Parent-Child Conversation of More-Liked and Less-Liked Children

Abstract

Four more-liked boys and four less-liked boys (M age = 58.13 months) were videotaped as they interacted separately in semi-structured activities with their own mother and father, the mother and father of a more-liked boy, and the mother and father of a less-liked boy. Parents of less-liked boys had more intensive interactions that were more controlling, directive, and intrusive than parents of more-liked boys. Parents of more-liked boys had extensive interactive patterns that made them better able to extend praise and encouragement to children not their own. Similarly, more-liked children seemed more sensitive than less-liked children to situational factors that occurred during interactions with parents not their own and were therefore better able to adjust their behavior to the expectations of the situation.