Parent-child conflict and cooperation: Considering the interplay of parental behavioral motivation and child temperament

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

Individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation in childhood are known as temperament, and include dimensions of surgency/extraversion (high activity level, pleasure seeking, and impulsivity), negative affectivity (sadness, frustration, and difficulty soothing), and effortful control (inhibitory control and attentional focusing; Rothbart & Putnam, 2002). These temperament dimensions affect how children respond to their social environments. Children must regularly navigate challenging social situations, and studying goodness-of-fit (Chess & Thomas, 1999) between temperament and environment can inform our understanding of dyadic parent-child interactions. Past research has considered parent characteristics like neuroticism and parenting style, while less is known about parent behavioral inhibition/approach systems (BIS/BAS; Carver & White, 1994). BIS is characterized by inhibition and the motivation to avoid novelty, threat, and non-reward. BAS is characterized by the motivation to approach reward and is related to positive affect and novelty seeking. BIS/BIS sensitivities may illuminate the motivation underlying parent behaviors that comprise children’s social environments. As both BIS/BAS sensitivity and temperament often inform the quality of social interactions, the current study aims to examine the individual and joint effect of parents’ and children’s characteristics on dyadic conflict and cooperation during an emotional challenge.

Methods: 184 parent-child dyads (93 girls) from an ethnically diverse Southern California region participated in the study. Children ranged from three to eleven years (M = 7 .66, SD = 2.30). Parents self-reported their BIS/BAS sensitivities (BIS/BAS Scales; Carver & White, 1994) and children’s temperament (Children’s Behavior Questionnaire; Putnam & Rothbart, 2006). Parent-child conflict and cooperation will be coded from an interactive frustration task, in which the child was instructed to build a complex Lego tower, first without parental assistance (Phase 1), and then with no constraints on parent participation (Phase 2). Conflict and cooperation will be globally coded in both phases (1 = low; 5 = high), based on child and parent conflict/cooperation-related behaviors. Phase 1 may be additionally categorized as cooperative rule-abiding, cooperative rule-breaking, uncooperative parent-driven, or uncooperative child-driven.

Hypotheses and Planned Analyses: Primary analyses will use linear regression to test main and interactive effects. We hypothesize that a) higher temperamental negative affect and (b) lower effortful control will both relate to higher dyadic conflict/lower cooperation. We expect parents with high BIS sensitivity to be motivated to complete the task to avoid the negative feelings associated with losing, whereas parents high in BAS should be motivated by the positive feelings associated with winning. As such, we hypothesize that high BIS or BAS sensitivities may be linked to parental disregard for the instructions not to assist their child during Phase 1 and would thus exacerbate dyadic conflict and impair cooperation. Exploratory analyses will consider surgency/extraversion, combinations of BIS/BAS sensitivities, and age differences.

It is feasible to complete the proposed work in a timely fashion. Data collection is complete, and coding and analyses will conclude by December. Results from this study will further elucidate the importance of goodness-of-fit throughout development and provide a basis for studying parental motivation sensitivities in relation to other aspects of socioemotional developmental.

Authors

• Madeline J Newman, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth L Davis, University of California - Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author