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Maternal and paternal gentle guidance and young children's compliance from a within-family perspective

Brenda L Volling1, Alysia Y Blandon, Benjamin J Gorvine

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA. volling@umich.edu

Journal of Family Psychology : JFP : Journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43)
|August 30, 2006
PubMed

Insights

Parental guidance styles influence young children's early self-regulation. Gentle guidance from both mothers and fathers interact to promote compliance in toddlers and older siblings within the family.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Family Studies

Background:

  • Early internalization and self-regulation are crucial for child development.
  • Understanding within-family dynamics provides insight into how children learn compliance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine early internalization from a within-family perspective.
  • To assess young children's compliance and parental guidance strategies.

Main Methods:

  • A family cleanup paradigm was used with 59 families.
  • Participants included mothers, fathers, 16-month-old toddlers, and older siblings.
  • Sibling age differences in compliance and parental guidance were analyzed.

Main Results:

  • Older siblings exhibited more committed compliance and refusal than toddlers.
  • Mothers used more gentle guidance than fathers.
  • Parents used more gentle guidance with older siblings than toddlers.
  • Maternal and paternal gentle guidance interacted to predict sibling compliance.

Conclusions:

  • Within-family processes, particularly parental gentle guidance, play a significant role in children's early self-regulation.
  • Differential parental guidance may contribute to variations in self-regulation between families.

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