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. 2018 May;12(2):131-144.
doi: 10.1002/pmh.1406. Epub 2017 Nov 21.

Associations between observed temperament in preschoolers and parent psychopathology

Katie R Kryski  1 , Thomas M Olino  2 , Margaret W Dyson  3 , C Emily Durbin  4 , Daniel N Klein  5 , Elizabeth P Hayden  1
Affiliations

Associations between observed temperament in preschoolers and parent psychopathology

Katie R Kryski et al. Personal Ment Health. 2018 May.

Abstract

Parent history of psychopathology is an established marker of children's own risk for later disorder and can therefore be used as a means of validating other risks, such as child temperament. While associations between children's temperament and parent psychopathology have been reported, few studies have used observational measures of child temperament or examined trait interactions, particularly between children's affective and regulatory traits such as effortful control (EC). In this bottom-up family study of 968 three-year-olds and their parents, we examined interactions between preschoolers' observed positive and negative affectivity (NA) and EC as predictors of a known marker of psychopathology risk: parent history of disorder. Children with lower positive affectivity had an increased probability of paternal depression history in the context of higher child NA. In addition, children with lower EC and higher NA had an increased probability of maternal anxiety. Findings shed new light on the main effects and interactions that account for associations between child temperament and parent history of disorder, one of the best-established markers of an individual's own risk for future disorder, implicating reactive and regulatory traits that merit special consideration in future longitudinal work. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Conflict of interest statement

the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The association between child NA and the probability of paternal depression as a function of child PA.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The association between child NA and the probability of maternal anxiety as a function of child EC.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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