The Effects of Negative Emotionality and Mother’s Social Parenting during Infancy on Peer Interaction at Age 3：A Longitudinal Study Using Latent Growth Modeling

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the trajectories of children's negative emotionality and mother's social parenting over a 3-year period (for children at ages 1-3) and to then analyze the bidirectional effects between the two variables. The longitudinal casual relationship among children's negative emotionality, mother's social parenting and peer interaction at age 3 was also examined. The data, taken from the Panel Study on Korean Children, were analyzed using latent growth modeling. The results were as follows. First, the level of negative emotionality was seen to have increased by 2 years of age, whereas the level of mother's social parenting decreased by this point. Second, higher initial negative emotionality predicted decreases in mother's social parenting, However, higher initial mother's social parenting predicted increases in children's negative emotionality. The initial level and slope of mothers' positive parenting predicted peer interaction at age 3, while only the slope of negative emotionality predicted peer interaction. These findings suggest that temperament and parenting predict changes in each other and peer interaction.