Dyadic Activities Research Articles

The Nature and Family Correlates of Preadolescents' Perceptions of their Sibling Relationships

Preadolescents' perceptions of their sibling relationships and links between sibling and parent-child relationships were examined in 103 families. In home interviews, mothers, fathers and both first- and second-born children rated their family relationships, and, in a series of seven daily telephone interviews, first-borns reported on how much time they spent in dyadic activities with each parent. Both first-borns' and second-borns' behavior toward their siblings was characterized by three dimensions: affection, rivalry and hostility. No mean differences emerged between first- and second-borns' ratings of their own behavior in their sibling relationships. Siblings' ratings of affection were positively correlated, but their ratings of rivalry and hostility were unrelated. Children whose relationships with fathers were characterized by high levels of warmth reported exhibiting less hostility and rivalry and more affection toward their siblings. Maternal warmth was negatively related to sibling rivalry and hostility. Children who spent more time in dyadic activities with their fathers and perceived more warmth in the father-child relationship had the most positive and least negative sibling relationships.

School-Age Children's Time Alone with Fathers in Single- and Dual-Earner Families

This study examined (a) the extent to which father-child dyadic involvement varies as a function of parental earner status, father s work-related availability, and child's gender and (b) the connectionts between father-child involvement and children's assessments of their fathers and their feelings of closeness to their fathers. Total involvement and involvement in "quality time" were assessed via seven daily telephone interviews with 147 children, age 9 to 11 years. Children reported on the extent to which they had engaged in each of 32 activities during the day of each call and with whom they had engaged in each activity. In separate home interviews, fathers reported their work schedules, and children completed two measures assessing their relationship with their fathers. Results indicated that fathers in single-earner families spent significantly more time in dyadic activities with sons than with daughters; dual-earner fathers spent equal amounts of time with sons and daughters. Controlling for family size, girls with greater dyadic involvement felt closer to their fathers than did girls with less dyadic involvement; boys' feelings of closeness were not linked to levels of one-to-one involvement with their fathers.

Changes in Marriage Associated with the Transition to Parenthood: Individual Differences as a Function of Sex-Role Attitudes and Changes in the Division of Household Labor

first 2 1/2 years of marriage. In addition, the degree of congruity between spouses' sex-role attitudes and the division of labor was used to explain differences between couples' reports of love and marital conflict. The sample included 98 couples, 29 who became parents during the first year of marriage and 23 during the second year. All groups of husbands and wives experienced declines in their feelings of love, marital satisfaction, and the frequency of dyadic activities and po itive interactions. Parents' activities became more instrumental and child-oriented, and the division of tasks became more traditional, but otherwise parents were not different from nonparents. Parents (but not nonparents) with more traditional sex-role attitudes and less traditional

An approach to dyadic communication in historical social movements: Dyadic communication in Maoist insurgent mobilization

The paucity of word‐by‐word transcriptions of movements' dyadic interactions need not completely preclude investigation of historical movements’ dyadic communication. Scholars can study the constraints that urged a movement to select dyadic communication and the general strategies used in movement dyads. Three kinds of data can be used to reconstruct general strategies used in dyads: (1) the theoretical writings of movement leaders that describe particular rhetorical strategies for use in dyads, (2) messages from movement leaders to members directing the adoption of those strategies, and (3) eyewitness accounts of a movement's dyadic activities. The use of this approach to examine the selection and strategies of dyadic communication in Maoist insurgent mobilization demonstrates that the approach can generate worthwhile results.

Watch Your Partner’s Behaviors: Motivation Contagion in L2 Pair Work

Amid the increasing popularity of task-based language teaching, task motivation is considered one of the keys to success, but motivational influence among learners has not been sufficiently addressed in the literature. The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of motivation contagion in language learning pair work. Specifically, it tests the hypothesis that motivation contagion in pairs occurs either by observing the motivational orientation of the partner (i.e., priming), or as a result of the perceived expectations of the learning task (i.e., expectancy formation). A total of 140 Japanese university students worked in pairs on a picture description task. The analysis of the post-task questionnaires indicated that motivation contagion occurred both by priming and expectancy formation, but the impact of the latter was more significant. It was also found that highly motivated learners were strongly affected by expectancies about the quality of task involvement and interpersonal relations, while less motivated learners were influenced more by their partners’ motivation levels. Through the learners’ retrospective accounts, we also found that mutually supportive attitudes and behaviors play an essential role in boosting motivation contagion. The findings provide pedagogical implications for designing dyadic activities that can help learners motivate each other.