The present study used data from the Raising Healthy Children(RHC), a developmental longitudinal study of problem behaviors among 1,040 urban elementary school-age children in the Northwest region. Multiple Group Structural Equation Modeling(MGSEM) wa...
The present study used data from the Raising Healthy Children(RHC), a developmental longitudinal study of problem behaviors among 1,040 urban elementary school-age children in the Northwest region. Multiple Group Structural Equation Modeling(MGSEM) was used to examine general and specific relationships between parent bonding, school bonding, belief in conventional values and problem behaviors based on the Social Development Model. Results confirmed the prediction of parent bonding, school bonding and belief on problem behaviors at 5th and 6th grade including specific effects. MGSEM was used to investigate the differences in problem modeling and parents and non-problem modeling parents and gender. Findings reveal that problem modeling parent group had a stronger relationship from school bonding to belief than the other group. In each group, problem modeling parents group had a stronger path from school bonding to belief than parent bonding while the non problem modeling parents had similar paths of school bonding and parent bonding. Implications of these findings for preventive interventions in elementary school age children are discussed.