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Early Relational Experience: A Foundation for the Unfolding Dynamics of Parent–Child Socialization
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Early Relational Experience: A Foundation for the Unfolding Dynamics of Parent–Child Socialization

Grazyna Kochanska, Lea J Boldt and Kathryn C Goffin
Child development perspectives, Vol.13(1), pp.41-47
03/2019
DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12308
PMCID: PMC6533001
PMID: 31131018
url
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12308View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Psychologists have long tried to understand why trajectories of socialization in individual parent–child dyads can be distinct, leading to adaptive or maladaptive developmental outcomes. In this article, we elucidate origins of those differences by examining the subtle yet enduring implications of early parent–child relationships in longitudinal studies of low‐ and high‐risk families, using correlational and experimental designs, and multiple measures. Those relationships are key for socialization because they can alter cascades from children's biologically based difficult temperament to parents' negative control to negative children's outcomes, as demonstrated by social‐learning theories. We suggest that those cascades unfold only in parent–child dyads whose early relationships lack positive mutuality and security. Such relationships set the tone for adversarial cascades. In contrast, early mutually positive, secure relationships initiate cooperative, effective socialization and defuse risks of negative cascades. Parents' and children's internal representations of each other may explain how such divergent sequelae unfold.
 parent–child relationships internal working models attachment socialization temperament longitudinal studies

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