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The Emergence of Parent–Child Coercive Processes in Toddlerhood

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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 18 months and child disruptive behavior and maternal negative control were measured at 24 months. Indicative of parent effects, maternal negative control at 18 months amplified the relation between children’s negative emotionality at 18 months and disruptive behavior at 24 months. Child effects were found in an unexpected direction such that children’s negative emotionality at 18 months predicted decreases in mothers’ negative control at 24 months. Findings are discussed within a transactional framework that emphasizes mutual influence of children and parents over the course of development.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants to the second author from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 50907 and MH 01666). We are grateful to the staff and study families of the Pitt Mother and Child Project for making this research possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University, Humanities and Social Sciences Campus, 25-2 Sungkyunkwan-Ro, Jongno-Gu, Seoul, South Korea

    Hyein Chang

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Daniel S. Shaw

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  1. Hyein Chang
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  2. Daniel S. Shaw
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Correspondence to Hyein Chang.

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Chang, H., Shaw, D.S. The Emergence of Parent–Child Coercive Processes in Toddlerhood. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 47, 226–235 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-015-0559-6

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