Bidirectional associations between parental negativity and child externalising problems: Social support and neighbourhood cohesion as moderators

Background: Externalising behaviours are among the most common childhood mental health problems and have been linked to numerous adverse psychosocial outcomes including antisocial behaviour and depression. Parental negativity (PNeg) and child behaviours have been shown to mutually influence each other, leading to coercive cycles of negative behaviour over time. Interrupting these negative cycles is a common target for clinical intervention but little is known about what factors moderate these cycles over time in the general population.

Method: Using data on 9943 families from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children across ages 4, 7 and 8, we explored the reciprocal associations between PNeg and externalising behaviour and tested whether they differed as a function of high versus low parent‐reported interpersonal social support and neighbourhood social cohesion.

Results: Using random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel models, we found bidirectional associations between PNeg and child externalising behaviour across ages 7 to 8 (βs = 0.13–0.15) but not ages 4 to 7 (βs = 0.01–0.03). Moreover, we did not find evidence of moderation of any of the cross‐lagged paths by social support or neighbourhood cohesion.

Conclusions: Parent‐reported interpersonal social support and neighbourhood social cohesion do not appear to play a role in interrupting negative parent–child interaction cycles in the general population.