Conduct Problems in Boys: Relations to Maternal Personality, Marital Satisfaction, and Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

We obtained data on families of 66 clinic-referred 6- to 13-year-old boys and propose two models postulating different patterns of interrelations among several aspects of dysfunctional family environment (socioeconomic status, maternal antisocial personality, and marital satisfaction) and child conduct problems. As in previous studies, we found a significant correlation between marital satisfaction and child conduct problems. An objective indicator of maternal antisocial personality derived pore the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was significantly correlated with marital satisfaction, but socioeconomic status was not. A decomposition of the correlation between marital satisfaction and child conduct problems revealed a nonsignificant direct effect, suggesting that the correlation between thee variables reflects their common association with the "third variable" of maternal antisocial personality.