| Abstract: | 52 21–38 yr old mothers and their 2–11 yr old children took part in a behavioral parent-training program to modify aggressive and oppositional child behavior. Several measures of mother–child interaction were obtained for each dyad at baseline, treatment, and follow-up. Measures included sociodemographic variables and home observations. After 1-yr follow-up, measures were compared between dyads who succeeded in the program and dyads who did not. Results show that: (1) unsuccessful mothers were more aversive and indiscriminate in their use of aversive behavior toward their children than successful mothers in all phases; (2) unsuccessful children were more aversive than successful children, but only in treatment and follow-up; and (3) all children evidenced some degree of indiscriminate aversive responding. The majority of unsuccessful dyads scored high on several measures of socioeconomic disadvantage, suggesting that such interactional differences might provide a link to account in part for the impact of adverse socioeconomic factors on mother–child interaction. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
