Child internalizing and externalizing problems co-vary during development and lead to maladjustment outcomes, such as substance abuse, academic failure, antisocial behaviors and psychopathology. The proposed study aims to examine the co-development process of internalizing and externalizing problems during middle childhood and the potential moderators of this reciprocal relationship. Children and their families recruited in the Study of Early Childhood Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) constitute the sample of the current study. Participants in the study were recruited from nine states in the United States and followed from birth to adolescence. Though a few studies have examined the developmental trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems over time, the findings are not consistent in terms of the directions of the relationship and very few have examined individual difference in the co-development process. To address this gap in knowledge, two moderating effects are examined, with one moderator being time-invariant, i.e., children's gender, and the other moderator being time-variant, i.e. parent-child conflicts. Longitudinal growth modeling and longitudinal difference score modeling are used to examine the dynamic relationship and the moderating effects. Comparisons of the two approaches are made with respect to the specific hypotheses of change tested by each model, model convergence, parameter and fit estimates, and the interpretation of the results. / Ph. D.

Aggression is a heterogeneous behavior that has been conceptualized by two distinct but inter-related functions: proactive and reactive aggression (Dodge, 1991). Proactive aggression has been linked to externalizing behaviors and reactive aggression to internalizing behaviors (Vitaro, Gendreau, Tremblay, & Oligny, 1998). There has been some evidence to suggest that family environment may influence the relationship between the aggressive functions and the related forms of psychopathology (Dodge, 1991). However, given the limited research pertaining to the relationships among aggression, family environment, and subsequent psychopathology, the current study explored the nature of the relationships among these variables in more detail. The present study hypothesized that proactive aggression would be related to externalizing symptoms (delinquency, hyperactivity), and these relationships would be moderated by family conflict. In addition, it was predicted that reactive aggression would be related to internalizing symptoms and inattention, and these relationships would be moderated by family conflict, cohesion, and control. The study included a sample of 135 children and their parents who completed several self-report measures. Overall, the findings did not support the hypotheses, though there was mixed support for the relationship between the aggressive functions and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. / Master of Science

The goal of this research was to investigate multiple aspects of self-regulation and their relationship to stress, sleep, and behavioral health. Participants (N=89, 55 females, 29 males, and 5 did not list their sex) were recruited from a high-risk Midwest high school. Participants reported their own self-regulatory ability, sleep, stress, and behavioral problems. Nail samples were also collected from a subset of the participants to assay for cortisol and DHEA. Several measures of self-regulation were found to correlate with sleep quality, behavioral problems, and perceived stress. The natural log of the ratio of cortisol to DHEA was positively correlated with multiple measures of self-regulation. These findings demonstrate a relationship a positive relationship among self-regulation, sleep quality, and improved behavioral functioning as indexed by lower levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Better self-regulation also correlated with lower perceived stress, but higher physiological biomarkers of stress. These findings are discussed in the context of theoretical proposals of self-regulation and stress adaption.

The aim of this thesis is to expand our understanding of the etiology of alcohol misuse and related disorders in African Americans using genetically informative study designs. Specifically, we take advantage of the candidate-gene approach and polygenic score analysis to extend the literature specific to African American populations. Chapter 2 explores gene x environment (GxE) interactions through the candidate gene approach to explore the relationship between two genes chosen on their potential relevance to stress response and adolescent alcohol use and misuse, among African American youth living in highly impoverished neighborhoods, as moderated by stressful life events. Chapter 3 implements polygenic score analyses to examine the effect of an aggregate of markers. We explore whether polygenic risk for alcohol dependence – derived from GWAS estimates in one discovery sample – predict alcohol use and broader externalizing behaviors and interact with stressful life events to predict alcohol use/misuse among high-risk African American youth.

This study examined the link between interparental violence and children's functioning. The goal of the study was to examine an indirect pathway of the effect of interparental violence on children's internalizing and externalizing problems. The data for the study was drawn from The Women and Family Project and included 359 women and one of their children between the ages of 5 and 12-years-old. Sixty-four of these women resided in a battered women's shelter, 100 of these women resided in the community but had a history of interparental violence, and 195 of these women were recruited as a comparison sample. Interparental violence, maternal parenting practices, maternal depression, and children's internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed via interviews with mothers and their children. An indirect pathway hypothesis of the effects of interparental violence which posits that interparental violence leads to maternal depression, maternal depression leads to maternal use of maladaptive parenting practices, and maternal maladaptive parenting practices lead to children's internalizing and externalizing problems was tested using structural equation modeling. This new model of the indirect effects of interparental violence was supported by the results of the structural equation models when tested on the sample as a whole as well as separately for the battered and nonbattered sample. A second indirect pathway, though, was more strongly supported. This second model indicates that interparental violence affects children through maternal depression, which is directly related to children's internalizing and externalizing problems. The results of the present study support the importance of indirect pathways of the effects of interparental violence on children.

Clarifying processes associated with emerging externalizing behavior problems during early childhood was the focus of this study. Data were collected from 100 parent-child dyads when children were 2, 3, and 4 years. An incremental risk model was hypothesized to explain the emergence of externalizing behavior problems. Theoretically, children's temperamental propensity towards negative emotional reactivity increases risk for noncompliance, noncompliance that increases risk for externalizing behaviors by age 4. Parenting was identified as the mechanism by which children's progression along the incremental risk pathway is amplified or minimized; progression is only expected under conditions of harsh parenting. No statistical support emerged for the incremental risk model or the moderational effects of harsh parenting. Harsh parenting was a statistically significant predictor of children's noncompliance one year later. Implications of the current findings for future research are discussed.

This study examined the relationship between perceived parenting skills and youth externalizing symptoms throughout the course of routine treatment of youth receiving services in a community mental health setting. Specifically, this study investigated whether changes in parenting skills were associated with changes in three dimensions of youth externalizing behaviors (behavioral dysfunction, interpersonal relations, social problems). Participants were 401 youth (aged 4-17, mean aged 10.7, 48% female) and their parents/guardians. At regular intervals throughout treatment, parents completed the Treatment Support Measure (TSM) to assess perceived parenting skills along with the Youth Outcome Questionnaire (Y-OQ) to assess youth externalizing symptoms. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that changes in perceived parenting skills were not significantly related to changes youth behavioral dysfunction, interpersonal relations, or social problems. However, parenting skills and all facets of externalizing significantly changed throughout the course of therapy and higher parenting skills were associated with lower levels of youth externalizing throughout therapy. Parenting skill appears to require further study as a key factor involved in youth psychotherapy outcomes in real world settings, especially in relation to youth externalizing symptoms.

This study examines the relationship between parental personal mastery, parents' depressive symptoms and children's internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors. Respondents in this study included 282 four- year old children randomly sampled from classrooms in public sponsored pre-k programs and their parents who participated in the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) study of pre-k quality. Personal mastery was measured using Pearlin and Schoole's (1978) Personal Mastery Scale and depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors were measured using the Hightower Teacher-Child Rating Scale. It was expected that children of parents who displayed depressive symptoms and low personal mastery would exhibit a higher level of internalizing and externalizing problems than their peers. No support was found for a relation between parental depression and child outcomes. However, children of parents reporting high parental mastery exhibited fewer behavioral problems than their peers. This study underscores the importance of parental beliefs and suggests the value of including modules on personal mastery in programs to train parents to deal with child behavior problems. / acase@tulane.edu

Externalizing behaviors have been shown to exhibit within-individual changes, increasing the need to identifying factors that influence such behavior to be more or less likely to occur in any given moment. The current study aimed to contribute to the understanding of mechanisms that influence externalizing behavior using an intensive longitudinal design. Demographic variables and personality traits were measured at baseline. Momentary personality states, situational context, affect, decision-making processes, and externalizing behaviors were measured three times per day for seven days in a university sample (N = 170). Results: A new measure of momentary externalizing—Momentary-Externalizing Spectrum Inventory—was created as a practically feasible measure to administer multiple times per day and its psychometric properties were investigated. Trait disinhibition-versus-constraint predicted mean levels of externalizing behaviors. Results supported the incremental utility of personality states, such that they appear to offer additional predictive power for momentary externalizing behavior over and above personality traits. Candidate proximal mechanisms such as situational factors, momentary affect, and delay discounting were shown have the ability to predict momentary externalizing behavior in an ongoing temporally varying manner. Personality traits moderated some of these relationships between candidate proximal mechanisms and momentary externalizing behavior. Implications for the understanding of externalizing behaviors were discussed while hypotheses for future research were generated.

Scholars have connected cognitive distortions to adolescents’ externalizing behaviors. Other scholars have offered that higher levels of cognitive autonomy, which develops during adolescence, may be a protective factor for problem behaviors in adolescence. To date, no studies have explored how these two cognitive processes function and potentially interact to predict adolescent problem behaviors. This study’s purpose was to see if cognitive autonomy affected the relationship between cognitive distortions and externalizing behaviors in a clinical population of adolescents. Past research has suggested that cognitive distortions are greater and more prevalent in clinical populations. Because of this, the processes of cognitive autonomy could be affected by cognitive distortions (that can form prior to adolescence), and worsen the relationship between cognitive distortions and externalizing behaviors. This study analyzed 146 adolescents, from a residential treatment facility. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine if links between cognitive distortions, cognitive autonomy, and externalizing behaviors existed, and to determine if elements of cognitive autonomy affected the relationship between cognitive distortions and externalizing behaviors. As expected, analyses showed that cognitive distortions and externalizing behaviors were related. Additionally, results indicated that aspects of cognitive autonomy were protective of externalizing behaviors. Results did not reveal that cognitive autonomy affected the relationship between cognitive distortions and externalizing behaviors. Discussion highlights potential reasons and alternative explanations for the results that were inconsistent with expectations. Limitations and future directions also are discussed.