The contribution of parental discipline, parental monitoring, and school risk to early-onset conduct problems in African American boys and girls

The association of parental discipline and monitoring with the early conduc t problems of 123 boys and girls was assessed in a highly disadvantaged, Af rican American sample. Prospective analyses indicated that, after earlier c onduct problems were controlled for, coercive parent discipline and poor pa rental monitoring at age 4 1/2 were independent, reliable predictors of age 6 conduct problems for both boys and girls. The association of parental mo nitoring with later child conduct problems was mediated, in part, by parent s' choice of higher risk schools for their children's kindergarten educatio n. The association of family income with child conduct problems was mediate d by parental discipline and monitoring. These models are consistent with p revious research on older, European American, more advantaged, male samples , which supports the generality of the association of family processes with child conduct problems across child gender, age, and ethnicity.