The association of promised consequences with child compliance to maternal directives.
Noncompliance is a primary reason parents seek services for their young children. Research on socialization suggests that warning children about consequences is associated with greater compliance. In the current study, we test whether promised consequences (i.e., promises of parental responses to subsequent child behavior), compared with directives alone, were more strongly associated with compliance. We also tested whether some types of promised consequences were more strongly associated with compliance than others. Forty White mother-toddler (age 17-36 months) dyads were video recorded in a 30-min behavioral analogue situation. Interactions were coded using a derived coding scheme. Promised consequences were not found to be more strongly associated with compliance than were directives alone using sequential analyses; however, negative and immediate promised consequences were more strongly associated with compliance. Findings suggest that promising negative and immediate consequences for noncompliance may encourage compliance.
Owen
Daniela J
DJ
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, USA. Daniela.Owen@stonybrook.edu
Smith Slep
Amy M
AM
Heyman
Richard E
RE
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013997:Time Factors; D014743:Videotape Recording