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Resolutions of control episodes between well and affectively ill mothers and their young children

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Abstract

Control interactions between 87 well and affectively ill mothers and their 15- to 51-month-old children were studied. Spontaneously occurring control interventions (conceptualized as episodes of interaction between mother and child) were coded from 90 minutes of videotaped interactions in a naturalistic laboratory apartment setting. The results suggest developmental changes in mother-child interaction in the 2nd to 4th years of life: the increase of the rate of immediate maternal success (p < .05) and compromise (p < .05), on the decrease in maternal use of power (ultimate sucess by enforcement, p < .01). Well mothers achieved compromise with their children, particularly daughters, more often than did affectively ill mothers (p < .05). Affectively ill mothers more often than well mothers avoided confrontation with their children (p < .05). The impairments in control interventions of affectively ill mothers were exacerbated by the severity of the disorder.

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This research supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Network on the Transition from Infancy to Early Childhood. Thanks to Ona Girnius-Brown for her important contribution to the development and implementation of the coding system. Special thanks to Rita Minker, from the Laboratory of Statistical and Mathematical Methodology, DCRT, NIH, for her excellent help with data management. We also appreciate the statistical guidance of John Bartko, Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Branch, NIMH. Thanks also to John Richters for his very helpful comments on the manuscript and to the staff of the Laboratory of Developmental Psychology involved in the process of psychiatric screening and data collection: Barbara Belmont, Anne Mayfield, Anna Polissar, and Judy Stilwell.

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Kochanska, G., Kuczynski, L., Radke-Yarrow, M. et al. Resolutions of control episodes between well and affectively ill mothers and their young children. J Abnorm Child Psychol 15, 441–456 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00916460

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00916460

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