title: Early Parenting and the Development of Externalizing Behavior Problems: Longitudinal Mediation Through Children's Executive Function.
abstract: Path analysis was used to investigate the longitudinal associations among parenting and children's executive function and externalizing behavior problems from 36 to 90 months of age in the Family Life Project (N = 1,115), a study of child development in the context of rural poverty. While controlling for stability in the constructs, semistructured observations of parenting prospectively predicted performance on a battery of executive function tasks and primary caregivers' reports of externalizing behavior. Furthermore, the association between early parenting and later externalizing behavior was longitudinally mediated by executive function, providing support for a process model in which sensitive parenting promotes children's self-regulation, which in turn reduces children's externalizing behavior.
authors.affiliation: New York University.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Sulik
authors.affiliation: New York University.
authors.forename: Clancy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mills-Koonce
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.affiliation: The Pennsylvania State University.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Greenberg
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009657:North Carolina; D016487:Parenting; D010414:Pennsylvania; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D000066553:Problem Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012424:Rural Population; D000068356:Self-Control / Q000523:psychology*