The role of temperamental emotionality in the development and treatment of early externalising behavioural problems

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the role of temperamental emotionality in the development and early intervention of externalising behavioural problems (EBP). Given the evidence that early EBP has a lasting negative impact on adjustment outcomes, interventions are suggested to be offered as early as possible. Longitudinal research provides general support for temperamental emotionality as a risk factor for persistent early EBP and some evidence of its mediation between adverse parenting and EBP. However, it remains unclear whether temperamental emotionality should be targeted by parenting interventions to reduce early EBP. If temperamental emotionality can be measured accurately earlier and it leads to EBP, this may provide an earlier point of intervention. Study 1 examined measurement agreement between a caregiver-reported temperament questionnaire and an observational measure using parent-infant interactions as emotion elicitors. The findings of an absent or medium positive association between caregiver-reported and observed temperamental emotionality indicate that both measures capture different but somewhat overlapping components of temperamental emotionality. Study 2 and Study 3 were conducted with 300 toddlers at risk of behavioural difficulties and their parents, who were randomised to III receive Video feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) or treatment as usual. Study 2 found that decreases in caregiverreported negative emotionality, but not observed negative emotionality, were associated with decreases in EBP, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder symptoms and conduct problems. This supports negative emotionality as a general vulnerability across subtypes of early EBP. The finding of mediation of decreased negative emotionality between improved overreactive parenting and EBP indicates the importance of negative emotionality in coercive parent-child processes to early EBP. Study 3 experimentally tested whether negative emotionality could be a malleable target for VIPP-SD to reduce early EBP but found no evidence. Future research on how temperamental emotionality impacts parent-child transactional processes is worthwhile for innovating early intervention.