabilities (DD) are at increased risk of experiencing psychological stress compared to other parents. Children's high levels of internalizing and externalizing problems have been found to contribute to this elevated level of stress. Few studies have considered the reverse direction of effects, however, in families where a child has a DD. The present study investigated transactional relations between child behavior problems and maternal stress within 176 families raising a child with early diagnosed DD. There was evidence of both child-driven and parent-driven effects over the 15-year study period, spanning from early childhood (age 3) to adolescence (age 18), consistent with transactional models of development. Parent-child transactions were found to vary across different life phases and with different domains of behavior problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Tobin Hall 509, 135 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. Electronic address: awoodman@psych.umass.edu.
authors.forename: Ashley C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Woodman
authors.affiliation: College of Education, University of Florida, 618 SW 12th Street, Norman Hall, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA. Electronic address: hmawdsley@coe.ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Helena P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Mawdsley
authors.affiliation: Lynch School of Education, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Campion Hall, Room 239B, Newton, MA 02467, USA. Electronic address: hausercr@bc.edu.
authors.forename: Penny
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hauser-Cram
keywords: Developmental disabilities; Externalizing behavior; Internalizing behavior; Longitudinal; Stress