We considered the possibility that parenting effectiveness should directly affect child behavior and might explain the associations between current parent characteristics and BD/CP. Thus, we added the parenting effectiveness variable as a downstream mediator between each of the current parent characteristics and BD/CP while retaining density as the upstream exogenous predictor (density→current parent characteristics→parenting effectiveness→BD and CP). The model fit the data well: χ2 (98)=183.86, p=.00, CFI=.97, RMSEA=.04. However, there were few associations between parenting and upstream (with mother alcohol use, β= −.13, p<.05) or downstream (with BD, β= −.11, p<.05) variables. No statistically significant mediation occurred to explain any of the associations between the parent characteristics and child behavior. A deconstruction of the parenting variable back to its summed form (prior to dichotomizing, in which the score ranged from 0 to 3) increased its associations with child behavior (with BD, β= −.18, p<.01; with CP, β= −.14, p<.05) but did not lead to statistically significant mediation of parent characteristic effects. Thus, parenting effectiveness appeared to operate more successfully as a moderator than as a mediator of the associations between density of alcohol problems and child behavior.
