Internalizing and Externalizing Problem Behaviors in Adolescence and Young adulthood : Longitudinal Studies on the Role of Co-occurrence and Intimate Bonds with Parents and Partners

Two main issues formed a starting point for the different empirical studies that make up this dissertation: (1) what is the prevalence, course, and comorbidity of problem behavior in adolescence and young adulthood?, and (2) what is the role of intimate relationships with parents and partners in the development of problem behaviors during these life periods? The results presented in this thesis reflect the outcomes of secondary data-analyses, performed on the basis of the USAD and NEMESIS datasets. Both of these longitudinal data sets spanned three waves of data, containing information about adolescents and young adults from the general population growing up in the nineties. With regard to the first issue, the main focus in this dissertation was on the direct assocation or co-occurrence of internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Results from a a sample of 1,302 Dutch respondents aged 12- 24 years demonstrated that the co-occurrence between internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors was rather low, and that these different types of problem behavior did not constitute risk factors in each other s development over time. This finding was replicated in multigroup analyses across different gender and age groups. The second issue focused on the question whether adolescents and young adults bonds with parents and partners are related to the development of problem behaviors. Data from a subsample of 568 adolescents aged 15-19 years showed that low-quality parental bonds and negative life events were cross-sectionally linked to adolescents emotional disturbance which, in turn, was associated with subsequent developments in delinquency. Higher-quality parentchild bonds were also found to function as a buffer against the detrimental effects of a pile-up of negative life events in adolescence. In another study conducted among this subsample of adolescents aged 15-19 years, analyses demonstrated that despite the moderately strong concurrent associations between parental bonding and emotional disturbance, longitudinal results showed that only fathers care was negatively associated with youths depressive moods and dissatisfaction with life. In addition, late adolescents partner relationships were not found to exert a positive influence on mental health development; there were no positive effects for social support of partners, commitment to the partner relationship, or duration of partner relationships. Longitudinal analyses on the role of intimate bonds with parents and partners for the development of psychiatric disorders showed that there was a limited cross-relationship continuity between the affective quality of intimate relationships with parents and partners. After controlling for an earlier lifetime prevalence of disorders, the perceived quality of one s parental bonds in the first 16 years of life still significantly predicted the later prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in this sample of 1,581 young adults aged 18-34 years. Finally, an examintion of the associations between the incidence (i.e., first onset) of psychiatric disorders and relationships transitions in this sample of young adults demonstrated that, apart from the negative effects of a partner relationship break up/divorce, having a relatively unattached partner relationship status (i.e., not stably cohabiting/married, not being a parent) is an important factor in explaining the onset of substance disorders. Moreover, results supported the notion of de-selection into certain partner and parent roles by previous mood disorders, which negatively affect individuals chances of having children and remaining cohabiting/marrie