TY - JOUR
T1 - Trajectories and Predictors of Children's Early-Starting Conduct Problems
T2 - Child, Family, Genetic, and Intervention Effects
AU - Shaw, Daniel S.
AU - Galán, Chardée A.
AU - Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn
AU - Dishion, Thomas
AU - Elam, Kit
AU - Wilson, Melvin N.
AU - Gardner, Frances
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments. The research reported in this paper was supported by grants to the first, fourth, and sixth authors from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA25630 and R01 DA26222), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institutes of Health: Office of the Director, and Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research to the fifth author (K01 DA042828). We are grateful to the staff of the Early Steps Multisite Project for their years of service, and to our study families for making the research possible.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2019 Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Several research teams have previously traced patterns of emerging conduct problems (CP) from early or middle childhood. The current study expands on this previous literature by using a genetically-informed, experimental, and long-term longitudinal design to examine trajectories of early-emerging conduct problems and early childhood discriminators of such patterns from the toddler period to adolescence. The sample represents a cohort of 731 toddlers and diverse families recruited based on socioeconomic, child, and family risk, varying in urbanicity and assessed on nine occasions between ages 2 and 14. In addition to examining child, family, and community level discriminators of patterns of emerging conduct problems, we were able to account for genetic susceptibility using polygenic scores and the study's experimental design to determine whether random assignment to the Family Check-Up (FCU) discriminated trajectory groups. In addition, in accord with differential susceptibility theory, we tested whether the effects of the FCU were stronger for those children with higher genetic susceptibility. Results augmented previous findings documenting the influence of child (inhibitory control [IC], gender) and family (harsh parenting, parental depression, and educational attainment) risk. In addition, children in the FCU were overrepresented in the persistent low versus persistent high CP group, but such direct effects were qualified by an interaction between the intervention and genetic susceptibility that was consistent with differential susceptibility. Implications are discussed for early identification and specifically, prevention efforts addressing early child and family risk.
AB - Several research teams have previously traced patterns of emerging conduct problems (CP) from early or middle childhood. The current study expands on this previous literature by using a genetically-informed, experimental, and long-term longitudinal design to examine trajectories of early-emerging conduct problems and early childhood discriminators of such patterns from the toddler period to adolescence. The sample represents a cohort of 731 toddlers and diverse families recruited based on socioeconomic, child, and family risk, varying in urbanicity and assessed on nine occasions between ages 2 and 14. In addition to examining child, family, and community level discriminators of patterns of emerging conduct problems, we were able to account for genetic susceptibility using polygenic scores and the study's experimental design to determine whether random assignment to the Family Check-Up (FCU) discriminated trajectory groups. In addition, in accord with differential susceptibility theory, we tested whether the effects of the FCU were stronger for those children with higher genetic susceptibility. Results augmented previous findings documenting the influence of child (inhibitory control [IC], gender) and family (harsh parenting, parental depression, and educational attainment) risk. In addition, children in the FCU were overrepresented in the persistent low versus persistent high CP group, but such direct effects were qualified by an interaction between the intervention and genetic susceptibility that was consistent with differential susceptibility. Implications are discussed for early identification and specifically, prevention efforts addressing early child and family risk.
KW - behavioral genetics
KW - conduct disorder
KW - early intervention
KW - maternal depression
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U2 - 10.1017/S0954579419000828
DO - 10.1017/S0954579419000828
M3 - Review article
C2 - 31370912
AN - SCOPUS:85074963514
SN - 0954-5794
VL - 31
SP - 1911
EP - 1921
JO - Development and psychopathology
JF - Development and psychopathology
IS - 5
ER -