Parenting Styles and Emotional Problems in Early School-Age Children: Mediation of Executive Functions

1. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Parenting Styles and Emotional Problems in Early School-Age Children: Mediation of Executive Functions Vučković S. 1, Ručević S. 1, Borovac T. 2, Krupić D. 1 1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia 2 Faculty of Education, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia

2. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Executive functions • Higher-order cognitive functions that govern adaptive responses and goal-directed action (Hughes, 2011; Suchy, 2009) • Working memory, planning, inhibition, regulation (Diamond, 2013; Miyake & Friedman, 2012) Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

3. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Executive function deficits and problem behaviors in children • Neurodevelopmental disorders • ADHD(Rinsky & Hinshaw, 2011) • Autism spectrum disorders (Šimleša, 2011) • Problem behaviors • conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder (Ogilvie, Stewart, Chan, & Shum, 2011) • Personality disorders, e.g., psychopathy (Beaver, Vaughn, DeLisi, Barnes, & Boutwell, 2012; May, & Beaver, 2014) Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

4. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Executive function deficits and internalized problems in children • Depression(Lauer et al., 1994) • Anxiety (Toren et al., 2000) • Clinical anxiety →most common psychiatric problems experienced byschool-aged children (Bell-Dolan & Brazeal, 1993;Schniering, Hudson, & Rapee, 2000) Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

5. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Relations of parenting and EF deficits with anxiety • Parenting styles & anxiety • EF deficits & anxiety • behavioral genetic studies • ‘shared environment’ (Eley, 2001) • naturalistic studies (Whaley, Pinto, & Sigman, 1999) • inconsistent findings (Wood, McLeod, Sigman, Hwang, & Chu, 2003) • Anxiety has detrimental effect on • inhibition(Bishop, 2009; Derakshan, Ansari, Hansard, Shoker, & Eysenck, 2009) • shifting(Ansari, Derakshan, & Richards, 2008; Derakshan, Smyth, & Eysenck, 2009) • updating (Northern, 2010) Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

6. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Theoretical framework • Developmental psychopathology perspective (e.g., Manassis & Bradley, 1994; Vasey & Dadds, 2001) • genetic traits and temperament • parentingcould play an important role in maintainingthis problem • The attentional control theory (Eysenck et al., 2007) • anxiety prioritizes thestimulus-driven attentional system over the goal-directedattentional control, allowing for EFinterference from task-irrelevant, anxiety-relatedinformation Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

7. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece What is new? • Little research including early school-age children • Potentialmediating role of executive function deficits in the relationship between parenting and anxiety Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

8. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece The goal Examine the role of executive functions (working memory, planning, regulation and inhibition) in the relation between parenting styles and emotional problems in early school-age children Hypothesis • Executive function deficits are a mediator in the relationship between parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian and permissive) and emotional problems in early school-age children Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

9. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Method • Aprospective five-wave longitudinal research project: ECLAT-study • Problem behaviors in elementary school-aged children: The role of Executive funCtioning, individuL, familiAl, and geneTic factors • project manager: Silvija Ručević, Associate Professor at University of Osijek • third wave • multistage random sampling procedure Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

10. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Method Participants • 175 parent-child dyads (95 boys i 80 girls, Mage= 8.21, SD= .569; 140 mothers i 35 fathers), in Osijek, Croatia Measures • Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI-HR) • Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) • The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

11. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Method • Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI-HR; Thorell & Nyberg, 2008) • 24-item scale measure of executive functions using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (definitely not true) to 5 (definitely true) • raters are parents/teachers • four subscales: • working memory • 9 items; e.g., “has difficulty rememberinglengthy instructions”, α= .9 • planning • 4 items, e.g. “has difficulty with tasks or activities that involve several steps“, α= .77 • regulation • 5 items; e.g., “seldom seems tobe able to motivate him-/herself to do something that he/she does notwant to do”, α= .89 • inhibition • 6 items; e.g., “has a tendency to do things without first thinking about what could happen“, α= .81 • higher scores → larger executive functions deficits Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

12. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Method • Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997) • 25-item scale, parents indicate whether each item is “certainly true”, “somewhat true”, or “not true” about their child • five subscales • Hyperactivity, Conduct Problems, Prosocial Behavior, Peer Problems and Emotional Symptoms (anxiety) (last one used, α= .47) • higher scores → more behavioral and emotional problem Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

13. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Method • The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ; Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 1995) • 30 items, Likert-type scale (1=never; 6=always) • three subscale • authoritative • 13 items grouped in three dimensions: reasoning, warmth and involvement and democratic participation; α=.86 • authoritarian • 13 items grouped in three dimensions : non-reasoning, corporal punishment and verbal hostility; α=.82 • permissive • 4 items; α=.64 • highest score → the most dominant parenting style Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

14. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece ResultsTable 1. Descriptives and correlations among variables Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

15. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Latent variable of EF deficits EFA Bartlett’s test of sphericity (χ2 = 546.96, df = 6, p < 0.01), KMO = 0.79 Table 2. Total variance explained by factors χ2 = 45,975, df = 2, p < 0.01, CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.76, RMSEA = 0.35 (0.27 – 0.45) Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

16. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Mediation effect of EF deficits in the relationship between parenting styles and emotional problems Ra2 = 15% full mediation Rp2 = 12% χ2 = 86,81, df = 16, p < 0.01, CFI = 0.89, TLI = 0.76, RMSEA = 0.16 (0.13 – 0.19) Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

17. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Limitations • cross-sectional data • subjectivity inparents’ ratings • some instruments are not validated in Croatian samples Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

18. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Strengths • interventions • early parent education in assisting cognitive development in children • executive function training • preventing later emotional and behavior problems Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation

19. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2019, Athens, Greece Thank You for Your attention! svuckovic@ffos.hr srucevic@ffos.hr tborovac@foozos.hr dkrupic@ffos.hr Funding was provided by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2016-06-3917), J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek (IZIP-2016-81) and Adris Foundation