There were also notable non-predictors of the development of externalizing problems. First, although males had higher ending values than did females, males and females did not differ in their slopes. Second, SES did not predict the ending values or slopes of externalizing problems when controlling for more proximal risk factors (positive parenting, single mother, divorce, child to adult ratio), suggesting that we were able to account for the commonly observed effect of SES with more proximal risk variables. This study thus provides new evidence of the operative mechanisms in the association between family SES and children’s development of adjustment. Third, although African Americans showed greater average increases in externalizing problems over time compared to European Americans, African Americans did not have greater increases when controlling for other risk factors, suggesting that we were able to account for ethnic differences in trajectories with other risk factors.
