EARLY PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS AND LATER PROBLEM BEHAVIOR - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

Attachment security with mothers and fathers, parental behavior, and child behavior with parents were assessed when children were ages 18-24 months, and parent and teacher reports of problem behavior were completed when the children were in the first grade, ages 6 years, 4 months to 7 years, 5 months. Findings indicated that the mother-child relationship predicted later problem behavior; the father-child relationship did not. Different patterns of association emerged for the three aspects of the mother-child relationship: attachment security predicted low total problem scores at home; maternal acceptance predicted low total problem scores at home and school; and children's sharing behavior predicted low externalizing scores at home and school. Multiple regressions indicated that attachment security, maternal acceptance, and child behavior contribute unique variance in predicting problem behavior, thereby suggesting that these aspects of the parent-child relationship, and their developmental consequences, are partly distinct from one another.