Maternal Responsiveness and Subsequent Child Compliance

PARPAL, MARY, and MACCOBY, ELEANOR E. Maternal Responsiveness and Subsequent Child Compliance. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1985, 56, 1326-1334. This study contrasts the effects of 3 modes of mother-child interaction on children's subsequent compliance with maternal directives. Subjects were 39 children, ranging in age from 3-2 to 4-6, from lower-middle-class families. Prior to the compliance test, mothers and children were in 1 of the following conditions: Responsive Play (mother trained), Free Play (mother untrained), or Noninteractive. Both the Responsive Play and Noninteractive conditions produced higher levels of child compliance than the untrained Free Play condition. In the discussion, reciprocity theory is contrasted with 2 other viewpoints: reinforcement theory and social deprivation theory.