A Developmental Interpretation of Young Children's Noncompliance

Abstract

This study examined developmental changes in maternal control strategies and children's responses to maternal directives and associations between the interactive strategies of mothers and children. The subjects were 70 dyads consisting of depressed and nondepressed mothers and their 1 1/2- to 3 1/2-year-old children. Data on parent and child behaviors were coded from videotapes of spontaneous interactions in a naturalistic apartment setting. Developmental analyses of maternal control strategies indicated a shift from the physical to the verbal modalities with age. Maternal explanations, bargaining, and reprimands increased with age and distraction decreased with age. Developmental changes in children's responses to control were consistent with a social skill perspective on children's noncompliance. Passive noncompliance and direct defiance decreased with age, whereas negotiation, the relatively more sophisticated form of resistance, increased with age. Mothers' use of reasoning and suggestion were associated with the children's use of negotiation as a form of resistance, whereas relatively direct maternal strategies were associated with the children's defiant responses. Girls were more compliant than boys, but only in families with well, rather than depressed, mothers. © 1987 American Psychological Association.