| Abstract: | Compared the reactions of 16 mothers of 6–11 yr old conduct-disordered (CD) boys with those of 16 mothers of normal boys. The dyads in the 2 groups were matched pairwise on age and sex of the child and education of the mother. Each mother interacted with her own child (CD or normal) and with 2 other children of the same or different classification over 3 tasks in a laboratory. Mothers' positive, negative, or requesting behaviors and the children's compliance were counted. The 2 groups of mothers did not differ in the 3 behaviors, but they all addressed more negatives and requests to CD than to normal children. CD children were less compliant, irrespective of type of mother. The type of mother?×?type of child interaction did not produce a significant effect on either mothers' or children's behavior. Findings suggest that the child's, and not the mother's, behavioral tendency is the major influence in CD. Mothers of CD children were also more coercive toward their own children than to other CD children, indicating the operation of transactional effects arising from cumulative past interactions. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
