Developmental pathways of externalizing behavior from preschool age to adolescence: An application of general growth mixture modeling

This study applies a developmental and life-course perspective on the data of the Erlangen-Nuremberg Development and Prevention Study (ENDPS; Lösel, Stemmler, Jaursch, and Beelmann, Monatsschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform 92:289–308, 2009) to find interindividual differences in intraindividual change of externalizing problem behavior. Based on a sample of N D541 boys and girls, general growth mixture modeling (GGMM; Nagin, Psychological Methods 4:139–177, 1999; McArdle, The handbook of research methods in developmental psychology. New York: Blackwell Publishers, 2005) was applied. In a prospective longitudinal design measurements with multiple informants were analyzed from preschool to adolescence. The results of the GGMM showed five groups representing different developmental trajectories: (1) “high-chronics” (2.4 %; n = 13), who had the highest scores of externalizing behavior at all times; (2) “low-chronics” (58.8 %; n = 317) who were low on externalizing behavior throughout the years; (3) “high-reducers” (7.9 %; n = 43) who started out high, but reduced their externalizing behavior monotonically over time; (4) “late-startersmedium” who increased externalizing problems at later age (8.7 %; n = 47); and (5) “medium-reducers” whose problems decreased from an originally medium level (22.4 %; n = 121). The results are in accordance with international studies on developmental trajectories of offending and suggest that a perspective on a broad range of behavioral problems can be fruitful. The findings are discussed with regard to other studies on latent group-based modeling, non-statistical taxonomies, and practical applications.