Linking Maternal Warmth and Responsiveness to Children's Self-Regulation

Sample

• N: 102
• Subject Ages: Kindergarten children
• Location: Germany, Konstanz
• SES: Middle class
• Eligibility: Parents of public kindergarten children who agreed to participate
• Additional:
  • All families were of a European cultural background
  • 80% of the children lived in a two-parent household
  • All mothers had at least 12 years of schooling

Hypotheses

1. Maternal warmth will be positively related to the child’s behavioral regulation.
2. Maternal responsiveness to distress would correlate positively with the child’s internalization of rules of conduct.
3. Children’s gender and effortful control would interact with parenting behavior in predicting self-regulation skills.

Variables Measured, Instruments Used

• Maternal warmth - the Child Rearing Practices Report-Q Sort
• Maternal responsiveness to distress - the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale
• Behavior regulation - the Snack Delay task of the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery-Preschool Version
• Internalization of rules of conduct - Maternal Reports of Conscience Development
• Effortful control - the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire

Design—Cross-sectional