1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The aim of the present study was to examine pathways from problematic behavior patterns in childhood to disadvantaged family circumstances in adulthood: conditions that may promote the transfer of risk for disadvantage to the next generation.» (p. 99)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The sub-sample for the current study comprised ongoing participants in the Concordia Project who had become parents at the time of the most recent data collection prior to these analyses. The size of the current sample was 550 parents (328 mothers and 222 fathers) […].» (p. 99-100)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

Authors conclude that «[a] complex web of disadvantaged personal and family characteristics anticipates problematic child rearing and parenting conditions. In the present study, individual and family characteristics have acted in combination over time to establish the environments in which families are raising their children. These results confirm that there are specific individual and environmental characteristics, identifiable in childhood, which have an enduring impact into parenthood. In the path models presented here, ‘‘direct’’ long-term effects of early environment and behavioral characteristics on specific outcomes at parenthood were found, suggesting continuity of both problematic behavior and of disadvantaged environmental conditions from childhood to parenthood. ‘‘Indirect’’ paths linking the childhood variables to the parenting conditions were also found, however, indicating that early characteristics such as aggression, social withdrawal, and low family socio-economic status are predictive of a series of negative sequelae. Each of these, in turn, has a potential impact on the cumulative course of development.» (p. 104)