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Early Childhood Impulsivity And Parenting Predict Trajectories Of Externalizing Psychopathology, Emma Stewart

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Parenting is a consistent predictor of child externalizing symptoms; however, the role of caregiving variability (i.e., variation in a caregiver’s parenting behaviour) is poorly understood. We examined whether characteristic parenting style and parenting variability predicted externalizing symptoms in 409 children (M_age = 3.43 at baseline, 208 girls). We assessed parent positive affectivity (PPA), hostility, and parenting structure at child age three using three behavioural tasks designed to vary in context, examining variability by modeling a latent difference score reflecting the range for each dimension. We assessed children’s symptoms at ages three, five, eight, and 11. Lower hostility predicted fewer …