Poster #48 - Maternal Sensitivity as a Moderator of the Relation of Parent-Child Dyadic Interaction to Teacher Report of Peer Aggression

• In Event: Poster Session 04

Abstract

Across early childhood, children begin to form relationships with individuals beyond their family. During the school-age period, peers become increasingly important. When children exhibit more aggression in social settings such as school, their peer relationships may be jeopardized. Maternal sensitivity is integral in creating the foundation of an internal working model from which children base their peer relationships on. Parent-child dyadic interaction can be conceptualized as an exchange between two parties that is uniquely meaningful beyond the sum of its parts (Deater-Deckard, Pylas, & Petrill, 1997; Aksan, Kochanska, & Ortmann, 2006); dyadic interaction is conceptualized to be different than maternal sensitivity due to the mutual influence of both mother and child. When mothers and children can engage in a positive, respectful, and mutual manner during goal-oriented, more challenging tasks, further reinforcement for the child about what it means to have positive, successful relationships with others may be provided. Considering the ways in which maternal sensitivity and optimal dyadic interaction contribute to optimal attachment, which is foundational for future relationships, we hypothesized that maternal sensitivity and parent-child dyadic interaction would interact to predict peer aggression. Specifically, we predicted that dyadic structured interaction would moderate the relation of maternal sensitivity during unstructured interaction to teacher report of peer aggression.

Mothers and their 8-9-year-old children (n=95) were observed in a 6 minute unstructured free-play coded for maternal sensitivity and a 4-minute structured teaching task coded for dyadic reciprocity, conflict, and cooperation. The average age of the mothers was 39.53 years (SD=4.57 years), with most identifying as white (96.40%) and holding a 4-year degree or more (76.40%). Children’s teachers (n=85) completed out the Children’s Social Behavior Scale Teacher report, which is a measure of a child’s behaviors when interacting with peers (Crick, 1996). The physical aggression subscale was used.

More dyadic conflict was related to more physical aggression reported by teachers (see Table 1). Moderation analyses examined the interaction of maternal sensitivity and each of the dyadic interaction variables (interaction terms were entered stepwise to conserve power, thus only significant interaction terms were included in the final regression model). Dyadic reciprocity significantly moderated the relation of maternal sensitivity to physical aggression. Higher levels of maternal sensitivity predicted less reported physical aggression for dyads with high reciprocity but not for dyads with low or moderate reciprocity (Figure 1).

These findings highlight the importance of dyadic interaction in understanding child physical aggression with peers, as reported by teachers. Dyadic conflict was directly related to ratings of physical aggression. Furthermore, how maternal sensitivity related to peer aggression depended on the level of dyadic reciprocity. Our findings support that dyadic interaction is not the same as maternal sensitivity. The context of the task might also be important to consider. Dyadic interaction was measured during a challenging task, which explain why it was related to physical aggression in peers. It is also important to note that these findings were in white, highly educated sample; thus, future research needs to consider how these constructs are related in more diverse samples.

Authors

• Meredith Grace Atanasio, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  Presenting Author

• Cynthia L. Smith, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University