Noncompliant Behavior in Toddlerhood Predicted Social Adaptation at 4 to 11 Years of Age

Abstract

Compliance is a major goal of early socialization in childhood, and represents the ability to exert self-control and internalization. In toddlerhood when children demonstrate an awareness of social demands and abilities to direct their own behaviour, children often display noncompliant behaviors such as resistance and defiance to adults' requests. Individual differences in noncompliant behaviors are believed to predictive of later adjustment and problems in various areas. Unfortunately, there is little research on the long-term consequences of toddlerhood noncompliant behaviors in either China or other countries. In the present study, we attempted to investigate noncompliance behavior of 2-year-old children and its long-term associations with social adaptation at 4, 7 and 11 years of age. One hundred and thirty-eight children and their mothers and teachers took part in the study. At 2 years old, the child and his/her mother were invited to the laboratory, and the child's noncompliant behaviors were observed in a clean up situation. A series of follow up studies were conducted in this sample when the children were 4, 7, 11, and 14 years old. The follow up studies focused mainly on children's social and emotional functioning. Mothers and teachers were asked to complete measures assessing children's social and behavioral competence and problems at each wave. Regression analyses revealed the following results: (1) Passive noncompliance at 2 years positively predicted mother-reported externalizing problems and teacher reported learning problems, and negatively predicted teacher reported helping behavior at 7 years. Moreover, passive noncompliance positively predicted mother-reported learning problems at 11 years; (2) Refusal/negotiation at 2 years positively predicted mother-reported hyperactivity at 4 years old and teacher-reported learning problems at 11 years; and finally (3) Defiance at 2 years positively predicted teacher reported internalizing problem at 11 years. These results suggest that noncompliance in toddlerhood is a significant phenomenon that contributes to the prediction of social adaptation in childhood and adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)