Seeds of discord: Unravelling family conflict, parenting, and child externalizing behaviours

Abstract

Externalizing behaviours—aggression, defiance, and hyperactivity—are often reported in childhood and predict poorer academic, social, and mental health outcomes. Family influences such as interparental conflict and angry parenting shape these behaviours, yet maternal and paternal contrasts remain underexplored. This study used parent-reported data from Waves 1–8 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (N ≈ 10,000; ages 4–17) to test whether: (1) interparental conflict predicted child externalizing behaviours, (2) angry parenting predicted child externalizing behaviours, and (3) interparental conflict predicted angry parenting. Subscales of conduct, hyperactivity, and prosocial abilities were also examined. Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models were estimated separately for mothers and fathers, enabling direct comparison of maternal and paternal pathways. Interparental conflict demonstrated little predictive value, suggesting it functions more as a stable background risk than a dynamic driver of change in child behaviours. In contrast, angry parenting and externalizing behaviours were reciprocally linked. Maternal effects emerged earlier and more strongly than paternal effects. Disaggregating parental roles offers new insights for intervention.