1. Daniel Shaw University of Pittsburgh www.pitt.edu/~ppcl
The Early Childhood Antecedents of Youth Antisocial Behavior
Daniel Shaw
University of Pittsburgh

2. Richard Bell, Joan Vondra Kate Keenan, Emily Winslow
Special Thanks to:
Richard Bell, Joan Vondra
Kate Keenan, Emily Winslow
Elizabeth Owens, Monica Garcia
Erin Ingoldsby, Miles Gilliom
Michael Schonberg, Michael Criss
Daniel Nagin
Staff of the Pitt Mother & Child Project
Women, Infants, and Children Program
National Institute of Mental Health

3. Aims Describe developmental model of early conduct problems
Review support for components
of model
Briefly discuss implications for
further basic and applied work

4. The Spread
Of Antisocial
Behavior

5. Child Effects
Model

6. Parent Effects Model

7. Parent, Family, and Neighborhood

8. Developmental Transformations: 12 to 24 Months Increase in undirected
anger
Walking to
toddling

9. 12-24 Months: Transition to Physical Mobility

10. Sensitivity in 1st two years promotes child compliance
By preschool age, parental requests should be honored differentially based on the quality of the parent-child relationship and the stakes for displeasing parents
Supports parents making investment in child early on
Attachment Theory: Early Starting Conduct Problems (Ainsworth, Sroufe, Greenberg)

11. Patterson’s Early Starter Model
PARENTS:
Deficits in Family
Management skills
Coercive
Cycles of
Interaction
CHILD
Irritability,
Hyperactivity
Patterson’s Early Starter Model

12. Child Factors Infancy Toddlerhood Preschool
Emotionally dysregulated, angry,
demanding, irritable (Sanson & Prior)
Toddlerhood
Oppositional, undirected then directed
aggression, uninhibited (Keenan & Shaw)
Preschool
Oppositional, aggressive (Campbell;
Richman & Graham)
Child Factors

13. “Rejecting”
Parenting

14. “Reactive”
Parenting

15. “Proper”
Parenting

16. Parenting Factors Infancy to Preschool- Toddlerhood School-Age
Maternal Parental
Unresponsiveness Uninvolve-
ment
Hostile/Rejecting Hostile/
Discipline Rejecting
Discipline
Parenting Factors

17. Siblings
Matter

18. Why should sibling relations be important?
First long-term peer relationship
Sample of behavioral style with peer
Does it represent a marker of behavior problems?
If so, is it more than a marker?
Why should sibling relations be important?

19. Demographic Characteristics of Sample Totals Sex of child 310 boys
Yearly Income $12,708
Mother’s age 28, range 17-43
Maternal education years
% Married/
Living Together 62
% White/Afr. Amer. 53/36
Criminality 36%
Demographic
Characteristics of Sample

20. Pitt Mother & Child Project:
Follow-Up Schedule
1 yr yr. 2 yr yr. 5 yr yr. 6 yr. 8 yr yr yr. 12 yr yr yr yr
Lab Lab Lab/ Lab Home Home Lab Home Home Lab Home Home Home Home
Home Twice
---- Camp Court Data ---
Teacher and School Data

21. Measurement Strategies
Focus on observation of developmentally salient
issues (e.g., maternal responsiveness & infant
persistence at age 1, discipline practices at age 2)
Assess in multiple contexts (e.g., home,
lab, summer camp, school) with observations of
target child interacting with parents, sibs, peers,
best friends, and romantic partners
Supplement observations with reports of family,
child, and community risk factors using multiple
family members, peers, best friends, romantic
partners, teachers, school and official records

22. Measures High Chair Task at 1 yr: Maternal Responsiveness and Infant
Persistence
Child Noncompliance at 2 yrs: observed during clean-up task
Behaviorial Inhibition at 2 yrs: In response to distressing gorilla
sounds
Parenting Practices at 1.5 & 2 yrs: Hostile/Rejecting based on
molecular and global ratings during clean-up task
Sibling Conflict at 5 yrs: Verbal and physical conflict between target child and closest-age sib during 1 hour directed play session
Maternal Resources: HOME Acceptance (2 yrs.), Beck Depression
Inventory (1.5 to 5 years), General Life Satisfaction (1.5 yrs.), and
Parenting Daily Hassles (1, 5, 2, & 3.5 yrs.)
Child IQ at 5.5 yrs: 4 subscales of the WPPSI-R
Achenbach CBCL/TRF at 2, 3.5, 5, 6, & 8 yrs: Externalizing,
Aggression, and other DSM-based factors
Elliott Self-Report of Delinquency at 10, 11, 12, 15, 17 yrs.
Measures

23. Child and Parenting Predictors: Boys
Persistence
(12 Months)
.29*
.38**
Noncompliance
(24 months)
.19x
CBCL
Externalizing
Problems
(42 months)
.70***
CBCL
Externalizing
Problems
(24 months)
.18x
-.33**
Maternal
Rejection
(24 months)
.39**
-.23*
Maternal
Responsiveness
(12 months)
x p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001
Shaw et al. (1998), Journal of Abn. Child Psych. 1

24. Two-way interaction between rejecting parenting and sibling conflict in predicting CBCL Aggression at age 5/6
Garcia, Shaw, Winslow, & Yaggi, 2000
Developmental Psychology

25. Two-way interaction between rejecting parenting and
sibling conflict in relation to TRF Aggression at age 6

26. Trajectories Leading to Clinically-Elevated Scores on
TRF Aggression at age 8: CBCL Aggression at Ages 2,
3.5, 5, & 5.5
CBCL
Aggression
Age of Child in Years
Effect size = sd
Shaw, Bell, & Gilliom, Clinical Child
and Family Psychology Review (2000)

27. Trajectories Leading to Clinically-Elevated Scores on
TRF Aggression at age 8: Maternal Depressive Symptoms
At Ages 1.5, 2, 3.5, and 5.5
Maternal
Depressive
Symptoms
Effect size = sd

28. Trajectories Leading to Clinically-Elevated TRF
Aggression Scores at Age 8: Maternal Social Support
at Age 1.5
Maternal
Social
Support
Nonproblem > 90th %
Effect size = .80 sd

29. Trajectories Leading to Clinically-Elevated TRF
Aggression at age 8: HOME Total at Age 2
HOME
Total
Nonproblem at or > 90th %
Effect size = .56 sd

30. Developmental Trajectories of Overt Antisocial Behavior
Shaw, Gilliom, Ingoldsby, & Nagin (2003), Developmental Psychology

31. Child fearlessness
Maternal depression
Maternal caregiving
3 factors that distinguished high and low truly early-starting antisocial trajectories from ages 2 to 8

32. Follow-Up to Youth & Teacher Reports of Adolescent Antisocial Behavior
Age Age 15
Elliott Self
Report
Delinquency
stole something
from a car
picked up by police
and brought to
station
.21***
.20*
.21*
Observed
Rejecting
Parenting: Age 2
Follow-Up to Youth & Teacher Reports of Adolescent Antisocial Behavior
arrested
.26*
.16+
marijuana use
.21***
.19*
having sex
Achenbach
TRF
Externalizing
*** p < .001, * p < .05, + p < .10

33. Developmental Trajectories of Youth Antisocial Behavior Ages 10-17
4 group solution with highest BIC score, all posterior probabilities > .85

34. Trajectory Group Differences on Juvenile Court Petitions
Low Stable -- 62% of sample: 25%
High ‘Decreasing’ -- 5% of sample: 60%
Late Increasing --10% of sample: 49%
High Increasing -- 22% of sample:78%
Trajectory Group Differences on Juvenile Court Petitions

35. Trajectory Group Differences based on Early Childhood Risk Factors
Accounting for all other predictors in early childhood,
Factors that discriminated high increasers from low stable: maternal depression at ages years
Factors that discriminated ‘high decreasing’ group: rejecting parenting and maternal depression
Trajectory Group Differences based on Early Childhood Risk Factors

36. Methods: Assessing Threat
Functional Imaging
Amygdala reactivity paradigm – angry, fearful, neutral and surprised faces
3T platform
Gradient echo EPI sequence: TR/TE = 2000/25msec
34 slices = 3 mm thick
Processed using the GLM of SPM8
Individual contrast images of Faces > Shapes were entered into a second level random effects models
Extracted individual values for the main effect of task for the cluster and maximum voxel and did analyses outside of SPM8

37. Amygdala reactivity and AB Trajectory Groups (N = 51)

38. Summary of Findings For boys, child and parenting precursors of
serious antisocial behavior identifiable from
1.5-2 years of age
Emphasizes the salience of both child behavior and
parental response to such behavior in the 2nd year
Factors that compromise parenting also related to persistence of conduct problems
- Maternal depression, social support
Implications and challenges for early identification and treatment
- Multisystemic approach warranted
- not child but dyad at risk

39. Continued Follow-Up of Sample during Early Adulthood
Combine all data collected on youth adjustment and their social environments from birth to through adolescence with genetic data (collected at age 17) and to-be-collected brain function data (at ages 20 and 22) in relation to antisocial behavior and drug use during early adulthood
Will also allow us to examine potential protective roles of quality of instrumental functioning (e.g., steady employment, higher education) and social relationships (e.g., stable and positive relationship with significant other) during the early 20’s
Continued Follow-Up of Sample during Early Adulthood

40. Daniel Shaw University of Pittsburgh www.pitt.edu/~ppcl
The Early Childhood Antecedents of Youth Antisocial Behavior
Daniel Shaw
University of Pittsburgh