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Role of temperament in early adolescent pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems using a bifactor model: Moderation by parenting and gender

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2015

Frances L. Wang ,
Nancy Eisenberg ,
Carlos Valiente  and
Tracy L. Spinrad
Frances L. Wang*
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Nancy Eisenberg
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Carlos Valiente
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Tracy L. Spinrad
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Frances L. Wang, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, 950 South McAllister Avenue, P.O. Box 871104, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104; E-mail: frances.wang@asu.edu.
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Abstract

We contribute to the literature on the relations of temperament to externalizing and internalizing problems by considering parental emotional expressivity and child gender as moderators of such relations and examining prediction of pure and co-occurring problem behaviors during early to middle adolescence using bifactor models (which provide unique and continuous factors for pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems). Parents and teachers reported on children's (4.5- to 8-year-olds; N = 214) and early adolescents’ (6 years later; N = 168) effortful control, impulsivity, anger, sadness, and problem behaviors. Parental emotional expressivity was measured observationally and with parents’ self-reports. Early-adolescents’ pure externalizing and co-occurring problems shared childhood and/or early-adolescent risk factors of low effortful control, high impulsivity, and high anger. Lower childhood and early-adolescent impulsivity and higher early-adolescent sadness predicted early-adolescents’ pure internalizing. Childhood positive parental emotional expressivity more consistently related to early-adolescents’ lower pure externalizing compared to co-occurring problems and pure internalizing. Lower effortful control predicted changes in externalizing (pure and co-occurring) over 6 years, but only when parental positive expressivity was low. Higher impulsivity predicted co-occurring problems only for boys. Findings highlight the probable complex developmental pathways to adolescent pure and co-occurring externalizing and internalizing problems.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 28 , Special Issue 4pt2: Epigenetics: Development, Psychopathology, Resilience, and Preventive Intervention , November 2016 , pp. 1487 - 1504
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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