The Influence Of Intrusive Parenting On Children’s Externalizing Behavior Problems

Children with externalizing behavior problems are more aggressive and prone to have conflicts with others.Thus,they are more likely to be rejected by peers and at risk for later maladjustment.Externalizing behavior problems are not innate,but are thought to be influenced by environment and genetic factors.It is worth to look into the mechanism of externalizing behavior problems,which is helpful to adopt intervention to prevent children from externalizing behavior problems.Intrusive parenting is a type of negative parenting behaviors emphasizing that parents are tend to force children to meet demands,without respecting children’s autonomy.Previous studies have shown that highly intrusive parenting may lead to externalizing behavior problems in children,but few studies have explored the process that how intrusive parenting influence children’s externalizing behavior problems.On the one hand,intrusive parenting tends to evoke children’s negative emotions.One the other hand,externalizing behavior problems result from children’s difficulty in regulating negative emotions.Thus,children’s self-regulation may play a key role in the relationship between intrusive parenting and externalizing behavior problems.The current study conducted two studies to explore the relationship between intrusive parenting and children’s externalizing behavior problems and the effect of children’s physiological regulatory capacity(cardiac vagal regulation)in between.Via a longitudinal design with 92 dyads,Study 1 investigated whether early intrusive parenting could predict 5-year-old children’s externalizing behavior problems and the role of children’s physiological regulation(cardiac vagal regulation).Results showed that intrusive parenting positively predicted 5-year-old children’s externalizing behavior problems,and the relationship also moderated by children’s cardiac vagal regulation.For children with poor vagal regulation,highly intrusive parenting would lead to children’s higher externalizing behavior problems.Study 2 further investigated how intrusive parenting influences on 5-year-old children’s externalizing behavior problems and the role of children’s physiological regulation(cardiac vagal regulation)by building a dynamic interaction model through parent-child interaction with86 dyads.Consistent with Study 1,the dynamic interaction model indicated that the interaction between children’s previous vagal regulation and overall intrusive parenting could predict current externalizing behavior.Moreover,results showed that intrusive parenting weakened children’s vagal regulation.The current study revealed the process that how intrusive parenting influence children’s externalizing behavior problems and the moderating role of physiological regulation.The findings support the Dathesis-Stress Model,that children with poor physiological regulation are vulnerable to negative environment(i.e.,high intrusive parenting behaviors)and develop negative outcomes(i.e.,higher externalizing behavior problems).The findings also provide useful suggestions for family education practice to cope with children’s behavior problems.