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Abstract
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Decades of research have demonstrated that child individual characteristics moderate the effects of developmental context on child mental health. The majority of interactions followed a diathesis–stress pattern: poor parenting more often resulted in maladaptation in vulnerable children with high impulsivity, irritable distress, inflexibility and low effortful control. However, some studies supported differential susceptibility model showing that child’s reactivity to stress, difficult temperament and negative emotional reactivity served as plasticity factors, amplifying risk for maladaptation given poor parenting and increasing the probability of positive outcomes given high-quality parenting. The present study aimed to examine interactions between parenting and child personality in the prediction of internalizing (emotional symptoms and peer problems) and externalizing (conduct problems and hyperactivity-inattention) behavior in Russian preschool-age children. Participants were primary caregivers of 370 children aged between 2 and 7 years. Parenting was measured by the Russian version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire – Preschool Revision (APQ- PR), child personality was measured by the Inventory of Child Individual Differences-Short version (ICID-S), mental health was measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Consistent with a diathesis-stress model, the results showed that among children high in activity and low in conscientiousness, punitive parenting was associated with externalizing behaviors, while among fearful and introverted children it was associated with internalizing behaviors. Positive parenting was a protective factor for internalizing problems only for children low in openness. Consistent with differential susceptibility model, children low in openness showed both more externalizing problems when faced with low positive parenting and involvement and less externalizing problems– when experiencing high quality parenting, compared to children high in openness. These results are in line with the previous findings showing that most of the person-by-environment interactions follow a diathesis–stress pattern, and also reveal children’s differential susceptibility to rearing conditions, specifically parenting practices.
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