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Parenting and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Moroccan Immigrant Youth in the Netherlands

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Abstract

This study explores the relationship of parenting to internalizing and externalizing problems in Moroccan immigrant youth in the Netherlands. Interviews were conducted with 713 Moroccan immigrant parents, using the Child Behavior Checklist and the Nijmegen Rearing Questionnaire. Child rearing varied with socioeconomic status and psychological acculturation level of the parent, and gender and age of the child. In accordance with studies in Western populations, high levels of affection and monitoring were associated with low levels of problem behavior and high levels of discipline were associated with high levels of problem behavior. However, in contrast to studies in Western populations, a positive relationship was revealed between affection and discipline, and the univariate associations between discipline and problem behavior were modest. Discipline and internalizing problems were unrelated in low SES families, whereas a positive relationship was found in high SES families. The relationship between monitoring and externalizing problems was age-specific: We found a negative association for adolescents and no association for children.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by NWO (Dutch Organization for Scientific Research). The authors would like to thank the parents who participated in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Utrecht/Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, ErasmusMC/Sophia, P.O. Box 80140, 3508, TC, Utrecht, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Gonneke W. J. M. Stevens

  2. University of Utrecht/Trimbos-institute, Utrecht, P.O. Box 80140, 3508, TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Wilma A. M. Vollebergh

  3. Verwey-Jonker Institute, 3512, HG, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Trees V. M. Pels

  4. Erasmus MC/Sophia, P.O. Box 2060, 3000, CB, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Alfons A. M. Crijnen

Authors
  1. Gonneke W. J. M. Stevens
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  2. Wilma A. M. Vollebergh
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  3. Trees V. M. Pels
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  4. Alfons A. M. Crijnen
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Correspondence to Gonneke W. J. M. Stevens.

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Assistant Professor at the department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences of the University of Utrecht. She received her Ph.D. in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the Erasmus MC/Sophia, Rotterdam. Her research interests concern the psychological development of immigrant children and adolescents. Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences

Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences of the University of Utrecht. Her research in the past years has been focused on mental health problems and addiction in adolescents and adults, and on the importance of the risk factors related to migrant status and ethnicity. Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences

Received her Ph.D. at the University of Leiden in 1991. She is a Senior Researcher and head of the research group ‘Multicultural Questions’ at the Verwey-Jonker Institute. Her field of study is socialization and psychological development of children of ethnic minorities. Verwey-Jonker Institute, Kromme Nieuwegracht 6

Dutch Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Associate Professor at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at ErasmusMC/Sophia, Rotterdam. His research examines levels of emotional and behavioral problems as well as predictors of these problems in Turkish and Moroccan immigrant youth in the Netherlands. Dr. Crijnen is also the principal investigator in studies on the prevention of disruptive behavior and substance use in children and adolescents through school- and parent-based interventions. Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

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Stevens, G.W.J.M., Vollebergh, W.A.M., Pels, T.V.M. et al. Parenting and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Moroccan Immigrant Youth in the Netherlands. J Youth Adolescence 36, 685–695 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9112-z

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