The transactional process between the relationships with caregivers and children's externalizing behavior

Roskam, Isabelle [UCL] Stiévenart, Marie [UCL] De Mol, Jan [UCL]

Externalizing behavior (EB) has been found to be pervasive in children across different interactional systems. The transactional model is one of the most interesting and plausible mechanisms explaining the development of behavioral problems (Sameroff, 2009). The main goal of the study is to test bidirectional and recursive transactional relations between the quality of the caregiver–child relationship and children's externalizing behavior. The transactional model was tested in three-wave longitudinal cross-lagged models involving 117 children (78.5% boys) aged 4 at the beginning of the study and three caregivers, i.e. their mother, father and teacher. All of the children had been clinically referred for externalizing behavior. The multi-informant three-wave design was an original feature of this research. The results provided no evidence for a transactional process. The results suggest the singularity of each of these three interactional systems. They are discussed from the theoretical viewpoint and in terms of their clinical implications.