Journal article
Difficult temperament moderates links between maternal responsiveness and children's compliance and behavior problems in low-income families
Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, Vol.54(3), pp.323-332
Accepted for publication: 30 August 2012Published online: 11 October 2012
03/2013
DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12002
PMCID: PMC3546151
PMID: 23057713
Abstract
Background: Research has shown that interactions between young children's temperament and the quality of care they receive predict the emergence of positive and negative socioemotional developmental outcomes. This multimethod study addresses such interactions, using observed and mother-rated measures of difficult temperament, children's committed, self-regulated compliance and externalizing problems, and mothers' responsiveness in a low-income sample.
Methods: In 186 thirty-month-old children, difficult temperament was observed in the laboratory (as poor effortful control and high anger proneness), and rated by mothers. Mothers' responsiveness was observed in lengthy naturalistic interactions at 30 and 33 months. At 40 months, children's committed compliance and externalizing behavior problems were assessed using observations and several well-established maternal report instruments.
Results: Parallel significant interactions between child difficult temperament and maternal responsiveness were found across both observed and mother-rated measures of temperament. For difficult children, responsiveness had a significant effect such that those children were more compliant and had fewer externalizing problems when they received responsive care, but were less compliant and had more behavior problems when they received unresponsive care. For children with easy temperaments, maternal responsiveness and developmental outcomes were unrelated. All significant interactions reflected the diathesis-stress model. There was no evidence of differential susceptibility, perhaps due to the pervasive stress present in the ecology of the studied families.
Conclusions: Those findings add to the growing body of evidence that for temperamentally difficult children, unresponsive parenting exacerbates risks for behavior problems, but responsive parenting can effectively buffer risks conferred by temperament.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Difficult temperament moderates links between maternal responsiveness and children's compliance and behavior problems in low-income families
- Creators
- Grazyna Kochanska - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USASanghag Kim - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, Vol.54(3), pp.323-332
- Edition
- Accepted for publication: 30 August 2012Published online: 11 October 2012
- Publisher
- Blackwell Publishing Ltd
- DOI
- 10.1111/jcpp.12002
- PMID
- 23057713
- PMCID
- PMC3546151
- ISSN
- 0021-9630
- eISSN
- 1469-7610
- Number of pages
- 10
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/2013
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984213408502771
Metrics
9 Record Views