2-114 - Too Much of a Good Thing? Dynamic Microsocial Analyses of Parent Engagement Predicting Child Self-Regulation

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Studies of the proximal influence of parent behavior on child self-regulation have long incorporated observational data to directly assess the ways in which parents support or hinder their children’s self-regulatory efforts. Recent methodological innovations allow for nuanced microsocial perspectives on these relations. The papers in this symposium incorporate the dynamic coding of dyadic interactions using State Space Grids, analyzing the interdependence of parent and child behavior as it unfolds in real time. Using this methodology, this symposium collectively emphasizes that parent responses to child behavior are optimally supportive only when responsive to the child’s immediate needs. The first paper addresses behavioral coregulation in mother-preschooler dyads. Dyadic affective flexibility and contingent responses are identified as co-regulation styles most strongly associated with child self-regulation. The authors report cross-domain longitudinal relations of affective co-regulation with child behavioral self-regulation, and behavioral co-regulation with child socioemotional self-regulation. In the second paper, dynamic analyses of parent interactions with their 4-6 year old children revealed a pattern of parental over-engagement, when parents exert positive control behaviors while children are already on task. Over-engagement was associated with poorer child self-regulation via observed and direct assessment. The final paper reports on parent responses to children (ages 8-10) engaged in a stressful task. Parent suggestions that duplicated children’s ongoing coping efforts were not helpful, and were associated with increases in symptoms of psychopathology over six months. The discussant will integrate the findings and further motivate discussion of the dynamic measurement of parent behaviors that can optimally support child self-regulation.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chair

• Anne Shaffer, University of Georgia

Discussant

• Erika Lunkenheimer, Pennsylvania State University

Individual Presentations

• Understanding the Parent-Child Coregulation Patterns Shaping Child Self-Regulation - Presenting Author: Frances Lobo, The Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Catherine Hamby, The Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Erika Lunkenheimer, Pennsylvania State University

• Learning to Let Go: Over-engaged Parenting Predicts Poorer Child Self-regulation - Presenting Author: Jelena Obradovic, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Michael Sulik, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Anne Shaffer, University of Georgia

• Microsocial Investigation of Parent-Child Coping Interactions as a Predictor of Child Adjustment - Presenting Author: Sarah Stanger, University of Vermont; Non-Presenting Author: Jamie Abaied, University of Vermont; Non-Presenting Author: Meghan Morrison, University of Vermont