Looking at the development of toddler problem behaviours through a

Researchers have called for a unifying organisational perspective that focuses on explanatory mechanisms of influence in the development of child problem behaviours (Östberg & Hagekull, 2000). As reviewed above, research to date has produced an extensive list of direct associations between maternal and infant

individual and relationship characteristics, and the development of child internalising and externalising problem behaviours. Other research has demonstrated similar effects on the development of parenting stress. Thus it is proposed in the current study the development of toddler internalising and externalising problem behaviours may be organised through a parenting stress lens.

From this perspective, maternal, infant and relationship characteristics affect parenting stress which in turn affects the development of toddler problem

behaviours. From their review of child and adolescent studies Grant et al. (2006) concluded there was support for the mediation of the relation between stressors and child problem behaviours by the parent-child relationship and parenting

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infancy. Two recent studies involving preschoolers did not support the parenting mediation hypothesis (Anthony et al., 2005; Crnic, Gaze & Hoffman, 2005). Whilst it would not seem prudent to reject such a widely held and intuitively appealing assumption on the basis of just two studies, it is likely that parenting stress affects the development of child problem behaviours via pathways other than just through compromised parenting.

For example, there is likely to be considerable heritability of stress regulation and hence direct pathways from parenting stress to child problem behaviours can be expected (Deater-Deckard, 2004). Thus the degree to which parenting stress directly affects the parent-child relationship and the development of child problem

behaviours remains in question. There are likely to be direct, mediated and

moderated pathways from maternal, infant and relationship characteristics through the parenting stress lens to toddler problem behaviours. The next section discusses the transactional nature of the development of toddler problem behaviours from interactions amongst parenting stress and developmental constructs residing in the child, the mother and their relationship.

3.9.1 Interactions amongst maternal and infant characteristics, the parent-child relationship and parenting stress affect toddler internalising and

externalising problem behaviours

Individual characteristics, psychological and social processes interact to

influence the relations between stressors and child problem behaviours (Grant et al., 2003). For example interactions between child temperament and caregiving

experiences in infancy have been shown to affect both infant and caregiver behaviour (Repetti, Taylor & Seeman, 2002; Sheese, Voelker, Rothbart, & Posner, 2007). Patterson (1982) observed highly hyperactive and irritable children were likely to elicit poor parenting and potentiate coercive cycles of attempts by both parent and child to control one another through hostility and power assertion resulting in the child engaging in disruptive externalising behaviours.

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Further, Gartstein and Bateman (2008) reported maternal depression and fearfulness as well as initial infant fearfulness contributed to the growth of infant fearfulness and internalising problem behaviours at age 2 years. And Hane and Fox (2006) have demonstrated caregiving effects on the development of infant stress reactivity in a low risk sample after controlling for temperamental reaction to novelty at 4 months. The authors found low quality, insensitive or intrusive mothering was associated with greater concurrent infant fearfulness at 9 months. Infant attention, perseveration, fussiness and frustration have been shown to be moderated by maternal affect dysregulation as early as 5 and 9 months of age (Crockenberg, Leekes & Barrig Jo, 2008; Leve et al., 2010; Natsuaki et al., 2010). These studies support Hane and Fox’s conclusion that variation in the mother-child relationship in low risk populations has important consequences for infants’

developing self-regulation. Eisenberg and Valiente (2004) emphasised the need to consider both individual and relationship characteristics in the development of regulation and internalising and externalising problem behaviours.

There are reciprocal and dynamic relations between stressors and mediators and moderators of child problem behaviours. Crnic and Booth (1991) noted it is not just the child that develops over time, so too do other aspects of the family system such as the parent-child relationship, the marital relationship and parenting stress. Sameroff and McKenzie (2003) have emphasised the importance of incorporating the effects of the development of all constructs in order to more closely approximate what is happening in the real world over time. The reciprocal transactions between parent and child developmental constructs have begun to be captured in models of developmental cascades of events that are affecting each other over time (Eisenberg et al., 2010; Masten et al., 2005).

As discussed in the first chapter, developmental cascade models control for across time stability of constructs and within time covariation amongst constructs. For example, Gross and colleagues (Gross, Shaw, Moilanen, Dishion, & Wilson, 2008; Gross, Shaw, Burwell & Nagin, 2009), have demonstrated ongoing reciprocal effects of child internalising and externalising disruptive behaviours and maternal

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depression from toddlerhood. Further, in a longitudinal study of adopted children Lipscomb et al. (2011) demonstrated environmental linkages between trajectories of overreactive parenting, parenting self-efficacy and infant and toddler negative emotionality. However whilst it is widely acknowledged maternal and child constructs such as parenting stress and infant adjustment are developing in interaction with each other over time, few studies have investigated such

transactional models. McMahon, Grant, Compas, Thurm and Ey (2003), observed that most stress research has been cross sectional and thus there is little knowledge of the effects of changes in relations between stress and adjustment over time.

A recent study investigated transactional relations amongst contextual stress, parenting quality and child internalising and externalising problem behaviours using a nested developmental cascade structural equation model in a high risk sample of 200 teenage mother-child dyads when children were aged 2 to 6 years (Yates, Obradovic & Egeland, 2010). The model demonstrated stability of parenting stress, parenting and child adjustment from 2 to 6 years. However, after taking across time stability into account, no further relations between parenting stress, parent and problem behaviours were supported in the model. Eisenberg and Valiente (2004) have observed the difficulty in demonstrating significant bidirectional effects in developmental cascade models due to across time construct stability.

3.9.2 Summary

Parenting stress has been proposed to be a central construct in the

development of toddler problem behaviours. Components of parenting stress may have differential effects on the development of internalising versus externalising problem behaviours. Effects of maternal and child risk factors may be mediated or moderated by parenting stress. Constructs are likely to be intertwined and

codevelop over time. Attempts to delineate pathways to toddlers’ internalising versus externalising problem behaviours should take these multiplicative,

developmental cascading relationships into account. Differential susceptibility was introduced in the first chapter as the interaction between infant vulnerable

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interaction between infant temperamental vulnerability and stress, a specific aspect of rearing environment risk.

3.10 Are infants differentially susceptible to a stressful