Differential risks of covarying and pure components in mother and teacher reports of externalizing and internalizing behavior across ages 5 to 14

Abstract

In a sample of 585 children assessed in kindergarten through 8th grade, we fit a confirmatory factor model to both mother- and teacher-reported symptoms on the Achenbach checklists (CBCL, TRF) and determined that a covariation factor of externalizing and internalizing behaviors existed, in addition to the pure-form factors of externalizing and internalizing for each reporter. In 3 structural equation models, between 8 and 67% of the variance in these 6 latent factors was accounted for by a set of antecedent child, sociocultural, parenting, and peer risk variables. Each of the 6 latent factors, taken 2 at a time, was predicted by a unique set of risk variables; however, there were some patterns that held for both mother- and teacher-report symptom factors: Child temperamental unadaptability and female gender were predictors of higher internalizing symptoms; child temperamental resistance to control, parental harsh punishment, male gender, low SES, and peer rejection were related to higher externalizing symptoms whereas child temperamental unadaptability was related to lower externalizing symptoms; and peer rejection and family stress were also related to the covarying, externalizing-plus-internalizing component of both mother and teacher reports.

Fig. 1

Path diagram of the confirmatory factor model of mother- and teacher-reported externalizing and internalizing behaviors with six latent factors. Only the corresponding factors across rates are correlated with each other.

Fig. 2

Path diagram of the SEM model of mother- and teacher-reported externalizing and internalizing behaviors with six latent factors with only two of the factors (MC and TC) predicted by 10 risk variables from four domains (child: gender, temperament—unadaptability, resistance to control, difficultness; sociocultural environment: SES, race, stress; parenting: harsh punishment; peer relations: rejection, neglect). Only the corresponding factors across raters are correlated with each other.