Developmental change and consistency in parental interactions with school-age children who have mental retardation

Developmental changes and within-family consistency in parent-child interactions were examined for mothers and fathers of school-age children (6 to 18 years) with mental retardation. At Time 1 and 18 to 24 months later, 98 families (29 single, 69 two-parent) with a child who had mild or moderate mental retardation completed semi-structured interaction sessions in their homes. As expected, both positive and negative exchanges decreased longitudinally, and cross-sectional comparisons revealed fewer parent commands, less child noncompliance, fewer child negatives, and less parent positive reciprocity with older children. Most behaviors were highly consistent between family members and stable over time. Findings were discussed in relation to parental responsiveness to developmental changes for the child and the coherence of family relationships over time.