1. Reciprocal Relations Between Parent-Child Relationship Quality and Children's Adjustment During Early Childhood Chelsea M. Weaver, Anne M. Gill, Katelyn B. Lammie, Loren J. Schleiden, and Daniel S. Shaw University of Pittsburgh Introduction and Study Goals Results Results cont. Qualities of parent-child relationships and children’s outcomes  Parent-child conflict and low warmth have been consistently linked to a range of negative child outcomes, including aggression and other externalizing behaviors (e.g., Shaw et al., 2004).  In contrast, warm parent-child relationships have been associated with positive children’s outcomes (Vanderbilt-Adriance & Shaw, 2008).  Few intervention studies have targeted parent-child relationships as mechanisms to promote child adjustment (Femmie et al, 2008; Lieberman et al., 2006). Unique contributions of the present study  Little is known about the developmental course of parent-child relationship quality. Furthermore, even fewer studies have examined father-child relationship qualities.  The current study modeled the average trajectories of both mother-child and father figure (FF)-child relationship qualities (for conflict and warmth) during the course of early childhood, from ages 2 to 4, among a diverse, high risk sample.  Furthermore, few studies have examined the malleability of developmental trajectories of parent-child relationship qualities.  The current study tested the effects of a parenting intervention on the developmental courses of mother- child and FF-child relationship qualities.  There have been no studies testing the reciprocal relations between parent-child relationship quality and children’s socioemotional adjustment during early childhood.  The current study examined the relationships between trajectories of parent-child relationship qualities and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems for both mother-child and FF-child dyads. Method Discussion Participants were a subsample of 388 mother-child dyads drawn from a larger sample of 731 primary caregiver (PC)-child dyads at high risk for maladjustment recruited from WIC Programs in Pittsburgh, PA, Eugene, OR, and Charlottesville, VA for a preventive intervention study. Alternate caregivers (ACs) were included in the study when available. Children (49% female) were 25% African American, 64% European American, 5% biracial, and 6% other races; 7.5% reported being Latino. To examine FF-child relationship quality, AC-child dyads were selected when the AC was a FF and the same FF had at least two data points available in order to model change. This process yielded a subsample of 195 dyads. FF-child relationships are shown below. Data were collected when children were 2, 3, and 4 years old. Parent-child relationship quality (i.e., warmth and conflict) was measured using the Adult-Child Relationship Scale and children’s adjustment problems were measured using the Achenbach CBCL.  Following 2.5-hour home assessment when the child was 2 years old  Initial get-to-know-you visit with parent consultant at home (30-50 minutes)  Feedback with family at home (1-1.5 hours)  78 % of families randomly assigned to treatment group had a get-to-know- you visit and a feedback session  Eliciting goals  Menu of options  Varied in intensity and content with a focus on goals that will promote child well-being  Average number of sessions per family is 3.7  Procedure repeated at ages 3 and 4 Results suggested that the developmental processes of parent- child relationship qualities and children’s adjustment are related to one another.  That less rapid declines in mother-child conflict predicted less rapid declines in children’s externalizing problems suggests that the these two family processes serve to maintain or even exacerbate one another over time.  Similarly, more rapid increases in FF-child conflict predicted less rapid declines in externalizing problems further supporting the reciprocal influences between parent-child conflict and children’s behavior problems.  Future research should investigate the level of father involvement as a moderator of this relationship among a high-risk, ethnically diverse sample.  Importantly, mothers who were assigned to the intervention group had significantly more rapidly declining levels of conflict with their children, supporting the efficacy of the Family Check- up.  Future research should make a targeted effort to implement the Family Check-up with fathers in order to test its efficacy among a diverse sample of father-child dyads. This study has implications for prevention/intervention programs for at-risk families: The link between parent-child conflict and children’s adjustment represents a possible pathway for interventionists to improve children’s developmental trajectories. Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Measured Variables Note. Higher levels of “warmth” score denote lower relationship warmth; PC = Primary Caregiver reports, AC = Alternate Caregiver reports The Family Check-up We found that:  Mother-child conflict significantly decreased over time (b = -.82, SE = 0.21, p <.01)  FF-child warmth increased over time (b = -.34, SE =.15, p <.01), with a trend suggesting mother-child warmth decreases over time (b =.14, SE =.09, p <.10)  All measures of children’s adjustment problems significantly declined over time, across informant. Parallel Process Latent Growth Curve Models Eight parallel process LGMs were fit to test whether initial levels of, and/or change in, the parent-child relationship quality (both conflict and warmth for each mother-child and FF-child dyads) had effects on initial levels of, and/or change in, children’s adjustment. Thus, we tested whether these developmental processes were reciprocally related to one another during the course of early childhood. It is important to note that each of the two trajectories included in one parallel process model utilized different reporters to minimize bias (e.g., mother-child conflict self-reports were modeled with AC reports of externalizing problems). Overall, all eight parallel process models were good fits to the data according to χ 2 or χ 2 /df, CFI, TLI, RMSEA, and SRMR fit indices. Mother-child relationship qualities and children’s socio- emotional adjustment  Higher age 2 mother-child conflict significantly predicted higher concurrent internalizing and externalizing problems in separate models (b =.21, SE =.08, p <.05 and b =.41, SE =.09, p <.05, respectively). There were trends for more rapid declines in mother-child conflict predicting more rapid declines in externalizing problems (b =.15, SE =.09, p <.10) and for higher age 2 externalizing problems predicting less rapid declines in mother-child conflict (b =.15, SE =.08, p <.10). Importantly, intervention group membership predicted more rapidly declining mother-child conflict (b = -1.12, SE =.37, p <.05) from ages 2 to 4 (see Figure 1.1).  In terms of mother-child warmth, higher age 2 mother-child warmth predicted lower concurrent externalizing problems (b =.64, SE =.29, p <.05) with a trend for the same pattern for internalizing problems (b =.53, SE =.28, p <.10). Father Figure- child relationship qualities and children’s socio- emotional adjustment  Higher age 2 FF-child conflict predicted higher concurrent internalizing and externalizing problems in separate models (b =.36 SE =.12, p <.05 and b =.41, SE =.12, p <.05, respectively). There was a trend for higher age 2 FF-child conflict predicting less rapid declines in externalizing problems (b =.12, SE =.06, p <.10). More rapid increases in FF-child conflict significantly predicted less rapid declines in externalizing problems (b =.37, SE =.17, p <.05; see Figure 1.2) and there was a trend for same pattern with internalizing problems (b =.29, SE =.17, p <.10).  In terms of FF-Child Warmth, higher levels of age 2 FF-child warmth were significantly associated with lower levels of concurrent internalizing and externalizing problems (b =.51, SE =.21, p <.05 and b =.71, SE =.24, p <.05, respectively). Figure 1. Parallel processes models of (1) mother-child conflict and alternate caregiver (AC)-reported externalizing problems and (2) father figure (FF)-child conflict and primary caregiver (PC)-reported externalizing problems. Note that study site, treatment group, child gender, and race are included as covariates in all models. Only significant covariates are shown here for parsimony. Also, all intercept loadings are fixed to 1 and all slope loadings are fixed to 0, 1, and 2, respectively. Unconditional Latent Growth Curve Models (LGMs) A series of eight unconditional LGMs (i.e., no covariates included) were fit using Mplus Version 4.0 (Muthén, & Muthén, 1998) to estimate initial levels of, and changes from ages 2 to 4 in, parent-child relationship qualities (conflict and warmth) each for mother-child and father figure-child dyads as well children’s maladjustment (externalizing and internalizing problems) each for primary and alternate caregiver reports. Overall, the unconditional LGMs were good fits to the data according to χ 2, CFI, TLI, RMSEA, and SRMR fit indices. (1) (2) 2.06* 0.41* 0.15† 0.42* 0.41* 0.12† 0.36* Age 2Age 3Age 4 Biological Fathers69%74%58% Maternal Romantic Partners8% 7% Step- or Adoptive Fathers3%6%8%