A Mediation Model of Interparental Collaboration, Parenting Practices, and Child Externalizing Behavior in a Clinical Sample

• Date: 01 July 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2009.00552.x
• Author: John Kjøbli,Kristine Amlund Hagen
• Published date: 01 July 2009

A Publication of

the National Council on

Family Relations

JOHN KJøBLI AND KRISTINE AMLUND HAGEN University of Oslo

A Mediation Model of Interparental Collaboration,

Parenting Practices, and Child Externalizing

Behavior in a Clinical Sample

The present study examined maternal and

paternal parenting practices as mediators of

the link between interparental collaboration

and children’s externalizing behavior. Parent

gender was tested as a moderator of the

associations. A clinical sample consisting

of 136 children with externalizing problems

and their families participated in the study.

Structural equation modeling was used to

test the study hypotheses. Maternal and

paternal parenting practices fully mediated the

relation between interparental collaboration

and externalizing behavior. When the mediated

pathways were tested separately, paternal

parenting practices functioned as a mediator,

whereas maternal parenting practices did

not, indicating that the relationship between

interparental collaboration, parenting practices

and externalizing behavior was moderated

by parent gender. The f‌indings suggest that

treatments aimed at reducing child externalizing

behavior may be strengthened by focusing

on interparental collaboration in addition to

parenting practices, while also underscoring the

need to involve fathers in interventions.

Norwegian Center for ChildBehavioral Development –

Unirand at the University of Oslo, P.O. Box 7053,

Majorstuen, 0306 Oslo, Norway

(john.kjobli@atferdssenteret.no).

Key Words:childexternalizingbehavior,interparental

collaboration, maternal and paternal parenting practices,

mediation.

The presence of pervasive externalizing behav-

ior in childhood predicts continued problems

in adolescence and adulthood including delin-

quency, school dropout, and violence (Moff‌itt,

1993). Left untreated, as many as 50–75% of

the children who exhibit severe externalizing

behavior at an early age will continue to do

so in adolescence (Nixon, 2002). Externalizing

behavior has been found to be the most frequent

reason for child referrals to child and adoles-

cent mental health services in Norway (Storvoll,

1997). Given the disruptive nature of external-

izing behavior to the individual, family, and the

community at large, the processes leading to

externalizing behavior and conduct problems in

children have been a prioritized research topic

in the last decades (e.g. Fincham, 1994; Patter-

son, 1982), and is also the focus of this article.

Many of these research endeavors have doc-

umented a link connecting the quality of the

interparental relationship to various measures of

child functioning (Cummings, Davies, & Camp-

bell, 2000). Interparental relationship is a broad

construct, encompassing positive aspects such as

collaboration and agreement, and negative ones

such as overt conf‌lict and hostility. The construct

resembles Ahrons’ (1981) original conceptual-

ization of coparental relations, as both constructs

incorporate collaborative and conf‌lictual interac-

tions between parents. The operationalizations,

however, are different in that interparental rela-

tionship is related to the parent dyad whereas

Family Relations 58 (July 2009): 275– 288275