Poster #147 - Socialization of Self Regulation: Maternal Intrusiveness and Child Compliance

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Effortful control (EC), is one’s ability to self-regulate emotions and their associated behavior by exhibiting attentional and inhibitory control (Putnam & Rothbart, 2006; Sleddens et al., 2012) and is a predictor of children’s success during the transition to primary school and beyond (Montroy et al., 2016; Russell, et al., 2017). Children’s compliance to requests is an early example of EC and develops in the first 5 years of life (Dix et al., 2007), and is indicative of a child’s internalized sense of social rules as well as their view of themselves as a moral and rule-following individual (Kochanska, 2002). Research indicates the quality of parents’ interactions is salient for children’s regulation (Dix et al., 2007; Lincoln, et al., 2017; Russell, et al., 2016), but gaps remain regarding whether the associations seen with parent-child interactions generalize across relationship contexts. The current study investigated associations between children’s EC and parent-child interactions (particularly, maternal control/intrusiveness) in free-play and compliance to a stranger’s requests to clean up.
Methods:
Participants included 48 mother-child dyads (50% daughters); children were 4.5 to 5.5 years old (mean age = 4.9 yrs). See Table 1 for sample characteristics.
Mothers completed survey measures once consent was obtained, then each dyad completed a ~15 minute free-play session, coded for parent and child interaction characteristics. Then, the compliance task occurred: a research assistant asked the child to clean up; children were given up to 3 prompts by the research assistant to help clean-up before abandoning bids for compliance.
Free-play interactions were coded using an adapted version of Pino-Pasternak and colleagues’ (2010) coding scheme, which codes discrete behaviors in each of 5 consecutive, 1-minute intervals.
Children’s compliance was coded based on the Dix et al. (2007) scheme which categorized behavior as willing compliance, resistive compliance, passive noncompliance, simple refusal, or defiant noncompliance, with lower scores indicating higher willingness to comply. Mothers’ involvement/intrusion in the compliance task was coded as a discrete behavior.
Maternal perceptions of child EC were measured using the Effortful Control subscale of the Child Behavior Questionnaire (Putnam & Rothbart, 2006).
Results: Descriptive results are presented as well as ANOVA and group comparisons on all key variables. Pearson correlations confirm all hypotheses. H1: A significant positive correlation exists between maternal involvement/intrusion during the compliance task and child’s compliance during the free play session (r = .383, p < .05). H2: A significant negative correlation exists between children’s compliance in the clean-up task and maternal reports of her child’s EC (r = -.371, p < .05). H3: A significant correlation exists between maternal control during the free-play session and maternal involvement/intrusion during the compliance task (r = .383, p < .05). Discussion of these findings considers the powerful role maternal perceptions of her child play in her own behavior during structured (compliance task) and unstructured (free-play interactions) activities with her child. Implications for children’s internalization of social norms and sense of an ethical self are presented, informed by the literature on maternal socialization of children’s emotions and behavior.

Authors

• Erica Magrath, University of Connecticut
  Presenting Author

• Beth Russell, University of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author