EXTERNALIZING IN PRESCHOOLERS AND EARLY ADOLESCENTS - A CROSS-STUDY REPLICATION OF A FAMILY MODEL

With families of 3 1/2-year-olds, the direct and indirect links among parents' depression, marital quality, parenting style, and their children's externalizing behavior were examined using partial least squares analysis. No direct paths were found between parents' depression and their child's behavior. Instead, parents' depression was mediated by the quality of their relationships as a couple or by their parenting style, or by both. A replication with families of 9- to 13-year-olds supported these findings in the form of the interconnections among family variables and children's outcomes, although the magnitude of the family-child linkage was much lower than it was in the younger sample.