DEVELOPMENTAL PRECURSORS OF EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIOR - AGES 1 TO 3

Despite previous research indicating that early negative child behavior and the quality of the parent-child relationship are predictive of later externalizing problems, few investigators have attempted to trace these antecedents back to infancy. In a sample of 100 infants from low-income families, it was possible to identify developmental sequences leading from infant persistence and lack of maternal responsiveness to later child disruptive. aggressive child behavior at ages 2 and 3. Gender differences were found with respect to the range and type of variables that showed continuity in predicting disruptive behavior. For boys, salient predictors of age 2 and age 3 externalizing behavior were maternal unresponsiveness, infant attention-seeking, aggression, and noncompliance, whereas for girls. infant noncompliance was related to both age 3 externalizing and internalizing problems.