Citation

Serbin LA, Temcheff CE, Cooperman JM, Stack DM, Ledingham J, Schwartzman AE. Int. J. Behav. Devel. 2011; 35(2): 97-106.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0165025410372008

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This 30-year longitudinal study examined pathways from problematic childhood behavior patterns to future disadvantaged conditions for family environment and child rearing in adulthood. Participants were mothers (n = 328) and fathers (n = 222) with lower income backgrounds participating in the ongoing Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine pathways from childhood aggression and social withdrawal to future high school drop-out, early parenthood, parental absence, and family poverty after the participants became parents. Childhood aggression directly predicted early parenthood and parental absence in both mothers’ and fathers’ models, and high school drop-out for the fathers (for the mothers, this path was indirect via achievement in primary school). Childhood aggression predicted family poverty indirectly, with some gender differences in significant pathways.