Transactional relationships between maternal requesting and responsivity, adolescent compliance, and task demands in...

Males with fragile X syndrome (FXS) may have difficulty with social communication and language in addition to behavioral concerns such as noncompliance to maternal requests. Mothers vary in how they pose requests to their children, and contextual demands may also be a factor in compliance. This study examined the relationships between maternal requesting behaviors, maternal responsivity, child compliance, and task demands in adolescent males with FXS.

35 mother-son dyads completed three interactive tasks during in-home visits (puzzle, iPad games, snack). The adolescents also completed assessments of language and autism symptoms. The three interactive tasks were video-recorded, and behavior-by-behavior coding and transcription was completed.

Comparing between tasks, mothers requested a behavior most often during the snack task and used a higher proportion of indirect requests during the iPad task. Adolescents were largely compliant across tasks, with average compliance equal to 70%. Adolescent compliance was predicted by maternal request frequency such that mothers who used more requests had adolescent sons who were less compliant. Maternal responsivity was higher for mothers of adolescents with FXS-only compared to those with FXS and high autism symptoms.

Task demands may have influenced maternal requesting, which in turn may have impacted adolescent compliance. Compliance with requests is important for both social and educational aspects of life, and further study of requesting and compliance in FXS is needed to identify effective teaching and behavioral intervention methods.