Understanding trajectories of externalizing problems: Stability and emergence of risk factors from infancy to middle adolescence

Abstract

Despite considerable efforts to understand the processes that underlie the development of externalizing behavior problems, it is still unclear why externalizing problems remain chronically high for some children, emerge early and cease by late childhood for others, and arise in adolescence in some cases. The purpose of this study was to examine how a wide range of child and family risk factors are linked to trajectories of externalizing behavior and how these relationships vary from infancy to middle adolescence. We used data from the community-based Norwegian Tracking Opportunities and Problems (TOPP) study sample (n = 921). A Cholesky factorization model was specified to separate stable an..