Article

The influence of children's involvement in mother-child interactions on mothers’ reactive behaviors: the moderating effect of children's emotionality

Author

송하나

Information

pp. 19~33 / 2011 Vol.18 No.4

Abstract

This study examined the influence of levels of children's involvement in mother-child interactions on mothers' reactive behaviors. The moderating effect of children's temperamental emotionality was also examined. Sixty two children of 5 years of age and their mothers participated in this study. The children and mothers were observed engaging in free play, mother-child play, and Strange Situation settings. Both the verbal and nonverbal behaviors of children and mothers were videotaped and analyzed by two coders. Our results indicate that children who initiated and were involved in mother-child interactions more actively had mothers who showed more responsive and less over-controlling behaviors. While children's positive emotionality was positively associated with children's active involvement in interactions, children's negative emotionality also affected mothers' over-controlling behaviors. In particular, the influence of children's low involvement in interactions on mothers' interrupting and over-controlling behaviors seems to be mitigated when children reported high levels of positive emotionality. The results of this study were discussed in terms of bidirectional reciprocity in interpersonal interactions, and suggestions for future study were also presented.

Keywords