The Relation Of Children's Compliance, Internalization And Mothers' Control

The ability to act in accord with social standards and to regulate one's behavior is among the hallmarks of development and socialization during the early years. How young children begin to adopt parental rules, and regulation of conduct shift from external to internal, are among the fundamental questions of socialization.In contrast to social-cognitive emphasis on cognition and moral reasoning, there have been other models that portrayed internalization as gradually unfolding out of early compliance to parents. Kochanska and her colleague put forward a model that reconciles these competing approaches by positing a differentiated view of compliance-committed compliance (when children eagerly embraced maternal agenda) and situational compliance(when children cooperated, but without a sincere commitment).In this study, to assess children's compliance and maternal control, 25 children at 23-46 months and their mothers were observed in 2 control contexts, and prohibition context in which the mothers asked that the children suppress pleasant, attractive behavior, and request context in which the mothers asked that the children sustain unpleasant, tedious behavior. Children's internalization while alone in the similar contexts was also studied.Children who showed a high level of committed compliance were more internalized. Differences and similarities between children's compliance to request and prohibition were also explored. Maternal request appeared more challenging to toddlers than the prohibition. High maternal power discipline negatively related with children's committed compliance and internalization.