Co-occurrence of linguistic and behavioural difficulties in early childhood: a developmental psychopathology perspective.

Three hypotheses have been posited as competing explanations for the comorbidity or co-occurrence of language difficulties and behavioural problems among children: (1) language difficulties confer risk for behaviour problems, (2) behaviour problems confer risk for language difficulties, and (3) shared risk factors account for their co-occurrence. We use a developmental psychopathology perspective to propose a model that integrates these explanations, and incorporates several potential moderating, mediating, and shared risk factors. We propose that temperamental negative emotionality and working memory deficits operate to initiate the pathway that may culminate in comorbid language and behaviour problems.

Parental engagement and barriers to participation in a community-based preventive intervention.

This study examined parent characteristics and barriers to participation in a community-based preventive intervention with a sample of 201 parents from low-income and predominantly ethnic minority backgrounds. Person-centered analyses revealed five subgroups of parents who demonstrated variability in their parent characteristics, which included psychological resources and level of parental involvement in education. Group membership was associated with differences in school involvement and use of the psychoeducational intervention at home, after accounting for the number of barriers to engagement.