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C 2003) Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Vol. 31, No. 2, April 2003, pp. 123–125 (°

Introduction to Special Section on Three-Generation Studies D. M. Capaldi,1,5 R. D. Conger,2 H. Hops,3 and T. P. Thornberry4 Received November 22, 2002; accepted November 22, 2002

Interest in lifespan research and cross-generational associations in parenting practices and child behaviors has grown rapidly in recent years. The four papers presented in this journal test three key intergenerational research questions regarding intergenerational continuities for externalizing behaviors, using different 3-generational samples. KEY WORDS: parenting; intergenerational continuities; externalizing behavior.

As the field of lifespan research matures, along with the participants in several longitudinal studies based on such a perspective, researchers have become eager to address new questions regarding cross-generational associations in parenting practices and child behaviors. In 1998, a special section of Developmental Psychology, edited by Drs Lisa Serbin and Dale Stack, was devoted to this topic. The papers represented a substantial advance in the field because all seven studies were prospective in design, whereas prior to that date such studies had predominantly used retrospective designs. Those studies addressed a diverse set of intergenerational questions, including social and cognitive development (Cairns, Cairns, Xie, Leung, & Hearne, 1998), risk for aggression toward a partner (Capaldi & Clark, 1998), smoking (Chassin, Presson, Todd, Rose, & Sherman, 1998), inhibited and difficult behavior (Cohen, Kasen, Brook, & Hartmark, 1998), risk for adolescent parenthood (Fagot, Pears, Capaldi, Crosby, & Leve, 1998; Hardy, Astone, BrooksGunn, Shapiro, & Miller, 1998; Scaramella, Conger, Simons, & Whitbeck, 1998), and the association of childhood aggression in girls with a variety of risks including teen parenthood and poor parenting (Serbin et al., 1998).

At that time, few of those studies had prospective data available on parenting for two generations. In contrast to those more diverse papers, the four papers presented in this journal (Capaldi, Pears, Patterson, & Owen, 2003; Conger, Neppl, Kim, & Scaramella, 2003; Hops, Davis, Leve, & Sheeber, 2003; Thornberry, Freeman-Gallant, Lizotte, Krohn, & Smith, 2003) all test three key intergenerational research questions using data sets that include three generations (G1, G2, and G3). First, does parenting experienced in childhood or adolescence in the family of origin predict parenting practices in adulthood in the family of procreation? Second, does externalizing behavior assessed in adolescence for G2 predict externalizing behavior in early childhood for G3? Third, do G2 parenting practices mediate any association between externalizing in G2 and such behavior in G3? A well-recognized caveat seen at the conclusion of many discussion sections in the field of family psychology is that the findings should be interpreted with caution until replicated. Replication of developmental models has been an important goal of the research groups who conducted these intergenerational tests (e.g., Conger, Patterson, & Ge, 1995). However, it may well be unprecedented that four independent groups publish tests of the same hypotheses simultaneously. Such copublication naturally elicits interesting comparisons of samples, measures, and findings across the studies. Comparisons of findings are addressed by the commentaries included in this edition. Here, we will briefly review characteristics of these four studies and samples, and we will also highlight some of the measurement approaches utilized.

1 Oregon

Social Learning Center, Eugene, Oregon. of Human and Community Development, University of California, Davis, California. 3 Oregon Research Institute, Eugene, Oregon. 4 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, Albany, New York. 5 Address all correspondence to Deborah M. Capaldi, PhD, Oregon Social Learning Center, 160 East 4th Avenue, Eugene, Oregon 97401; e-mail: [email protected]. 2 Department

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124 The Capaldi et al. (2003) study that began in 1983 uses the Oregon Youth Study (OYS) sample of 200 atrisk males from a medium-sized metropolitan area. The study attempted recruitment of all fourth-grade (age 9– 10 years) boys from schools with a higher than usual incidence of delinquency in the neighborhood. The sample, which is predominantly European American, indeed proved to show rather high levels of antisocial behavior; over one half of the youth had an arrest record by age 18 years, and about one fifth had been arrested five or more times by age 18 years. Antisocial behavior and other risk factors including poor academic achievement and school dropout, higher levels of substance use, and low family income were associated with becoming a father during adolescence (Fagot et al., 1998). Because the OYS sample is of males in G2, prospective cross-generational models could be tested for fathers but not for mothers. However, as was true of all four studies presented in this edition, both boys and girls were assessed in G3. The study of G3 was initiated when the G2 men were in late adolescence. The Conger et al. (2003) study uses the Iowa Youth and Family Project (IYFP), a sample of two-parent families and seventh graders from rural counties affected by the 1980s farm crisis, and the Single Parent Project sample of eighth and ninth graders (Conger et al., 2003). These two studies were merged to form the Iowa Family Transitions Project study. The studies began in 1989 and 1991 respectively, with a combined sample size of N = 550, with 55% being female. The sample is predominantly European American and was not selected as at risk, except for the economic dislocation in the community for the IYFP sample. The Hops et al. (2003) study involves a normative, predominantly European American sample from a mediumsized metropolitan area (Hops et al., 2003). Including both boys and girls and their parents, the sample is a subset of the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project, a schoolbased epidemiological study of depression (Lewinsohn, Hops, Roberts, Seeley, & Andrews, 1993) that began in 1986. The study of the third generation was initiated when the G2 parents were between ages 26 and 31 years. The Rochester Youth Development Study (Thornberry et al., 2003) was initiated in 1988 when the participants (N = 1, 000) were in the seventh or eighth grade; 75% were male. The sample was from Rochester, New York, a midsized metropolitan area in the northeastern United States. The initial sample was 68% African American, 17% Hispanic, and 15% White. Children at high risk for serious antisocial behavior were oversampled. The study of the third generation was initiated in 1999 by selecting the G2’s oldest biological child, who

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Capaldi, Conger, Hops, and Thornberry had to be at least 2 years of age to enter the study. Because the second generation contained sizable numbers of males and females, separate models for G2 mothers and fathers can be estimated and compared. An unusual feature of these studies is that observational data of parent–child interactions for G1 and G2 (Capaldi et al., 2003; Conger et al., 2003; Hops et al., 2003) were collected for three studies and observational data between G2 and G3 are included for all four studies. However, as these reports are relatively early in the overall data collection phase, not all G2 offspring have children for whom observation data were available. A particularly challenging feature of such prospective three-generational studies is that collecting data on G3 can be a very prolonged process, because children in G3 may be born at any time during at least a 30-year period, which is very different from the usual developmental studies that commence by recruiting a birth cohort. None of the studies are collecting biological genetic data at this time, although several of the investigators hope to add such a component to their larger study. Any finding of a direct association from G2 to G3 externalizing behavior in the four studies in this issue could indicate a genetic association, although other factors such as intergenerational continuity in family risk context could also contribute to such an association. A finding of a mediated association via parenting could indicate that the association is partly or wholly due to antisocial behavior predicting poor parenting practices that are then associated with the emergence of externalizing problems in the child. A direct association between parenting by G1 and parenting by G2 would indicate that the children learn parenting practices from their own parent, which they are then likely to reproduce when they themselves become parents. The empirical tests presented here are certainly not definitive tests of nature-nurture hypotheses. They may provide evidence that favors one model above the other or may support both models if both direct and mediated pathways are found. REFERENCES Cairns, R. B., Cairns, B. D., Xie, H., Leung, M., & Hearne, S. (1998). Paths across generations: Academic competence and aggressive behaviors in young mothers and their children. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1162–1174. Capaldi, D. M., & Clark, S. (1998). Prospective family predictors of aggression toward female partners for at-risk young men. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1175–1188. Capaldi, D. M., Pears, K. C., Patterson, G. R., & Owen, L. D. (2003). Continuity of parenting practices across generations in an atrisk sample: A prospective comparison of direct and mediated associations. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31,127– 142.

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Introduction to Intergenerational Studies Section Chassin, L., Presson, C. C., Todd, M., Rose, J. S., & Sherman, S. J. (1998). Maternal socialization of adolescent smoking: The intergenerational transmission of parenting and smoking. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1189–1201. Cohen, P., Kasen, S., Brook, J. S., & Hartmark, C. (1998). Behavior patterns of young children and their offspring: A two-generation study. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1202–1208. Conger R. D., Neppl, T., Kim, K. J., & Scaramella, L. (2003). Angry and aggressive behavior across three generations: A prospective, longitudinal study of parents and children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 143–160. Conger, R. D., Patterson, G. R., & Ge, X. (1995). It takes two to replicate: A mediational model for the impact of parents’ stress on adolescent adjustment. Child Development, 66, 80–97. Fagot, B. I., Pears, K. C., Capaldi, D. M., Crosby, L., & Leve, C. S. (1998). Becoming an adolescent father: Precursors and parenting. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1209–1212. Hardy, J. B., Astone, N. M., Brooks-Gunn, J., Shapiro, S., & Miller, T. L. (1998). Like mother, like child: Intergenerational patterns of age at first birth and associations with childhood and adolescent characteristics and adult outcomes in the second generation. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1220–1232.

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125 Hops, H., Davis, B., Leve, C., & Sheeber, L. (2003). Cross-generational transmission of aggressive parent behavior: A prospective, mediational examination. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 161–169. Lewinsohn, P. M., Hops, H., Roberts, R. E., Seeley, J. R., & Andrews, J. A. (1993). Adolescent psychopathology. I: Prevalence and incidence of depression and other DSM-III-R disorders in high school students. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 133– 144. Scaramella, L. V., Conger, R. D., Simons, R. L., & Whitbeck, L. B. (1998). Predicting risk for pregnancy by late adolescence: A social contextual perspective. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1233– 1245. Serbin, L. A., Cooperman, J. M., Peters, P. L., Lehoux, P. M., Stack, D. M., & Schwartzman, A. E. (1998). Intergenerational transfer of psychosocial risk in women with childhood histories of aggression, withdrawal, or aggression and withdrawal. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1246–1262. Thornberry, T. P., Freeman-Gallant, A., Lizotte, A. J., Krohn, M. D., & Smith, C. A. (2003). Linked lives: The intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 171–184.