The Emergence of Parent-Child Coercive Processes in Toddlerhood.

Abstract

Parent-child coercion typically emerges in toddlerhood with the child's first acts of willful defiance and the parent's first disciplinary attempts. We explored how parents and children may contribute to this process by examining bidirectional and interactive effects between child and maternal negative behavior in 310 low-income, ethnically diverse boys. Using multiple informants and methods, child negative emotionality and maternal negative control were assessed at 18months and child disruptive behavior and maternal negative control were measured at 24months. Indicative of parent effects, maternal negative control at 18months amplified the relation between children's negative emotionality at 18months and disruptive behavior at 24months. Child effects were found in an unexpected direction such that children's negative emotionality at 18months predicted decreases in mothers' negative control at 24months. Findings are discussed within a transactional framework that emphasizes mutual influence of children and parents over the course of development.