Intrusive Parenting and Child Externalizing Behaviors Across Childhood: The Antecedents and Consequences of Child-Driven Effects

Many developmental theorists have studied the mutual influences in parent-child dyads. However, absent from this area of work are longitudinal studies that examine how child elicited changes in the home environment in turn shape children's own long-term development and adjustment. The current study addresses this limitation by operationalizing child-driven effects in a multilevel model to predict children's adjustment through age 15 (n = 1,364). From 24-months to 7 years of age, children's externalizing behaviors predicted increases in mothers' intrusive parenting behaviors. These child-driven effects were particularly salient for non-White children and mothers who were at risk socioeconomically. More important, these elicited changes in mothers' intrusive parenting as a result of children's externalizing behaviors during early childhood, in turn, predicted children's externalizing behaviors through age 15. When taken together, these findings suggest that children have the potential to shape their own development in the long-term by initiating changes in their home environment. Accordingly, interventions designed to mitigate children's externalizing behaviors may need to address, not only general parenting practices, but also specific and efficient parenting strategies in response to children's behaviors.