Content area
Full Text
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)
Regular Articles
This research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant DA016110 (to T.J.D., D.S.S., and M.N.W.). Justin Smith received support from National Institute of Mental Health (NIHM) Research Training Grant T32 MH20012 awarded to Elizabeth Stormshak. We thank Cheryl Mikkola for editorial support, the members of the observational coding team at the Child and Family Center, the rest of the Early Steps team, and the families who participated in the study.
The development of conduct problems (CPs) in early childhood is one of the strongest predictors of more serious delinquent behaviors at later developmental periods (e.g., Loeber & Dishion, 1983). However, few studies have enrolled participants in toddlerhood and then repeated measurement during early childhood through school age, with a focus on the development of more serious forms of antisocial behavior (Aguilar, Sroufe, Egeland, & Carlson, 2000; Shaw, Hyde, & Brennan, 2012). Coercive, harsh, and conflictual parenting practices are a salient risk factor for the development of clinically meaningful CPs (e.g., Odgers et al., 2008; Scaramella & Leve, 2004; Shaw, Gilliom, Ingoldsby, & Nagin, 2003; Waller et al., 2012), and these problem behaviors similarly elicit more harsh parenting from caregivers (e.g., Frick, Cornell, Barry, Bodin, & Dane, 2003; Gardner, Ward, Burton, & Wilson, 2003; Patterson, 1982; Shaw & Bell, 1993).
Coercive family dynamics are particularly germane to the development of early CPs and more serious forms of later antisocial behavior (Patterson, 1982; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992). Coercion theory (Patterson, 1982) describes a process of mutual reinforcement during which caregivers inadvertently reinforce children's difficult behaviors, which in turn elicits caregiver negativity, and so on, until the interaction is discontinued when one of the participants "wins." These cycles may begin when the child reacts with anger or resistance to a caregiver's directive or request, evoking anger and hostility from the caregiver, which is often intensified as the coercive cycle escalates (Snyder, Edwards, McGraw, Kilgore, & Holten, 1993). Thus, children learn a pattern of relating within the family that then carries over into interactions with others outside the family, such as peers and teachers in the school setting. When coercive interactions dominate within the family, child CPs emerge and then stabilize throughout development (Granic & Patterson, 2006).
Coercion...