Stability in Mother-Child Interactions from Infancy through Adolescence.
OBJECTIVE: The current study examines homotypic stability in mother-child interactions, applying similar rating scales of mother-child interactions at 1 and 4.5 years, and heterotypic stability from 1 to 13 years and 4.5 to 13 years, using conceptually similar but not identical rating scales at age 13.  DESIGN: We coded videotaped mother-child interactions in 202 families when children were 1, 4.5, and 13 years of age during age-appropriate and developmentally salient structured tasks for relationship quality.  RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses controlled for the effects of child birth order and gender as well as maternal age and education. Maternal and dyadic, but not child, mother-child interaction qualities at 1 year significantly predicted similar or equivalent constructs at 4.5 and 13 years. Heterotypic stability from 1 to 13 years was partially or fully mediated by the same constructs at 4.5 years.  CONCLUSIONS: Maternal behaviors showed a pattern of homotypic and heterotypic stability, whereas dyadic behaviors were somewhat less stable. Child behaviors showed evidence of both homotypic and heterotypic instability.
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250.
Nicole M
NM
Else-Quest
Roseanne
R
Clark
Margaret Tresch
MT
Owen