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Bidirectional Associations Between Parental Warmth, Callous Unemotional Behavior, and Behavior Problems in High-Risk Preschoolers

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Abstract

Research suggests that parental warmth and positive parent–child interactions predict the development of conscience and empathy. Recent studies suggest that affective dimensions of parenting, including parental warmth, are associated with fewer behavior problems among children with high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) behavior. Evidence also suggests that CU behavior confers risk for behavior problems by uniquely shaping parenting. The current study examines reciprocal associations between parental warmth, CU behavior, and behavior problems among toddlers. Data from mother-child dyads (N = 731; 49 % female) were collected from a multi-ethnic, high-risk sample at ages 2 and 3. CU behavior was assessed using a previously validated measure (Hyde et al. 2013). Models were tested using two measures of parental warmth, the first from direct observations of warmth in the home, the second coded from 5-min speech samples. Three-way cross-lagged, simultaneous effects models showed that parental warmth predicted child CU behavior, over and above associations with behavior problems. There were cross-lagged associations between directly observed parental warmth and child CU behavior, suggesting these behaviors show some malleability during toddlerhood and that parenting appears to reflect some adaptation to child behavior. The results have implications for models of early-starting behavior problems and preventative interventions for young children.

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Abbreviations

CU:

Callous-unemotional

FAARS:

Family Affective Attitudes Rating Scale

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Grant 5R01 DA16110 from the National Institutes of Health, awarded to Dishion, Shaw, Wilson, & Gardner and a Green Templeton College PhD scholarship to Waller. We thank families and staff of the Early Steps Multisite Study. We also thank three anonymous reviewers and the editor for valuable comments on an earlier version of this article.

Conflict of interest

No conflicts declared.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Rebecca Waller

  2. Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Frances Gardner

  3. Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK

    Essi Viding

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Daniel S. Shaw

  5. Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    Thomas J. Dishion

  6. Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Melvin N. Wilson

  7. Department of Psychology, Center for Human Growth and Development, Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Luke W. Hyde

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  1. Rebecca Waller
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  2. Frances Gardner
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  3. Essi Viding
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  4. Daniel S. Shaw
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  5. Thomas J. Dishion
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  6. Melvin N. Wilson
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  7. Luke W. Hyde
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Correspondence to Rebecca Waller.

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Waller, R., Gardner, F., Viding, E. et al. Bidirectional Associations Between Parental Warmth, Callous Unemotional Behavior, and Behavior Problems in High-Risk Preschoolers. J Abnorm Child Psychol 42, 1275–1285 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9871-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9871-z

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