In clinically referred children, boys and those with disorganized mother–child attachments tend to show the most maladaptive externalizing trajectories; however, additional research is necessary to test whether these findings hold in a community sample. Therefore, 235 community children (106 boys) were followed from ages 6 to 15 years across six time points. Multiple-group linear growth curves with mother–child attachment as a time-invariant covariate were fit to the data to explore externalizing trajectories for boys and girls. Results showed that boys had higher initial externalizing levels than girls, and children generally experienced a decline in symptoms over time. No significant trajectory differences were found for girls, and boys with different attachment classifications did not differ on their initial externalizing levels; however, boys with avoidant attachments (with resistant attachments trending) experienced a steeper decline in externalizing symptoms longitudinally. Implications for intervention and prevention are discussed.

在临床转诊的儿童中，男孩和那些母亲与母亲依恋杂乱无章的人往往表现出最不适应的外在轨迹。但是，还需要进行其他研究来测试这些发现是否在社区样本中成立。因此，在6个时间点对6至15岁的235名社区儿童（106名男孩）进行了追踪。母婴依恋作为时间不变协变量的多组线性增长曲线适合于该数据，以探索男孩和女孩的外在轨迹。结果表明，男孩的初始外在性水平高于女孩，而儿童通常会随着时间的流逝而出现症状减轻。没有发现女孩的明显运动轨迹差异，具有不同依恋类别的男孩在其初始外在化水平上没有差异。然而，有回避性依恋的男孩（有抵抗性依恋的趋势）在纵向上使外在症状急剧下降。讨论了对干预和预防的意义。