Longitudinal Transactional Relations Among Young Children’s Defiance, Committed Compliance, and Maternal Assertive Control

• In Event: 2-133 - Child Effects on Parenting from Infancy to Adolescence

Integrative Statement

Although the majority of work on parental socialization presumes that parents’ behavior influences children’s outcomes, researchers have noted the existence of bidirectional and transactional relations between parents and children. In particular, during control or teaching contexts, it is important to examine how children’s behavior impacts parenting strategies (Eisenberg, Vidmar et al., 2010). Further, researchers have shown transactional effects (both parent to child and child to parent) in longitudinal work (Pardini, 2008). The purpose of this investigation was to examine longitudinal transactional relations among control-related parenting strategies and children’s compliance and defiance across three time points from toddlerhood to early childhood.

Participants were 210 children (117 boys, 93 girls) and their mothers when children were approximately 18, 30, and 42 months of age (T1, T2, and T3, respectively). Children’s committed compliance (i.e., internalized compliance) and defiance were coded during the “Don’t Touch” task in which attractive toys were presented to children, but mothers were asked to make sure their children did not touch the toys. Mothers’ assertive control was coded in two control tasks: a) the “Don’t Touch” task, and b) a Clean-Up task in which, after a free-play period, mothers were asked to have the children clean up all of the toys. Assertive control referred to mothers’ non-forceful yet assertive verbal (such as commands and prohibitions) or physical (such as holding the child's hand or moving child decisively) control.

Descriptive data and correlations of all study variables in the model are presented in Table 1. Using path-analysis modeling, we tested cross-lagged paths between both types of children’s behaviors and maternal assertive control, as well as the stability of all constructs and concurrent relations within each time. As can be seen in Figure 1, within time 1 and 2, mothers’ control was positively related to defiance and negatively related to committed compliance. At all times, defiance and committed compliance were negatively associated. Cross-lagged paths indicated that children’s T1 committed compliance negatively predicted T2 maternal assertive control, and T2 maternal assertive control negatively predicted T3 committed compliance, even after controlling for stability of the constructs. Children’s T2 defiance positively predicted T3 maternal assertive control.

Our data indicated that children’s defiance predicted maternal controlling behavior one year later, but the reverse was not true. That is, assertive parenting did not predict children’s later defiance, once stability was controlled. These findings supported a child-effects model for children’s defiance, a behavior that may be viewed as somewhat normative for the “terrible twos,” but may become problematic, particularly at later ages (Baillargeon, Keenan, & Cao, 2012). In addition, we found that committed compliance both predicted and was predicted by mothers’ assertive behavior, such that when children were more compliant, mothers were less assertive. In turn, mothers’ low assertive control predicted higher committed compliance a year later. The discussion focuses on ways that this work can be applied to interventions aimed at improving parents’ control strategies and to increase children’s internalized conscience and adjustment.

Authors

• Xiaoye Xu, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Tracy Spinrad, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nancy Eisenberg, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author