Leon Kuczynski

Development of children's noncompliance strategies from toddlerhood to age 5.

Noncompliance strategies for asserting autonomy were examined. Ss were depressed and well mothers and their children, who were 1 to 3 years old at Time 1 and 5 years old at Time 2. Data were coded from spontaneous interactions in a naturalistic setting.

New Directions in Analyses of Parenting Contributions to Children's Acquisition of Values

Traditional theories of how children acquire values or standards of behavior have emphasized the importance of specific parenting techniques or styles and have acknowledged the importance of a responsive parent-child relationship, but they have failed to differentiate among forms of responsiveness, have stressed internalization of values as the desired outcome, and have limited their scope to a small set of parenting strategies or methods. This paper outlines new directions for research. It acknowledges the central importance of parents and argues for research that (1) demonstrates that parental understanding of a particular childs characteristics and situation rather than use of specific strategies or styles is the mark of effective parenting; (2) traces the differential impact of varieties of parent responsiveness; (3) assesses the conditions surrounding the fact that parents have goals other than internalization when socializing their children, and evaluates the impact of that fact; and (4) considers a wider range of parenting strategies.

Beyond One Hand Clapping: Seeing Bidirectionality in Parent-Child Relations

This article discusses the dynamic that exists between interactions and relationships and explores the implications of this dynamic for the systematic study of bidirectionality in parent child relations. Global perspectives on relationships emphasize coherence and stable causes but often neglect origins in social interactions. Research on social interactions emphasizes bidirectionality and agency but often neglects the relationship context. A model of parent-child interactions in the context of parent-child relationships is presented to illustrate the many levels at which bidirectionality may occur between the microanalytic investigation of interactions and the macro analytic investigation of relationships. Research directions highlighted by the model include investigation of emergence of stability and change, distinctiveness, interdependence, agency, and cognitions.

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

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.

Normal and affectively ill mothers' beliefs about their children.

Normal, unipolar, and bipolar depressed women were studied to determine whether depressive cognitive schemas extend to the perception of ones own child. Depressed and well mothers reported equal satisfaction with their children, but the depressed group was less satisfied with the childrens socioaffective than their cognitive development. The depressed mothers experienced a greater degree of helplessness regarding their children, and were more likely to feel that outcomes of child development were determined by uncontrollable factors.

Women’s Experiences Breastfeeding in Public Places

This two-part field study compared researchers’ recorded observations to mothers’ perceptions of attention they received while publicly breastfeeding. In part 1, four breastfeeding and four bottle-feeding mothers each made eight restaurant visits. On average, there were more neutral looks from customers (P = .01) during breastfeeding visits, but no differences in the amount of overtly negative or positive attention given during breastfeeding versus bottle feeding. In part 2, four breastfeeding mothers made a total of 24 visits to shopping malls. There were more neutral looks given while mothers were breastfeeding and more smiles and comments while they were not feeding, but no difference in total amount of attention received. Breastfeeding mothers acknowledged they had anticipated some undesirable attention but instead received little attention. Nevertheless, they felt “vulnerable” nursing in public. Certain proactive behaviors and personal attributes as well as support from otherwomen enabled them to breastfeed successfully in public.

Agency and Power of Single Children in Multi-Generational Families in Urban Xiamen, China

This paper examines ethnographic data collected over six months from Xiamen, China, on children as active agents in their relationships with their parents and grandparents. It explicates the usefulness of the conceptual tools of ‘agency’ and ‘interdependent power’ derived from social relational theory in demonstrating the bilateral influences between children, grandparents and parents. Ways in which children’s agency is enhanced in their interactions with the adult caregivers are explicated. It provides a reinterpretation of the ‘little emperor’ syndrome in contemporary urban China.

Mothers' and Fathers' Perceptions of Mutuality in Middle Childhood: The Domain of Intimacy

This study investigated parents’ experiences of closeness in their interactions with their children in middle childhood. Structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with mothers and fathers from 23 families (46 participants) with children aged between 7 and 11 years (M = 9.2 years). Qualitative analyses indicated that parents’ experiences of close interactions were consistent with an underlying construct of parent—child intimacy. Parents reported that they experienced closeness predominantly during interactions where they perceived mutuality and shared pleasure. Parents were strategic in creating both intimate interactions and contexts for intimacy. Children were perceived to contribute to intimacy by initiating and responding to parental bids for intimate interactions.

The Question of Ownness: Influence of Relationship Context on Parental Socialization Strategies

A relational perspective on socialization explores how the distinctive parent-child relationship context affects the dynamics of parent-child interactions. Forty mothers responded to hypothetical transgressions involving short-term and long-term socialization issues in three different relationship contexts: their own child, their childs best friend, and an unfamiliar child. Mothers reported different affective reactions, socialization goals, and discipline strategies depending on the nature of the relationship and also depending on the nature of the socialization issue. Mothers reported that they would experience more emotional upset, have more future oriented goals, and employ more power assertion, teaching and reasoning strategies for their own child compared with unrelated children. They also used these strategies more frequently for transgressions involving long-term issues. The discussion explored how various dimensions of relationships (past history, future course, interdependence) are represented in how mothers handle disciplinary interactions with their children.

Early education teachers’ conceptualizations and strategies for managing closeness in child care: The personal domain

This study investigated teachers’ experiences of closeness during interactions with children in child care. Structured interviews were conducted with 24 female teachers who were teaching children between the ages of three and five (mean age = 3.9) regarding their conceptions of closeness, and their perceptions of their own and the child’s contributions to close interactions. Qualitative analyses of the interviews revealed a relational model of teacher—child relationships that included a professional domain, an attachment domain and a personal domain, with the personal domain as most dominant in teachers’ perceptions. The personal domain was interpreted as consistent with Weingarten’s (1991) theory of intimate interactions and adds a new perspective on affective dimensions of caring (Goldstein, 1999). Teachers viewed relationships with particular children as a personal two-way relationship where both contributed either solely or mutually in their desire to be close. Teachers described intentional strategies for managing the close relationship that made use of the past history and the anticipated future of the relationship.