| The increasing number of young children with behavior problems who are brought forward for intervention services indicates the need for early promotion of adaptive processes in parent-child interactions. Currently, there is a need for a more complete understanding of those processes underlying parent-child negotiation and agreement seeking, particularly in varied groups of at-risk dyads. The purpose of this dissertation study was to develop a tool that would allow insight into the dynamics of the mother-child conflict-resolution process, employing a larger early intervention study sample of thirty aggressive and thirty nonaggressive dyads. The major goal was to study the two groups for the significant process-related components of maternal response used to restore interaction ruptures following child disagreements to the pre-defined limit-setting task---termed as maternal mending response. To achieve that, both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses were integrated within a mixed method exploratory research design. First, an observationally generated coding system was devised applying the four, theoretically proposed, stages of the social act thought to promote adjustment of parental optimal responses. Second, this coding system was implemented in a smaller-case selected sample of six aggressive and six nonaggressive dyads to highlight the pathways of the maternal mending responses in the two groups. Several empirically derived hypotheses were tested to provide the evidence for its utility. The findings revealed a potential of the coding system to (1) delineate group differences for the particular process-related components associated with maternal mending response, (2) build association patterns with the parent self-report, standardized measures (e.g., self-perceived scores on the effectiveness in parental discipline practice, parent-child communication, received support in parenting, interpretation of child behavior problems and affective state measures), and (3) indicate signs of mother-child positive adjustments in real time (i.e., mother-child reconnection after conflict improved in the aggressive group across the three phases of the interaction task). The study suggested that real time experiences in mastering a developmentally appropriate problem (i.e., joint-goal negotiation task) could be used in promoting more optimal patterns of interaction in dyads with aggressive preschool children. |
