Bridget C. Murphy

Parental Reactions to Children's Negative Emotions: Longitudinal Relations to Quality of Children's Social Functioning

Relations between self-reported parental reactions to childrens negative emotions (PNRs) and childrens socially appropriate/problem behavior and negative emotionality were examined longitudinally. Evidence was consistent with the conclusion that relations between childrens externalizing (but not internalizing) emotion and parental punitive reactions to childrens negative emotions are bidirectional. Reports of PNRs generally were correlated with low quality of social functioning. In structural models, mother-reported problem behavior at ages 10-12 was at least marginally predicted from mother-reported problem behavior, childrens regulation, and parental punitive or distress reactions. Moreover, parental distress and punitive reactions at ages 6-8 predicted reports of childrens regulation at ages 8-10, and regulation predicted parental punitive reactions at ages 10-12. Father reports of problem behavior at ages 10-12 were predicted by earlier problem behavior and parental distress or punitive reactions; some of the relations between regulation and parental reactions were similar to those in the models for mother-reported problem behavior. Parental perceptions of their reactions were substantially correlated over 6 years. Some nonsupportive reactions declined in the early to mid-school years, but all increased into late childhood/early adolescence.

Consistency and Development of Prosocial Dispositions: A Longitudinal Study

The issue of whether there is consistency in prosocial dispositions was examined with a longitudinal data set extending from ages 4 to 5 years into early adulthood (N = 32). Spontaneous prosocial behaviors observed in the preschool classroom predicted actual prosocial behavior, other- and self-reported prosocial behavior, self-reported sympathy, and perspective taking in childhood to early adulthood. Prosocial behaviors that were not expected to reflect an other-orientation (i.e., low cost helping and compliant prosocial behavior) generally did not predict later prosocial behavior or sympathy. Sympathy appeared to partially mediate the relation of early spontaneous sharing to later prosocial dispositions. The results support the view that there are stable individual differences in prosocial responding that have their origins in early childhood.

The Relations of Effortful Control and Ego Control to Children's Resiliency and Social Functioning.

The relations of effortful control and ego control to childrens (mean age = 137 months) resiliency, social status, and social competence were examined concurrently (Time 3) and over time. Adults reported on the constructs, and a behavioral measure of persistence was obtained. At Time 3, resiliency mediated the unique relations of both effortful and reactive control to social status, and effortful control directly predicted socially appropriate behavior. Negative emotionality moderated the relations of ego and effortful control to socially appropriate behavior. When levels of the variables 2 years prior were accounted for, all relations held at Time 3 except that effortful control did not predict resiliency (even though it was the stronger predictor at Time 3) and ego control directly predicted socially appropriate behavior.

Relations of Shyness and Low Sociability to Regulation and Emotionality

The relations of shyness and low sociability (i.e., the nonfearful preference to be alone) to measures of regulation and emotionality were examined. College students and (for some variables) friends reported on their relevant dispositional characteristics. In general, shyness was associated with low regulation and high negative emotionality (including intensity, negative affectivity, and personal distress), low positive affect, and low constructive coping. In contrast, low sociability was unrelated to negative emotionality; associated with low positive emotional intensity, low physiological reactivity, and high inhibition control; and correlated with low seeking of social support as a means of coping. The findings are considered within a heuristic model in which emotional reactivity and regulation are proposed as predictors of social responding.

An Integrative Examination of Peer Conflict: Children's Reported Goals, Emotions, and Behaviors

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the interrelations among childrens typical emotions, goals, and behavior during peer conflict and to examine emotions and goals as joint predictors of behavior. Children (7 to 11 years old) described recent conflicts with peers and were questioned about their emotions, goals, and behaviors. The friendliness of childrens reported goals during conflict was associated with low anger intensity and with high intensity of sadness. Children who tended to report nonconstructive behavior also tended to report relatively intense anger and relatively unfriendly goals. Furthermore, in regression analyses, the friendliness of goals uniquely predicted the constructiveness of childrens behavior after controlling for the effects of anger intensity, age, gender, provoking event, and friendship with the peer. Although boys and girls reported similar levels of anger and sadness, girls reported friendlier goals and more constructive behavior than did boys. The use of self-reports of actual events to examine peer conflict during middle childhood is also discussed.

Contemporaneous and Longitudinal Relations of Dispositional Sympathy to Emotionality, Regulation, and Social Functioning

Individual differences in 10-through 12-year-olds’sympathetic tendencies were examined in relation to their regulation, negative emotionality, and social functioning contemporaneously as well as 2, 4, and 6 years earlier. Information was obtained for 33 girls and 31 boys from the school and home context. In general, adults’(teachers and parents) reports of young adolescents’sympathetic tendencies were associated with high regulatory abilities, low negative emotionality, and constructive social behaviors contempora-neously and, to some degree, 2, 4, and 6 years previously. Furthermore, in regression analyses, regulatory abilities during early adolescence as well as 2 years earlier uniquely predicted young adolescents’sympathetic tendencies after controlling for the effects of negative emotionality. Although findings were fairly similar across contexts, the majority of findings at school were for girls, whereas the pattern of findings at home was somewhat more consistent for boys than for girls.

The effects of conflict role and intensity on preschoolers’ expectations about peer conflict

Using a puppet procedure depicting hypothetical conflict involving the participant and a peer, 96 preschoolers’ (48 boys and 48 girls; M 1/4 5.14 years, SD 1/4 0.78 years) expectations about peer conflict were assessed as a function of their role in the conflict (i.e., initiator of or responder to initial provocation) and the intensity level of the conflict. Initiators of conflict expected less conflict escalation and subsequent problems with the same peer from the conflict than did responders, particularly following low-intensity conflict. Findings also indicated that, for low-intensity but not high-intensity conflict, girls expected the same peer to provoke them during a subsequent interaction more often than did boys. Results provide further support for assessing preschoolers’ understanding of conflict and are consistent with previous work demonstrating a self-serving bias in young children’s perceptions and reports of their conflicts with other children. Moreover, findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the development of peer relations.