In this editorial, I comment on the article "Association of preschool children behavior and emotional problems with the parenting behavior of both parents" which was published in the latest issue of "World Journal of Clinical Cases" that demonstrates the prevalence of behavioral disorders in preschool children. Therefore I am focused on parenting which is the most effective factor shown to affect the development and continuity of these behaviors. The management of child behavior problems is crucial. Children in early ages, especially preschoolers who are in the first 5 years of life, are influenced by dramatic changes in various aspects of development, such as social, emotional, and physical. Also, children experience many changes linked to different developmental tasks, such as discovering themselves, getting new friendships, and adapting to a new environment. In this period, parents have a critical role in supporting child development. If parents do not manage and overcome their child's misbehavior, it could be transformed into psychosocial problems in adulthood. Parenting is the most powerful predictor in the social development of preschool children. Several studies have shown that to reduce the child's emotional and behavioral problems, a warm relationship between parents and children is needed. In addition, recent studies have demonstrated significant relationships between family regulation factors and parenting, as well as with child behaviors.

Externalizing behavior problems (EBPs) are common in children, with significant long-term impact on the child and family members. Parents, particularly mothers, of children with EBPs often experience heightened emotional distress. One crucial factor affecting parents' ability to manage this distress is their level of differentiation-of-self (DOS). Differentiated parents are more likely to engage in practices that meet their child's psychological needs, thus supporting the self-determination theory principles vital for a child's well-being. This study examined the impact of parental DOS on parenting practices and subsequently on the child's EBPs, exploring possible differences between mothers and fathers.

Thirty-two mother-father dyads with children aged 6-14, diagnosed with EBPs participated. Parents completed the Differentiation of Self Inventory-Short Form, the Revised Parents as a Social Context Questionnaire, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to assess parental DOS, practices, and child's EBPs, respectively. Adjusted parallel mediation models examined the mediating role of parental practices in the relationship between parental DOS and a child's EBPs.

While no direct link between parental DOS and child's symptoms was found, a complete mediation model indicated need-frustrating practices mediating between parental DOS and a child's EBPs, for both mothers and fathers. Additionally, fathers' need-supportive practices, but not mothers', were negatively associated with the child's symptoms.

These findings highlight the interaction between parental traits, need-frustrating practices, and a child's psychopathology. Notably, fathers' supportive behaviors emerged as potential protective factors against child's EBPs, suggesting promising directions for future research and interventions targeting fathers.

Antisocial behaviour (ASB) incurs substantial costs to the individual and society. Cognitive neuroscience has the potential to shed light on developmental risk for ASB, but it cannot achieve this potential in an 'essentialist' framework that focuses on the brain and cognition isolated from the environment. Here, we present the case for studying the social transactional and iterative unfolding of brain and cognitive development in a relational context. This approach, which we call the study of the 'embedded brain', is needed to fully understand how risk for ASB arises during development. Concentrated efforts are required to develop and unify methods to achieve this approach and reap the benefits for improved prevention and intervention of ASB.

We conducted secondary analyses of existing data to examine the association between parent scores on the Knowledge of Effective Parenting Test (KEPT) and child symptoms of Conduct Disorder (CD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Parent knowledge of behavior management skills and child behavior symptoms were assessed in a nationally representative sample of parents/guardians (N = 1,570) of children aged 5-12 from all 50 states. Results showed consistent and robust correlations between parent knowledge of behavior management skills and CD symptoms but not ODD symptoms. These findings suggest that parent knowledge of behavior management may be a greater risk factor for CD than ODD, with implications for taxonomy and understanding the etiology of these two disorders. We also discuss the implications of these findings for the prevention and treatment of these two disorders which are often grouped together in treatment trials.

Patterson's coercion model describes a gradual escalation in maladaptive parent-child transactions whereby externalizing behaviors lead to increases in maladaptive parenting and vice versa. The current study investigates the role of (predominantly mother-reported) harsh parenting practices in the within-person development of conduct problems, hyperactive/inattentive behaviors, and emotional problems. A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model was fit across ages 3, 5, and 7 (N = 14,037, 49% female, 84% White) using the UK population-representative Millennium Cohort Study. Findings support Patterson's coercion model, providing evidence for reciprocal within-family relations between parenting practices and child behaviors. They suggest the importance of addressing parenting difficulties in families where children present with socioemotional difficulties in order to help prevent the accumulation of additional issues.

The bidirectional associations between parenting styles and conduct problems in Chinese children attending preschools were rarely discussed. A study covering 171 preschools in Longhua District of Shenzhen, China was conducted among children when they first attended preschools. Parents of children reported the self-perceived parenting styles and their children's conduct problems using validated questionnaires. The bidirectional associations between parenting styles and conduct problems in children were assessed using multivariate linear or logistic regressions in both cross-sectional and cohort settings. In cross-sectional settings, the bidirectional associations were present in all dimensions of parenting styles with children's conduct problems. After 1.01 years of follow-up, increases in parenting dimensions of rejection, control attempts, and favoring subject were significantly associated with children's conduct problems at follow-up, while increases in emotional warmth of parents significantly reduced such risk. In addition, parents of children who had conduct problems at baseline but regressed to normal at follow-up showed decreased scores in negative parenting dimensions. In contrast, among children who developed conduct problems during the study period, the scores of rejection and favoring subject in their parents have increased significantly, while the scores of emotional warmth have decreased. Parent-to-child effect was similar between fathers and mothers, while child-to-parent effect was stronger in fathers than that in mothers. In order to stop the negative feedback loop between poor parenting styles and children's conduct problems, our study underscored the importance of intervention not only in parents but also in their children.

To date, only three studies have examined the role of emotion socialization in the emotional functioning of youth with neurodevelopmental disorders. As such, this review article with pilot data sought to provide a call to action and first step in addressing this limited research body. Pilot data was collected with 18 adolescents (Mage = 13.5, SD = 1.6; 70% male) with a neurodevelopmental disorder and their primary caregiver. All adolescents were diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and displayed a range of comorbid disorders: autism spectrum disorder (27.8%), anxiety (66.7%), depression (44.4%), and disruptive behavior disorders (50%). Adolescents and caregivers completed a conflict discussion task while physiological, observational, and self-report measures of emotion socialization and emotional functioning were measured. Observed supportive parent emotion socialization behaviors were significantly associated with more observed adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and decreased observed and adolescent-reported negative affect, whereas non-supportive emotion socialization behaviors were associated with more observed negative affect and less observed adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Our pilot findings support growing research suggesting that adaptive parent emotion socialization practices can help foster less negative emotionality and better emotion regulation in youth with neurodevelopment disorders. We make a call to action for more emotion socialization research focused on youth with neurodevelopmental disorders, and propose four important directions for future research: 1) Research examining emotion socialization behaviors during daily life, 2) Understanding the nuanced role of emotion socialization practices, 3) Considering diversity in emotion socialization practices with clinical populations, and 4) Longitudinal and intervention research studies.

Childhood aggression is important to acknowledge due to its social impact and importance in predicting future problems. The temperament of a child and parental socialization have been essential in explaining behavioral problems, particularly in the case of childhood aggression. The aim of this study is to examine-from the parents' perspective-the role of childhood temperament in the dynamic by which mothers' reactions socialize their children's aggression. We also explore how children's gender and age differences affect these relationships. The sample was composed of 904 participants between 1 and 6 years old. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire and the Children's Behavior Questionnaire were used to evaluate children's negative affect and effortful control. The Parent-Child Relationship Inventory Maternal was used to assess maternal communication and discipline, and child aggression was assessed using the Children's Behavior Checklist. The results supported the mediating role of temperament in the processes by which perceived mothers' reactions socialize their children's aggression and suggested that maternal behaviors may not have the same consequences for girls and boys. Specifically, the aggressiveness of girls is dependent on a negative affect throughout toddlerhood and early childhood, while for boys, the duration of the negative affect's contribution is shorter, and aggressiveness is more sensitive to the maternal behaviors of discipline and communication.

Although research on the developmental antecedents of sexual offending has tended to focus on sexual abuse, recent research in juveniles and adults who have sexually offended suggests that psychological abuse perpetrated by a male caregiver may be a particularly important factor in the development of problematic sexual interests and behaviors.

This study aimed to extend previous findings by investigating the association between psychological abuse by a male caregiver and problematic sexual outcomes in a sample of adult males who had sexually offended.

Participants were 529 adult males incarcerated for sexual offenses, 21% of whom were civilly committed.

Childhood maltreatment and problematic sexual outcomes were assessed using the Multidimensional Assessment of Sex and Aggression, a contingency-based inventory that assesses domains related to sexual aggression. Hierarchical regressions were calculated examining the association between childhood abuse types and sexual outcomes.

Childhood sexual abuse was associated with child sexual (β = .247, p < .001) and other paraphilic interests (β = .189, p < .001). Male caregiver psychological abuse also emerged as marginally associated with child sexual interest (β = .100, p = .059), even after controlling for other abuse types.

These results partially replicate recent findings in a juvenile sample and challenge conventional developmental theories of sexual offending, by suggesting that male caregiver psychological abuse may play a role in the etiology of child sexual interest among males who have sexually offended. This study also suggests a possible gender symmetry effect moderating the developmental consequences of abuse.

Adolescence is a period of achieving emotion regulation skills. One of the main responsibilities of adolescents is to learn adaptive emotion regulation and personal autonomy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation in the attachment styles of adolescents with conduct disorders. This was a cross-sectional and correlational study. The study consisted of 105 adolescent residing in detention centers in the southeast of Iran using multi-stage random sampling. Data were collected using various questionnaires such as the Inventory of Parents and Peer Attachment-Revised (IPPA-R), the Difficulties of Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Information was analyzed using path analysis. The results show parental attachment and difficulties in emotion regulation significantly contribute to the prediction of conduct problems. A sense of alienation causes conduct disorders through disturbance in emotional regulation, but trust and communication with parents are only indirectly related to conduct disorders by disturbances in emotional regulation. As attachment is closely correlated with emotional regulation and difficulties in emotion regulation also lead to the conduct disorders, it is suggested to train emotion regulation in adolescents and their families with the aim of shaping relationships that will lead to the formation of a secure attachment style in the child.

Conduct disorder (CD) is a common mental health disorder of childhood and adolescence. CD's complexity, with its heterogenous clinical manifestations and overlapping comorbidities makes the application of evidence-based management approaches challenging. This article aims to combine a systematic review of the available literature, with a consensus opinion from both child and adolescent psychiatrists and developmental pediatricians on the clinical and pharmacological management of children and adolescents with conduct disorder (CD).

The authors review the CD population and provide a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness and safety of pharmacotherapies using preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) and strength of evidence recommendation taxonomy (SORT) guidelines. The authors then provide an expert clinical opinion for the use of different pharmacotherapies to address aggressive and disruptive behavior in children.

Atypical antipsychotics (e.g. risperidone) demonstrate evidence for efficacy in CD. Other pharmacotherapies (e.g. mood stabilizers, anticonvulsants, psychostimulants and selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) have a low level of evidence for CD alone, however, can sometimes be effective in managing the symptoms of CD when other psychiatric disorders are also present.