The Effect Of Parenting And Peer Relationships On Co-development Of Externalizing And Internalizing Problems In Children And Adolescents: Role Of Temperament And Physiological Regulation

Externalizing and internalizing problems are common psychological problems in children and adolescents,and their occurrence and development are related,i.e.,the co-development of externalizing and internalizing problems.Given the broad co-development of externalizing and internalizing problems,co-development is the rule rather than the exception.Furthermore, children with internalizing and externalizing problems often suffer worse peer relationships and adjustment,including suicidal ideation and deviant behaviors.Therefore,it is of great significance to investigate the predictors and potential mechanism linking co-development of externalizing and internalizing problems.These findings will benefit the understanding of psychological and physical development and even the life-course adjustment.The environmental and individual factors play important roles in co-development of externalizing and internalizing problems.Developmental psychopathology framework clarifies the interaction of multiple environmental and individual factors on externalizing and internalizing problems.Self-determination theory and hawk-dove theory identify the key environmental and individual factors that influence the externalizing and internalizing problems.The former proposes that environment is related to autonomy needs and relationship needs is considered to be crucial to the externalizing and internalizing problems.The latter points that temperament and physiological regulation work together on the externalizing and internalizing problems.Most existing studies have examined the direct effects of parenting,peer relationships,temperament,and physiological regulation on the co-development of externalizing and internalizing problems.However,the above studies still cannot explain the question of“why individuals living in the same environment show different adaptations”.Individual differences in temperament and physiological regulation can partly explain this question.This dissertation aimed to investigate the effect of environmental（parenting and peer relationships）and individual factors（temperament and physiological regulation）on the co-development of externalizing and internalizing problems with a 4-wave longitudinal design.The sample of this dissertation was 504 children and adolescents attending grade 5(n=202,56.9%boys,M_age=10.47±0.52 years),grade 7(n=111,64.9%boys,M_age=12.38±0.54 years),and grade 9(n=191,40.3%boys,M_age=14.41±0.55 years)from 4 primary schools in Shandong Province.Four waves of data were collected in November 2020,May 2021,November 2021 and May 2022.Externalizing problems,internalizing problems,parenting（parental autonomy support and parental psychological control）,peer relationships（friendship quality and peer victimization）,and temperament（fear,frustration,and effort control）were measured by self-report.Salivary amylase and salivary cortisol were derived from saliva collection.This study aims to clarify the following qusetions:（1）the co-development pattern of externalizing and internalizing problems;（2）the influence of parenting,peer relationship on the co-development pattern of externalizing and internalizing problems and the moderating role of temperament;（3）the influence of parenting,peer relationship on the co-development pattern of externalizing and internalizing problems and the moderating role of physiological regulation;（4）the influence of parenting,peer relationship on the co-development pattern of externalizing and internalizing problems and the moderating effect of temperament and physiological regulation.The main findings of this dissertation were as follows.1.Parallel process latent class growth modeling identified four trajectories:Congruent-low（55.16%）,dual low-increasing（12.70%）,moderate co-occurring（21.03%）,and congruent-high（11.11%）.Cross-lagged analysis showed that internalizing problems predicted externalizing problems 6 months later,externalizing problems could not predict internalizing problems.2.Parental autonomy support decreased the odds to follow the three risk trajectories,friendship quality decreased the odds to follow the moderate and high risk trajectories,and parental psychological control and peer victimization increased the odds to follow the three risk trajectories.Fear increased the odds to follow the moderate and high risk trajectories,frustration increased the odds to follow the congruent-high trajectory,and effort control decreased the odds to follow the three risk trajectories.3.Frustration and effort control moderated the associations between parental autonomy support and co-development subgroup.Specifically,high autonomy support decreased the odds to follow the congruent-high trajectory in youths who endorsedsed low frustration-low effort control.Fear,frustration,and effort control respectively moderated the associations between peer victimization and co-development subgroup,high peer victimization increased the odds to follow the congruent-high trajectory in youths who endoresed low fear;high peer victimization increased the odds to follow moderate and high trajectories in youths who endoresed low frustration;high peer victimization increased the odds to follow the three risk trajectories in youths who endoresed low effort control.The interactions between effort control and fear,effort control and frustration were significant,high fear increased the odds to follow the moderate co-occurring trajectory in youths who endoresed low effort control,high frustration increased the odds to follow the moderate co-occurring trajectory in youths who endoresed high effort control.4.Cortisol moderated the associations between parental psychological control and co-development subgroup,high psychological control increased the odds to follow the dual low-increasing trajectory in youths who endoresed low cortisol.Amylase or cortisol moderated the associations between friendship quality and co-development subgroup,high friendship quality decreased the odds to follow the moderate co-occurring trajectory in youths who endoresed high amylase or high cortisol.Cortisol,amylase and cortisol moderated the associations between peer victimization and co-development subgroup,high peer victimization increased the odds to follow the moderate co-occurring trajectory in youths who endoresed high cortisol;high peer victimization decreased the odds to follow the moderate co-occurring trajectory in youths who endoresed low amylase-low cortisol;high peer victimization increased the odds to follow the congruent-high trajectory in youths who endoresed low amylase-high cortisol or high amylase-low cortisol.The interaction between effort control and fear was significant,high amylase increased the odds to follow the moderate co-occurring trajectory in youths who endoresed low cortisol.5.Fear and cortisol,frustration and cortisol moderated the associations between parental psychological control and co-development subgroup,high psychological control increased the odds to follow the moderate co-occurring trajectory in youths who endoresed high fear-low cortisol,low fear-high cortisol,high frustration-low cortisol,low frustration-high cortisol.Amylase and effort control moderated the associations between peer victimization and co-development subgroup,high peer victimization increased the odds to follow the congruent-high trajectory in youths who endoresed high amylase-low effort control.In addition,cortisol and effort control moderated the associations between peer victimization and co-development subgroup,high peer victimization increased the odds to follow the congruent-high trajectory in youths who endoresed high cortisol-low effort control and low cortisol-low effort control.This study is the first systematic study to investigate the joint roles of parenting,peer relationships,temperament and physiological regulation in children’and adolescents’co-development of externalizing and internalizing problems.This study found that co-development of externalizing and internalizing problems in children and adolescents.The interacting effect of environment-temperament was that low negative affect reactivity（fear and frustration）or low effort control enhanced the negative effects of peer victimization on three risk trajectories;low negative affect reactivity-low effort control enhanced the positive effects of autonomous support on congruent-high trajectory.The interacting effect of environment-physiological regulation was that low cortisol enhanced the negative effects of psychological control on dual low-increasing trajectory;High amylase or high cortisol enhanced the positive effects of friendship quality or the negative effects of peer victimization on moderate co-occurring trajectory;low amylase-low cortisol buffered the negative effects of peer victimization on moderate co-occurring trajectory,low amylase-high cortisol,high amylase-low cortisol enhanced the negative effects of peer victimization on congruent-high trajectory.In addition,considering the interaction of environment-temperament-physiological regulation,this study found that low negative affect reactivity-high cortisol,high negative affect reactivity-low cortisol enhanced the negative effects of psychological control on moderate co-occurring trajectory;high amylase-low effort control,high cortisol-low effort control,low cortisol-low effort control enhanced the negative effects of congruent-high trajectory.These results indicate that temperament and physiological regulation not only play a separate effect,but also play a joint effect in the process of the influence of parenting and peer relationship on the the co-development of externalizing and internalizing problems in children and adolescents.The results of this study also support and expand the developmental psychopathological framework.These findings advance our understanding in the process of prevention and intervention of externalizing and internalizing problems.Specifically,it is necessary to pay attention to the environmental influence of parenting and peer relationship and individual differences in temperament and physiological regulation.