Bidirectional longitudinal associations between parental self‐efficacy and child rule‐breaking behaviours: A random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel study

Parental self‐efficacy (PSE) is a pivotal determinant of change in children's adjustment. However, not only has previous research shown that PSE plays a protective role for children's rule‐breaking (RB) behaviours (i.e., parent‐driven process), but RB also can reduce parents' PSE over‐time (i.e., child‐driven process). This study examined the bidirectional longitudinal associations between PSE and RB behaviours by disentangling maternal from paternal influences and between‐ from within‐person effects. In the present seven‐wave longitudinal study involving 200 Italian children (T1: M age = 9.80, SD = 0.65; 50.5% girls), their mothers ( N = 200) and fathers ( N = 190), two random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel models (one for mothers and one for fathers) were used to explore whether: (a) stable parts of PSE and RB were related to each other, (b) higher levels of PSE were associated with lower levels of RB at a given time point, and (c) higher levels of PSE at a given time point were associated with future lower levels of RB. Results provided evidence both for a parent‐ and a child‐driven process between mothers' PSE and children's RB behaviours. However, these results were not replicated for fathers. Implications are discussed.