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Child Effortful Control as a Moderator of the Effects of Parenting on Children’s Behavioral Adjustment: A Longitudinal Study Spanning 3 to 10 Years

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Abstract

This study aimed to examine independent and interactive contributions of parenting behaviors (e.g., physical punishment, inductive discipline, warm responsiveness) and child effortful control on child externalizing problems during early and middle childhood. Participants were 241 children (123girls) of middle-income families in the U.S. who were primarily European Americans (91%) and at risk for school-age problem behaviors. Data were collected at ages 3, 6, and 10 using multiple methods, informants, and contexts. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated both independent and interactive influences of parenting behaviors and child effortful control on children’s externalizing behaviors. Importantly, effortful control buffered the negative influence of physical punishment, but not other parenting behaviors, such that physical punishment was associated with external behaviors at 6 years only for children with poorer effortful control abilities. The results highlight both parental discipline strategies and child effortful control as promising targets for early identification and prevention of future problem behaviors. Summary: Parenting and child effortful control have long been topics of research on child development. However, relatively little is known about the long-term effects of early parenting in the context of effortful control and the possibility that those processes may differ across different dimensions of parenting (i.e., warm responsiveness, inductive discipline, and physical punishment) Therefore, this study aimed to examine independent and interactive contributions of parenting behaviors and child effortful control on child externalizing problems during early and middle childhood. Participants were 241 children (123girls) of middle-income families who were at risk for school-age problem behaviors. Data were collected using multiple methods, informants, and contexts. Specifically, child effortful control at 3 years was measured using multiple tasks, and parenting at 3 years was assessed via maternal report during home interview. Teachers contributed ratings of child externalizing behaviors at 3, 6, and 10 years. Results indicated both independent and interactive influences of parenting behaviors and child effortful control on children’s externalizing behaviors. Importantly, effortful control buffered the negative influence of physical punishment, but not other parenting behaviors, such that physical punishment was associated with external behaviors at 6 years only for children with poorer effortful control abilities. Moreover, parents’ use of physical punishment at age 3 showed a long-lasting association with children’s problem behaviors at ages 6 and 10 years. The findings suggest that children with more advanced effortful control may be less susceptible to long-term detrimental contribution of physical punishment, although by no means they are protected from harmful effects of punitive discipline. This study provides more sophisticated explanations on the influence of early parenting and child effortful control on externalizing behaviors spanning early to middle childhood. The results also highlight different parental discipline strategies and child effortful controls as promising targets for early identification and prevention of children’s future problem behaviors in childhood.

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Notes

  1. A few studies using the same dataset have also focused on similar variables of interest to the current study. Specifically, Olson et al. (2005) examined how effortful control and parenting behaviors are predictive of peer aggression, and Choe et al. (2013) investigated the role of child effortful control as a mediator of the association between parenting behaviors and later externalizing behaviors. Olson et al. (2017) focused on the trajectory of externalizing behaviors throughout childhood, and also examined how parenting and child effortful control are associated with this trajectory. Our study extends previous studies and focuses on the interaction effect between multiple dimensions of parenting behaviors and child effortful control in predicting child externalizing behaviors at three different ages during early and middle childhood.

  2. The results in Step1 were identical for all hierarchical multiple regression models.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (RO1MH57489) to the third author. We thank children, parents, and teachers for making this research possible.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

    Sujin Lee & Sheryl L. Olson

  2. Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea

    Hyein Chang

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Lee, S., Chang, H. & Olson, S.L. Child Effortful Control as a Moderator of the Effects of Parenting on Children’s Behavioral Adjustment: A Longitudinal Study Spanning 3 to 10 Years. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-022-01481-x

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