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This study examined associations between peer deviance, parenting practices, and conduct and oppositional problems of young girls ages 7 and 8. Participants were 588 racially diverse girls who were part of a population-based study of the development of conduct problems and delinquency among girls. Affiliations with problem-prone peers were apparent among a sizeable minority of the girls, and these associations included a gendered mix of peers. Girls with mixed-gender problem-prone peers were found to have more deviant peer affiliations at ages 7 and 8 and also to evidence more oppositional/conduct problems at age 8. Parent-child communication and harsh parenting were related concurrently to peer deviance, while harsh parenting, parent-child time together, and peer deviance were related concurrently to conduct/oppositional problems. Harsh parenting remained a significant predictor of girls' conduct/oppositional problems longitudinally one year later. The findings show that peer and parent risk processes are important in the early development of young girls' disruptive and antisocial behaviors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper examines the development of parenting behaviors over time and setting and their relationship to antisocial behavior and delinquency in girls. It is important to study parenting behavior from a developmental and ecological point of view since it is likely that parent-child relationships change as girls grow older, and differ by neighborhood. Parenting practices may for example influence children's problem behavior more during childhood than during adolescence. Conversely, the ability of the child's problem behavior to influence parenting may be greater during adolescence than childhood. Regarding neighborhoods, studies show that residence in disadvantaged neighborhoods is associated with more restrictive parenting practices and lower levels of warmth. Findings have suggested that a particular parenting strategy may be more effective in some neighborhood environments than others.In the current paper we examine how various aspects of family functioning (such as monitoring/supervision, warmth/support, and rate of mother/daughter conflict) change over time in an inner-city sample of 1,233 girls ranging in age from seven to twelve years. We also examine whether these trajectories vary by neighborhood residence. Results suggest that family functioning shows a remarkable stability over time and setting, but at the same time, however, there is evidence for dynamic, interactional processes that are dependent on the girls' age and the neighborhood the family resides in. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If a parent has experienced a severe life stressor and has developed traumatic stress reactions, it can be hypothesized that the parent should be less skilled in regulating their own distress which in turn might result in negative parenting practices and lower psychological adjustment of their children. In this population-based longitudinal study of 2,451 girls, 683 parents reported (single measurement) a history of experiencing at least one traumatic event. Of the 683 parents, 25% could be classified as currently suffering from PTSD while another 13% fell into a sub-threshold range for the diagnosis for PTSD. This presentation will examine the transmission of parental psychopathology through mediation of negative parenting practices which in turn lead to adjustment problems (depression, anxiety, and delinquency) among the girls. Parenting practices that were examined are the 1) unavailability of the parent (low parental warmth) and 2) parental aggression (harsh punishment). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although female antisocial behavior is associated with a range of adverse outcomes, little is known about antecedent factors. Delinquent girls in the justice system have higher rates of comorbid psychiatric disorders, including depression and are more likely to require mental health services compared with their male counterparts. An important gap in knowledge is whether antisocial behaviors predate the emergence of depression, or whether antisocial behaviors and depressive disorders co-occur. Data collected in multiple waves of the Pittsburgh Girls Study (n=2,451), will be used to examine the temporal unfolding of these constructs among girls aged between 7 and 13 years. Preliminary cross-sectional analyses of girls aged 13 years (n=622) show that moderate levels of comorbidity are already evident. Girls who reported having destroyed property were significantly more likely to meet the clinical criteria for depression (7.1%) than girls who had not reported destroying property (3.0%). For girls reporting physical aggression, 6.4 % were concurrently clinically depressed, and among girls reporting minor theft, 5.8 % were clinically depressed. In comparison, 1.5% of the girls reporting none of these three behaviors met depression criterion. These results suggest that patterns of comorbidity, and therefore also temporal precedence, may be specific to the type of antisocial behavior. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]