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Patterns Of Risk And Trajectories Of Preschool Problem Behaviors: A Person-Oriented Analysis Of Attachment In Context, Thomas E. Keller, Susan J. Spieker, Lewayne D. Gilchrist

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

A small proportion of children exhibit extreme and persistent conduct problems through childhood. The present study employed the multiple-domain model of Greenberg and colleagues as the framework for person-oriented analyses examining whether parents' child attachment combines with parenting, family ecology, and child characteristics in particular configurations of risk that are linked to this problematic developmental pathway. Using prospective data from a community sample of adolescent mothers and their children, latent variable growth mixture modeling identified a normative trajectory with declining problem behaviors during the preschool period. Consistent with research on early-starter pathways, a distinct group of children featured a higher …