SYNOPSIS

Objective. Drawing on existing literature concerning the interrelations among toddler fearful temperament, maternal protective parenting, and maternal cognitions, the current study sought to test how mothers’ abilities to predict their children’s distress expressions and behaviors in future novel situations (“maternal accuracy”), may be maintained from toddlerhood to children’s kindergarten year. Design. A sample of 93 mother-child dyads completed laboratory assessments at child age 2 and was invited back for two laboratory visits during children’s kindergarten year. Fearful temperament, age 2 maternal accuracy, and protective behavior were measured observationally at age 2, and children’s social withdrawal and kindergarten maternal accuracy were measured observationally at the follow-up kindergarten visits. Results. We tested a moderated serial mediation model. For highly fearful children only, maternal accuracy may be maintained because it relates to protective parenting, which predicts children’s social withdrawal, which feeds back into maternal accuracy. Conclusions. Maternal accuracy may be maintained across early childhood through the interactions mothers have with their temperamentally fearful children. Given concurrent measurement of some of the variables, the role of maternal cognitions like maternal accuracy should be replicated and then further considered for inclusion in theories and studies of transactional influences between parents and children on development.

概要

客观的。借鉴现有的关于幼儿恐惧性情、母亲保护性养育和母亲认知之间相互关系的文献，本研究试图测试母亲在未来新情况下预测孩子痛苦表情和行为的能力（“母亲准确性”），可能从蹒跚学步到儿童幼儿园年。设计。93 对母子的样本在孩子 2 岁时完成了实验室评估，并在儿童幼儿园年被邀请回来进行两次实验室访问。在 2 岁时观察性测量恐惧性情、2 岁母亲准确度和保护行为，并在后续幼儿园访问中观察测量儿童的社交退缩和幼儿园母亲准确度。结果。我们测试了一个有节制的串行中介模型。仅对于高度恐惧的孩子，母亲的准确性可能会得到维持，因为它与保护性育儿有关，它可以预测孩子的社交退缩，这会反馈到母亲的准确性。结论。通过母亲与脾气暴躁的孩子的互动，可以在整个童年早期保持母亲的准确性。鉴于对某些变量的同时测量，应复制母亲认知（如母亲准确性）的作用，然后进一步考虑将其纳入有关父母与孩子之间的交易对发展的影响的理论和研究中。