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The Dialectics of Parenting: Changes in the Interplay of Maternal Behaviors during Early and Middle Childhood

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Abstract

Parent and child relationships continuously evolve, part of an ongoing dialectic that derives from developmental changes in both parent and child. The focus of this study is on changes in the strength of association among four types of parenting behaviors considered important for children’s development: supportive presence, respect for autonomy, stimulation, and hostility. Mother–child interaction was observed for 1229 parent–child dyads at 36 months, 54 months, 1st grade, 3rd grade, and 5th grade using similar observational paradigms. The association between respect for autonomy and supportive presence was strong at age three and continued to be strong over time. The association between respect for autonomy and stimulation was modest but also showed little change from age three to 5th grade. Respect for autonomy was negatively associated with maternal hostility, but the relation was complex. It was stronger at 54 months than 36 months but then became weaker through time. Supportive presence showed a moderate relation with stimulation at age 3 but the association became weaker over time. Supportive presence showed an expected negative association with hostility, a relation that changed little over time. The relation between hostility and stimulation also became weaker over time. In effect, there appears to be a shifting pattern of relations between maternal behaviors during early and middle childhood, one that reflects an evolving dialectic in the mother–child relationship.

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Author Contributions

R.B.: One of the investigators for the original NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Was PI for one of the ten data collections sites, so trained and supervised data collection staff. Conceptualized current study and helped supervise data analysis for study. Prepared original text for manuscript and helped in rewriting text based on input from others. A.P.: Conducted data analysis under supervision of Bradley and Iida and prepared original text for Methods and Results sections. Reviewed and offered recommendations for revision of manuscript. M.I.: Designed data analysis and supervised Pennar in execution of analyses. Read and made recommendations for revision of all manucscript sections. M.O.: One of the investigators for the original NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Helped design the mother–child interaction data collection paradigm and supervised the lab that scored videotapes of all MCI data for the parent study. Reviewed and offered recommendations for revision of all sections of manuscript. D.V.: An investigator for the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Was PI for one of the data collection sites, so helped train and supervise data collectors at the site. Helped design the mother–child interaction tasks. Read and offered recommendations for revision of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Robert H. Bradley & Masumi Iida

  2. Merrill-Palmer Institute, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Amy Pennar

  3. The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

    Margaret Tresch Owen

  4. University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Deborah Lowe Vandell

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  1. Robert H. Bradley
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  2. Masumi Iida
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  4. Margaret Tresch Owen
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  5. Deborah Lowe Vandell
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Correspondence to Robert H. Bradley.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was conducted as part of a collaborative agreement between the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and ten collaborating institutions of higher learning. Data collection protocols were reviewed and approved by a steering committee approved by NIH and reviewed by institutional review boards at the 10 collaborating institutions.

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Informed consent was obtained by all individual participants included in this study.

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Bradley, R.H., Iida, M., Pennar, A. et al. The Dialectics of Parenting: Changes in the Interplay of Maternal Behaviors during Early and Middle Childhood. J Child Fam Stud 26, 3214–3225 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0805-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0805-6

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