| dc.description.abstract | This thesis contains three chapters: two empirical chapters and a systematic review
chapter. The first two empirical chapters use data from the Growing Up in Scotland cohort.
The first chapter describes a group-based multi-trajectory analysis which distinguishes
children following five different trajectory patterns on three behaviours at once: conduct
problems, hyperactivity/inattention (HI), and peer problems. These groups can be described
as follows: Group 1 (17.4% of the sample) never engaged in conduct problems, with low and
decreasing HI and no peer problems throughout childhood. Group 2 (23.3%), similarly, had
low constant conduct problems, decreasing HI, and no peer problems. Group 3 (20.5%)
demonstrated low levels of decreasing conduct problems, low and constant HI, and low
constant peer problems. Group 4 (29.1%) demonstrated decreasing conduct problems, high
HI peaking around age 5, and low steady peer problems. Group 5 (9.7%) had high persisting
conduct problems, high HI peaking around age 7, and increasing peer problems throughout
childhood.
The second chapter describes a multinomial logistic regression analysis testing
several early childhood predictors of belonging to each of the five trajectory groups. It was
found that several child-level factors predicted belonging to groups other than group 1 (the
lowest-risk group): male sex, expressive language abilities, breastfeeding, and mother’s
smoking during pregnancy. However, environmental factors also predicted membership in
higher-risk groups, including parental smacking and shouting, primary caregiver mental
health, primary caregiver-infant attachment, child insecure attachment, number of siblings,
parental marital status, primary caregiver education level, and social deprivation level.
The third chapter describes a systematic review and narrative synthesis of studies
reporting associations between childhood conduct problems and perceived social isolation, or
loneliness. This systematic review is intended to “zoom in” on the finding from the first chapter that children with high constant conduct problems and hyperactivity/inattention also
tend to have increasing peer problems over the course of childhood. Loneliness is a key
feature of peer problems which also, in the long-term, leads to a variety of negative
psychosocial outcomes. The systematic review is therefore intended to clarify the relationship
between conduct problems and loneliness in particular. The studies included in the review
reported mixed evidence on this relationship, including positive, negative, and nonsignificant correlations. Several papers reported that conduct problems were associated with
increased loneliness.
As discussed throughout the thesis, the results have implications for early clinical
psychological interventions aiming to deflect children from risky behavioural trajectories.
The results suggest that supportive interventions for new parents may be effective in addition
to child-focused interventions in later childhood. The results also emphasise the need for
social integration among children demonstrating conduct problems and
hyperactivity/inattention | en |
