Susan M. Perez

Mother -Child Planning and Child Compliance

This study investigated child compliance and maternal instruction during planning. Based on the Child Behavior Checklist and free-play observations, 40 mothers and their 4- to 5-year-old children were assigned to a group with children who behaved within the normal range of compliance (n = 20) or a group with children with high rates of noncompliance for this age (n = 20). Mothers in the noncompliant group provided more low-level, directive, and negative instruction; requested more compliance; and shared less task responsibility with children. Mothers in both groups responded to child compliance by increasing or maintaining the level of instruction. Results are discussed in relation to the role of child compliance in regulating opportunities for cognitive development in social context.

Mother–Child Planning, Child Emotional Functioning, and Children’s Transition to First Grade

Mother-child planning was examined in relation to child emotional functioning and first-grade school performance. Ninety dyads were randomly assigned to the explicit-goal condition (emphasized accuracy and preparation for a child-only posttest) or the no-explicit-goal condition (dyads just asked to work together). In the no-explicit-goal condition only, children higher in negative emotionality and lower in regulation skills were less engaged in the task and planned less effectively. Both mother-child planning and adaptive child emotional functioning were positively associated with school performance. Results suggest that child emotional functioning mediated associations between planning and school performance. Implications of these findings for the development of planning and childrens transition to school are discussed.

Girls not boys show gender-connotation encoding from print

The present study examines gender differences in childrens encoding of gender-connotation from words. The release from proactive interference method was used to measure gender-connotation encoding. Forty-eight third-grade children attending a public elementary school serving a predominantly White middle-socioeconomic-status community participated and were presented with stimulus words in print. The design of the study can be characterized as a two (gender) by two (condition: control vs. experimental) by four (trials) factorial. Results revealed reliable proactive interference buildup and release for gender-connotation for girls, but not for boys. This new finding, taken together with extant research, demonstrates that while both boys and girls have the ability to encode gender-connotation from aurally presented words, the spontaneous activation of gender-connotation attributes with print is not guaranteed for boys.

Stability and Change in Mother-Child Planning over Middle Childhood.

This longitudinal research examines maternal and child behaviors during joint planning over a 3-year period of middle childhood. 118 mother–child dyads were observed once a year beginning when the children were 8 years of age. Coding focused on mother and child planning behaviors, maternal instructional support, and child task engagement. Multilevel modeling was used to compare 3 models of stability and change: stability, normative developmental change, and individual differences in change. Results indicate that normative developmental change was the best predictor of mother and child planning behaviors and maternal guidance. Individual differences in rate of change predicted mothers’ instructional support in the use of physical demonstration and child engagement measured by attention, task responsibility, and cooperation. Task difficulty contributed to these patterns. This research advances understanding of social interaction on cognitive tasks for partners in an established relationship. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.