Poster #158 - Stability, Change, and Child Sex Differences in Mother-Toddler Interaction Across Contexts Differing in Stress

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

The quality of the relationship between parents and their young children is widely considered to be foundational for later child outcomes. However, gaps remain in the literature, such as understanding the nature of dyadic interaction in low-income populations, whether the quality of dyadic interaction remains stable or is altered when contexts increase in level of challenge, and how child sex may alter dyadic interaction quality across contexts.
The current study investigated whether dyadic interaction quality (reciprocity, conflict, cooperation) observed in multiple contexts varying in level of challenge showed significant rank-order stability or was altered by the context in which it was observed, and whether child sex moderated these findings. Participants were 107 mother-toddler dyads from low-income urban backgrounds from a larger study. At the 3-year visit, dyads were videotaped during a sequence of interaction tasks varying in level of challenge (free play, clean-up, and teaching tasks).
For analytic purposes, five interactive episodes were evaluated: first half free play, second half free play, clean-up, color-sorting teaching task, and shape-sorting teaching task. Videotapes of mother-child interaction in each episode were coded for level of reciprocity, conflict, and cooperation in each episode using 7-point Likert scales (M ICC = .80, .86., and .84, respectively). Rank-order stability and change in dyadic interaction across episodes were evaluated using correlations and child sex X episode ANCOVAs, controlling for maternal education and income.
Each dyadic variable was significantly correlated across episodes. ANCOVA results indicated that reciprocity scores were highest and did not change across both free play episodes but declined significantly during clean-up, and remained low during both teaching tasks. In contrast, dyadic conflict increased across all episodes as level of challenge increased, especially from the second free play episode to the clean-up task. Cooperation scores were highest and did not change across free play episodes, but decreased sharply during clean-up and continued to decrease across teaching tasks. Moderation by child sex was observed for all three dyadic variables, no matter the episode: Dyads with female children were more reciprocal, less conflictual, and more cooperative than dyads with male children (Figures 1 and 2).
Findings in this mostly low-income cohort indicate substantial rank-order stability in dyadic interaction quality across interactive contexts varying in level of challenge, and suggest that interacting in stressful contexts can undermine reciprocity, increase conflict, and decrease cooperation. Findings regarding sex differences in dyadic interaction quality support prior findings focused on child behavior, which show that girls are more likely to display positive emotions than boys, whereas boys are more likely to show externalizing emotions. These sex differences would likely contribute to a dyad’s capacity for establishing and maintaining reciprocity, conflict, and cooperation during social interaction. The current results also suggest that young male children may be at special risk for poorer interactions with their parents, even in low-stress contexts, with implications for parent and practitioner education programs. Future work should examine caregiver strategies that support and enhance dyadic reciprocity and cooperation with young male and female children in multiple interactive contexts.

Authors

• Jordan L. Boeve, Wayne State University
  Presenting Author

• Marjorie Beeghly, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Janessa H. Manning, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jamie Piercy, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sydney Townsel, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Moriah E. Thomason, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author