Acta Psychologica Sinica

Abstract

The relation between parent-child relationships and children’s problem behaviors is complex, with some evidence supporting the influences of parent-child relationships on problem behaviors, and other evidence supporting problem behaviors as an influence on parent-child relationships. While decades of research examined single-directional influences, transactional model, which emphasizes reciprocal influences between children and their surrounding environment, has gradually dominated developmental psychopathology in recent years. However, most transactional analyses of the relations between parent-child relationships and children’s problem behaviors have predominately focused on middle childhood and adolescence, and little attention has been devoted to early childhood. The aim of the present research was to examine the transactional models of parent-child relationships and children’s problem behaviors in their early childhood.

Based on a two-year and three-wave longitudinal study on a sample of 81 preschoolers and their parents, the present research examined the relations of children’s relationships with fathers and mothers to their problem behaviors by using Parent-Child Relationship Scale and Child Behavior Checklist/2–3. Structural equation modeling was applied to investigate the transactional models of parent-child relationships and problem behaviors.

The results showed a moderate continuity of mother-child relationships, father-child relationships, and child withdrawal, anxiety, aggression, and delinquency behaviors across the three waves, βs = 0.31–0.69, ps < 0.01. The reciprocal relations between mother-child relationships and children’s withdrawal and aggression behaviors, and between father-child relationships and children’s aggression and delinquency behaviors were all supported. Structural equation modeling indicated the model fit indexes showed a good fit. Specifically, on the one hand, mother-child closeness negatively predicted children’s later withdrawal and aggression, and father-child conflict positively predicted children’s later aggression and delinquency; on the other hand, children’s closeness with their mothers were negatively predicted by their prior aggression and delinquency, their conflict with mothers positively predicted by their prior withdrawal, their conflict with mothers as well as with fathers positively predicted by their prior anxiety, aggression and delinquency, and their closeness with fathers also positively predicted by their prior delinquency.

These findings highlight the importance of examining the transactional processes underlying the development of children’s problem behaviors, and expand the existing research on developmental psychopathology by underlying the transactional models of children’s problem behaviors and their relationships with parents in early childhood.

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