Parental Commands Research Articles

PARENTAL MANIPULATION OF CHILD BEHAVIOR IN HOME OBSERVATIONS1

The object of this study was to investigate the extent to which parents can manipulate their children's behavior in home observations. Twelve families with four- to six-year old children were recruited for the research. The parents were instructed to make their child look "bad" or "deviant" on three days of a six-day observation and to look "good" or "nondeviant" on alternate days. Results indicated that, as predicted, the rate of child deviant behavior, parental negative responding, and parental commands were all significantly higher on bad than good days. Parental responses to questionnaires provided more detailed information on how parents felt that they influenced their children in the desired directions. These results were discussed in terms of their implications for child psychopathology and the methodology of data collection in the natural environment.

BOOK OF ACCIDENTS

Children still tumble down stairs just as did the little girl of 1830 in the illustration below.1 But have contemporary children learned the lesson contained in the last line of this illustration? In 1830 parents taught their children that God demanded of them absolute obedience to parental commands. This was a period of no "ifs" or "buts."2