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A 12-Year Prospective Study of Patterns of Social Information Processing Problems and Externalizing Behaviors

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Abstract

This study investigated how discrete social information processing (SIP) steps may combine with one another to create distinct groups of youth who are characterized by particular patterns of SIP. SIP assessments were conducted on a community sample of 576 children in kindergarten, with follow-up assessments in grades 3, 8, and 11. At each age, four profiles were created, representing youth with no SIP problems, with early step SIP problems (encoding or making hostile attributions), with later step SIP problems (selecting instrumental goals, generating aggressive responses, or evaluating aggression positively), and with pervasive SIP problems. Although patterns of SIP problems were related to concurrent externalizing during elementary school, the consistency between cognition and future externalizing behavior was not as strong in elementary school as it was between grades 8 and 11. In some cases, youth characterized by the co-occurrence of problems in early and later SIP steps had higher externalizing scores than did youth characterized by problems in just one or the other.

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Notes

  1. We investigated this possibility by conducting three MANCOVAs, controlling for gender, ethnicity, and prior externalizing. In the first MANCOVA, early and later step SIP problems in kindergarten were examined as predictors of grade 3 externalizing; early step SIP problems significantly predicted grade 3 externalizing. In the second MANCOVA, early and later step SIP problems in grade 3 were examined as predictors of grade 8 externalizing; early step SIP problems significantly predicted grade 8 externalizing. In the third MANCOVA, early and later step SIP problems in kindergarten were examined as predictors of grade 8 externalizing; neither early nor later step SIP problems in kindergarten significantly predicted grade 8 externalizing. These findings lend support to the speculation that developmentally more recent characteristics have a greater impact on externalizing than do developmentally more distant characteristics.

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Acknowledgments

The Child Development Project has been funded by grants MH42498, MH56961, MH57024, and MH57095 from the National Institute of Mental Health and HD30572 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. We are grateful to the parents, children, and teachers who participated in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Child and Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Jennifer E. Lansford, Patrick S. Malone, Kenneth A. Dodge & Joseph C. Crozier

  2. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA

    Gregory S. Pettit

  3. Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    John E. Bates

  4. Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University, Box 90545, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Jennifer E. Lansford

Authors
  1. Jennifer E. Lansford
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  2. Patrick S. Malone
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  3. Kenneth A. Dodge
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  4. Joseph C. Crozier
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  5. Gregory S. Pettit
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  6. John E. Bates
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Correspondence to Jennifer E. Lansford.

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Lansford, J.E., Malone, P.S., Dodge, K.A. et al. A 12-Year Prospective Study of Patterns of Social Information Processing Problems and Externalizing Behaviors. J Abnorm Child Psychol 34, 709–718 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-006-9057-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-006-9057-4

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