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Biomedical subjects

G R Patterson

Publications and source records attributed to G R Patterson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Hyperactive and antisocial behaviors: comorbid or two points in the same process?

We hypothesized that hyperactivity defines the first stage and that antisocial problems define a second stage in a progression that leads eventually to early-onset delinquency. As expected, a structural equation model (SEM) showed that a latent construct for hyperactivity was significantly related to a latent construct for antisocial problems. We hypothesized that this path reflected a shared mechanism, disrupted parental discipline. A second SEM showed that the relation between hyperactivity and antisocial behavior really reflected a shared disruption in parental discipline. A third SEM showed that having antisocial parents was uniquely correlated with antisocial children but not with hyperactivity. A fourth SEM showed that early-onset delinquency was predicted by a latent construct for antisocial child; but when this was partialed out, the contribution for hyperactivity was nonsignificant.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Adolescent growth in new forms of problem behavior: macro- and micro-peer dynamics.

Longitudinal data from an at-risk sample were used to analyze individual linear trend scores for each of three new forms of problem behavior that emerges during the interval from age 10 through 18 years. Growth in substance use, health-risking sexual behavior and police arrests defined a latent construct for growth in adolescent problem behavior. A structural equation model (SEM) showed a significant path from early involvement with deviant peers to a latent construct for growth in new forms of antisocial behavior. A second SEM showed that the contribution of early involvement to later growth was mediated by a latent construct for deviancy training assessed at age 14 years. The relative rates of reinforcement for deviancy, amount of time spent with deviant peers, and deviancy level of the peer network defined a deviancy training construct that accounted for 53% of the variance in later growth in new forms.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Model building in developmental psychopathology: a pragmatic approach to understanding and intervention.

Proposes model building as a pragmatic and integrative approach to developmental psychopathology. The model-building process is iterative within a program of research, cycling through the following phases of research: theory, field observation, construct definition, measurement development, construct analysis, model testing, experimental field trials, and model revision. Research on the development of and interventions for antisocial behavior is discussed as a tool for reflecting on the model-building process. The ecological framework is offered as a science-based heuristic that integrates various levels of analysis and theoretical perspectives.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Variables that initiate and maintain an early-onset trajectory for juvenile offending.

A trajectory defined by three time-ordered events was offered as a useful adjunct to building a development theory about antisocial behaviors. A sequence was defined with significant linkages between antisocial childhood behavior and early arrest and between early arrest and chronic offending. The majority of chronic offenders traveled through all three events in the sequence. Each event in the sequence shared a common process of disrupted family process plus frequent family transitions and marked social disadvantage. The findings support the hypothesis that the process that leads to antisocial behaviors at grade four may also maintain the entire sequence. The level of disrupted process at initiation and a time-based measure of involvement with deviant peers predicted which individuals moved forward in the sequence and which did not. The findings are consistent with the idea that the majority of chronic offending juveniles follow a trajectory that can be explained by a single theory.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Continuities--a search for causal mechanisms: comment on the special section.

The findings of the 8 empirical articles in this special section make a convincing case for cross-generation continuities. It is proposed that parenting practices may serve as a mechanisms that accounts for these stabilities. Both biological and social interactional variables are examined as potential explanations for how this effect might come about.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

It takes two to replicate: a mediational model for the impact of parents' stress on adolescent adjustment.

In this study of parental stress and adolescent adjustment, experiences of negative life events during the recent past were used to generate a measure of acute stress. In addition, multiple indicators based on reports from various informants were used to estimate latent constructs for parental depression, discipline practices, and adolescent adjustment. Employing 2 independent samples of families from 2 different regions of the country (rural Iowa and a medium-sized city in Oregon), structural equation models were used to test the hypothesis that in intact families acute stress experienced by parents is linked to boys' adjustment (average age equaled 11.8 years in the Oregon sample, 12.7 years in the Iowa sample) through 2 different causal mechanisms. The findings showed that parental stress was related to adjustment through stress-related parental depression that is, in turn, correlated with disrupted discipline practices. Poor discipline appears to provide the direct link with developmental outcomes. The structural equation model (SEM) used to test the proposed mediational process was consistent with the data for mothers and boys from both the Oregon and the Iowa samples. The similarity in results was less clear for fathers and boys. Implications of these results for future replication studies are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

Orderly change in a stable world: the antisocial trait as a chimera.

Children's traits, such as antisocial behavior, are embedded in a matrix that is changing over time. Although the trait score is stable, there are changes in the form of antisocial acts. There can also be subgroups of boys who show systematic increases in mean level of antisocial behavior. Latent growth models were used to demonstrate both changes in form and systematic changes in mean level for a subgroup of boys. The analyses included measures of covariates that were thought necessary to cause these changes. There are also qualitative changes brought about by the presence of the antisocial trait itself (e.g., academic failure, peer rejection, and depressed mood). Factor analyses carried out at three ages showed that, over time, both the changes in form and the addition of new problems are quantifiable and thus represent orderly change.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Some problems and solutions in the study of change: significant patterns in client resistance.

Latent growth curve methodology was applied to the study of patterns of change in client resistance during parent training therapy. The clinical sample consisted of 68 mothers of children, 52 boys and 16 girls, ages 5 through 12 years, with confirmed conduct problems. Simple linear and linear spline growth models were fit to the three repeated observational measures of maternal resistance during therapy and found inadequate. Instead, a quadratic growth model was used. Pretherapy maternal characteristics of inept discipline and antisocial behavior predicted chronically high levels of resistance. Maternal depressed mood predicted less negative quadratic curvature. No significant predictors of overall change in resistance were detected. Lack of negative curvature of the resistance growth curves predicted child court offenses during a 2-year posttermination follow-up. Results are discussed with reference to the struggle-and-working-through hypothesis of client resistance.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Parent and teacher ratings in the assessment and prediction of antisocial and delinquent behaviors.

Subjects consisted of a sample of two cohorts of approximately 100 boys each whose behaviors were rated by their parents and teachers. Criterion variables included antisocial behavior, based on parent, child, teacher, and interviewer reports, and delinquency, based on parent and child reports in addition to cumulative arrest data taken from juvenile court records. The data suggest that mothers are focused on the daily, irritating behaviors of their sons. Teachers, on the other hand, appear to focus on a relatively small number of items (e.g., child physically attacks others, associates with deviant peers), and thereby provide ratings that are better predictors of delinquency and arrest. When the mothers' ratings were constrained to include only items that were salient for teachers, their predictive validity coefficients approached the magnitude of the teacher coefficients.

Child↗
PubMed1991

A comparative evaluation of parent-training interventions for families of chronic delinquents.

Fifty-five families of chronically offending delinquents were randomly assigned to parent-training treatment or to service traditionally provided by the juvenile court and community. The families in the parent-training group received an average of 44.8 hours of professional contact (23.3 hours of which were phone contacts), and each control group family received treatment estimated at more than 50 hours on the average. Comparisons of police contact data at baseline and subsequent years for the two groups showed that subjects in both groups demonstrated reduced rates of offending during the followup years. The finding most relevant was significant treatment-by-time effect for offense rates, with most of this effect accounted for by a greater reduction in serious crimes for the experimental group during the treatment year, and a similar reduction of the community control group occurring in the first of three followup years. These early decrements in offense rates persisted during followup for both groups. Throughout the study, boys in the experimental group spent significantly less time in institutional settings than did boys in the control group. Parent training had a significant impact, but the reduction in offending was produced at very high emotional cost to staff. Although it is clear that this population requires substantial treatment resources, this study underscores the need for more work on prevention.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Replications of a dual failure model for boys' depressed mood.

A structural equation model for depressed mood was examined for three samples of boys (N = 317) from at-risk families. It was assumed that rejection by normal peers and academic failure were significant covariates for preadolescent boys' depressed mood. The model accounted for from 51% to 68% of the variance in the criterion construct. The confirmatory factor analyses showed an adequate fit of the measurement model to the data sets for each of the three samples. The hypothesized negative path coefficients from the good peer relations construct to the child depressed mood construct were significant for all three samples. The path from the academic skills construct to the child depressed mood construct, however, was highly variable and significant for only two of the samples. Multigroup comparisons were carried out to determine the degree to which the factor loadings and the structural relations between constructs were invariant across the three samples.

Achievement↗
PubMed1989

A developmental perspective on antisocial behavior.

A developmental model of antisocial behavior is outlined. Recent findings are reviewed that concern the etiology and course of antisocial behavior from early childhood through adolescence. Evidence is presented in support of the hypothesis that the route to chronic delinquency is marked by a reliable developmental sequence of experiences. As a first step, ineffective parenting practices are viewed as determinants for childhood conduct disorders. The general model also takes into account the contextual variables that influence the family interaction process. As a second step, the conduct-disordered behaviors lead to academic failure and peer rejection. These dual failures lead, in turn, to increased risk for depressed mood and involvement in a deviant peer group. This third step usually occurs during later childhood and early adolescence. It is assumed that children following this developmental sequence are at high risk for engaging in chronic delinquent behavior. Finally, implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1986

The effects of consequences on patterns of social interaction: a quasi-experimental approach to reinforcement in natural interaction.

Research on social interaction has consistently documented the existence of mutual interdependencies between the behavior of 1 person and reactions to that behavior by others in the social environment. The concept of social reinforcement, although often used to explain acquisition and change in interaction patterns defined by such interdependencies, is difficult to apply to interaction observed in natural settings. On the basis of extended observation of the interaction of 2 mother-child dyads, the procedures needed to assess the effects of naturally occurring consequences on interactional patterns are detailed in this study. Reliable mother action-child reaction patterns were first identified, and the effect of maternal consequences for those patterns on the probability of their subsequent occurrence was assessed. Positive consequences were associated with increases, and negative consequences with decreases, in the probability of a child reacting to the next occurrence of the maternal action when compared to the base-rate probability of that action-reaction pattern. Thus consequences affect momentary shifts around the baseline probability of interactional patterns. Positive consequences were also associated with short-term increases, and negative consequences with short-term decreases, in the base-rate probability of interactional patterns.

Adult↗