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Mother–Child Synchrony and Child Problem Behavior

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An Erratum to this article was published on 03 July 2014

Abstract

Synchrony refers to parent–child interactions that are mutually regulated, reciprocal, and harmonious. Synchrony is associated with a variety of positive developmental outcomes but a small literature indicates that children with less synchronous relationships tend to display emotional and behavioral problems. Despite this association, no study to date has observed synchrony among clinical child populations and little is known about the mechanisms underlying the synchrony–child behavior relation. Since strained parent–child relations are often associated with parenting stress and parenting stress increases the risk of child maladjustment we propose that parenting stress mediates the relation between synchrony and child behavior problems. We tested this hypothesis and examined the clinical relevance of synchrony by observing naturalistic play in 19 clinic-referred and 23 non-clinic referred mother–child dyads. Children ranged in age from 6 to 10 years. We found lower synchrony in clinic-referred dyads compared to non-clinic referred dyads and that parenting stress mediated the association between synchrony and child problem behavior. The findings from the current study have implications for the development of emotional and behavioral problems in children as well as for assessment and treatment for child clinic populations.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (410-98-1291) to N.J. Cohen. This paper is based on M. Anam’s master’s thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology at Trent University, Toronto, Ontario. We thank M. Brown for her assistance with data collection and K. Owens-Jaffray for her assistance with coding. We also are grateful to the mothers and children who participated in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Life and Health Sciences Building, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8, Canada

    Nancie Im-Bolter & Muniq Anam

  2. Hincks-Dellcrest Centre/Institute, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Nancy J. Cohen

  3. Applied Psychology and Human Development, OISE/University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Nancy J. Cohen

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  1. Nancie Im-Bolter
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Correspondence to Nancie Im-Bolter.

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Im-Bolter, N., Anam, M. & Cohen, N.J. Mother–Child Synchrony and Child Problem Behavior. J Child Fam Stud 24, 1876–1885 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-014-9989-1

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