Critical period, accumulation and social mobility hypotheses: using a regression framework to explore mothers' partner status in early childhood and externalising behaviours of children at 5½ years

Abstract

A specific aim in lifecourse epidemiology is to assess the explanatory utility of three general hypotheses, namely the critical period hypothesis, the accumulation of risk hypothesis, and the social mobility hypothesis. In the present article, we used data from the Generation 1 cohort study, an ongoing longitudinal study of children and their families established in Adelaide in 1998–2000. We used a structured regression framework to compare the fit of models corresponding to these lifecourse hypotheses in an investigation of the effects of partnering status on child behaviour at 5½ years. The results suggest that comparing a suite of nested models to a saturated model can be useful in attempting to disentangle lifecourse processes.