This study compared boys' and girls' coping responses to videotaped representations of marital conflict that varied in conflict content, tactic, and the gender of the parent engaging in conflict behaviour. Participants were 398 children (208 boys, 190 girls) aged 12-13 years old living in the United Kingdom. Child-related conflict exchanges…

A new observational procedure, Trilogue Play with Still-face, revealed 4-month-olds' capacities to address both their fathers and mothers, by rapidly shifting gaze and affect between them. Infants were observed in four interactive contexts: (1) "3-together" play with both parents; (2) "2 + 1" play with one parent engaging and the other as third…

Previous research was extended by connecting maternal attachment representations not only to maternal emotional support and task structuring, but also to maternal discipline. A total number of 62 mothers of preschoolers (M[subscript age] = 54 months) completed the adult attachment interview and a self-report measure of dysfunctional discipline.…

This study examined the extent to which children and parents have concordant views about parental differential treatment (PDT) and whether such concordance is linked with variations in sibling relationship quality. Seventy-four 11- to 13-year-old children, their older siblings, and their parents were interviewed about their experiences with PDT…

The current study has two aims: (1) to examine associations between the emotional content of parent-child past event conversations and two aspects of children's self-concept--moral self and self-esteem; and (2) to examine the degree to which talk about past events is uniquely associated with self-concept when compared with talk about ongoing…

This study examined associations between parents' emotion coaching and emotional expressiveness, and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The sample included 131 16-year-olds and their mothers and fathers. Adolescents completed an open-ended interview about their parents' emotion coaching. Adolescents rated parents' negative…

The current study examined the relations between maternal meta-emotion philosophy and adolescent depressive symptoms, as well as general adolescent adjustment and the quality of parent-child interaction. Consistent with previous findings on children in the preschool period and middle childhood, it was expected that an emotion coaching meta-emotion…

Seventy 15-month-old children were observed during 90 minutes of free play with their peers in childcare centers. The study aimed to describe individual differences in the children's contacts with peers and to explain the individual differences in relation to: (1) child temperament, (2) the quality of parental behavior toward the child and (3) the…

Examined the link between mother-son positive synchrony and child and best friend antisocial behavior in middle childhood. Found that positive synchrony observed at age 8 related to measures tapping parenting, parent-child conflict, child social information processing, and child and best friend antisocial behavior. Associations between synchrony…

Non-shared environmental influence (NSE) has been found to account for around 50 percent of anxiety variance, but specific NSE factors have not been identified. Discordant monozygotic (MZ) twins can be used to generate relevant hypotheses because MZ discordance can be caused by NSE, but not by genes or shared environment. Of 1590 MZ pairs teacher…

Studied children's perceptions of their social networks, including the differentiations young children make between persons in their social networks and the functions they fulfill, the level of agreement between children and their parents, and the stability of the children's responses. Describes the use of a new instrument called the Support,…

This study examined how parents respond when their children encounter values outside the home that conflict with family values. Forty-eight middle-class European American parents completed questionnaires consisting of 11 vignettes asking how they would respond to hypothetical situations where outside sources posed potential conflicts with parental…

There is considerable interest in the role of mental state language in theory of mind development. This study examines cognitive and desire state discourse of 43 mothers during play interactions with their two-year-old children and theory of mind as indicated by a battery of false belief tasks around the age of five. Desire state comments of…

This prospective, longitudinal study examined the role of children's coping strategies in the link between interparental conflict and children's psychological adjustment. Using a sample of 100 parents and children aged 11-14 years, this study investigated children's venting of negative emotion, social support seeking, and problem solving…

Examined longitudinally the relationship between mother-child spontaneous joint play and development of conduct problems in 60 preschoolers. Found that amount of joint play at age 3 predicted individual improvement in conduct problems at age 4, and this association was independent of initial level of conduct problems and hyperactivity, social…