Abstract
Using cross-lagged model design, the present study is the first one to longitudinally examine whether bidirectional associations between child psychopathy features and negative parenting behaviors remain when controlling for parental psychopathic traits. The relationship between parental and child psychopathology, child conduct problems and parental rejection was assessed in 175 children (80 boys) at the ages 5, 6 and 8. Child psychopathy features and conduct problems at age 5–8 years were assessed using kindergarten/teacher-reported questionnaires, whereas parenting behaviors across all waves and parental psychopathic traits at Wave 1 were assessed using self-reports. Similar to past research, parental psychopathic traits were significantly related to both negative parenting practices and child’s psychopathy features. However, although cross-lagged models provided evidence for bidirectional dynamics between child psychopathy features and parenting at all waves, this relationship became non-significant once parental psychopathic traits were entered into the model. These findings provide important new evidence that parental psychopathic personality has an important effect on the relationship between child psychopathy features and parenting practices observed in previous longitudinal studies. Thus, in addition to child psychopathy features, interventions for children with conduct problems should also target parental psychopathy in order to contribute to children’s healthy development.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This research was supported by grants from the Croatian Science Foundation [HRZZ-IP-2016–06-3917], Zaklada Adris (30.11.2018.), and University of Osijek [IZIP-2016–79].
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Ručević, S., Farrington, D.P. & Andershed, H. The role of parental psychopathic traits: longitudinal relations with parenting, child’s psychopathy features and conduct problems. Curr Psychol 42, 23045–23058 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03452-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03452-w