A protective process model of parent-child affective quality and child mastery effects on oppositional behaviors: A test and replication

This article examines a model of the effects of parent-child affective qual ity and young adolescent sense of mastery on young adolescent oppositional behaviors. In addition to a direct effect of sense of mastery on opposition al behaviors, the model includes direct and indirect effects of parent-chil d affective quality on those behaviors, as well as across-time effects of o ppositional behaviors on affective quality. Because the data were obtained from family competency-building intervention studies, the model controls fo r family attendance in the intervention. Results from covariance structure modeling, using data from a sample of families participating in an initial intervention study (n = 171), generally supported the hypothesized model. T he model was then tested with an independent sample of 361 families. Result s from the second sample were consistent with results From the initial mode l test. (C) 1999 Society for the Study of School Psychology Published by El sevier Science Ltd.