SOCIALIZATION THE CONTEXT OF THE FAMILY: PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION
48 ELEANOR E. MACCOBY AND JOHN A. MARTIN
They allow themselves to be drawn into bickering,
and are diverted from the initial socialization issue
that started the aversive cycle. Therapists train these
parents not to respond in kind when the children
resist parental demands with whining and yelling,
but to carry through with their demands and adopt a
more dispassionate system of consequences external
to the interpersonal relationship (e.g., withdrawal of
privileges) if the child does not comply.
4. Positive consequences for the child's proso-
cial behavior are emphasized. In distressed families,
when parents do show affection or give praise, their
positive behavior seems to be occasioned more by
the parent's mood than the child's behavior. The
researchers argue that this may be one of the reasons
that the children have become insensitive to social
approval. Their sensitivity needs to be reestablished.
In the view of the Patterson group, this can be done
by recoupling parent approval with good behavior,
and by backing up approval with tangible rewards.
Once the parents have established their power to
get compliance from their child, they are then in a
position to teach some of the elementary self-help
skills and prosocial behaviors that aggressive chil-
dren usually lack. With the acquisition of these skills
gradually comes acceptance from other children and
adults outside the family, and the subject children
are less often the targets of other people's hostility,
so that some of the maintaining conditions for their
aggression are weakened.
It is evident that in their therapeutic program the
Patterson group are training parents to adopt many
elements of the authoritative-reciprocal pattern. Al-
though much of the emphasis is on strengthening the
firm control and enforcement side of the picture, the
emphasis on using nonpunitive discipline and re-
sponding positively to good behavior makes the rec-
ommended pattern more authoritative than authori-
tarian.
To summarize, the information presented on the
joint effects of parents' being both controlling (de-
manding) and responsive presents a considerably
different picture from the one given in Becker's
summary (Figure 1). At least, the entries for depen-
dency and submissiveness given there do not corre-
spond with the picture emerging from the work cited
here. We have seen that the authoritative-reciprocal
pattern of parenting is associated with children's
being independent, "agentic" in both the cognitive
and social spheres, socially responsible, able to con-
trol aggression, self-confident, and high in self-es-
teem. We hasten to add that in none of the studies
cited does the pattern of parenting account for a high
proportion of the variance in child behavior. Nev-
49
is, some parenting functions can probably be and enforcing socialization rules and goals. It was
ertheless, there are some striking consistencies in the
dropped more easily than others, and the rank order found that involved mothers (at 10 months) tended to
direction of relationships found across studies and
ought to be to some degree predictable. In a relation- have children who were high in compliance at both
across domains of child behavior.
ship characterized by very low parental involve- 22 and 42 months, and who (at 42 months) were
ment, parents will tend to orient their behavior pri-
The Indifferent-Uninvolved Pattern willing to let the mother leave the room briefly with-
marily toward the avoidance of inconvenience. Thus
By involvement, we mean the degree to which a out a fuss. It was also found, using a two-wave panel
they will respond to immediate demands from the
parent is committed to his or her role as a parent, and model, that maternal involvement was associated
children in such a way as to terminate them. Certain with a decrease in child demandingness and coer-
to the fostering of "optimal child development."
components of the parenting role, however, have civeness in the interval from 10 to 42 months, but
Except for certain extreme cases of dysfunction in
little to do with the parent's immediate comfort and that child demandingness had no detectable influ-
parent-child relations, the decision to maintain a
more to do with the long-range developmental tra- ence on maternal involvement in that interval.
child as a member of the household involves at least
jectory of the child—for example, establishing and Other researchers have studied involvement via
some base line level of emotional commitment of the
enforcing rules about homework; setting standards observer ratings. Baldwin et al. (1945) found that
parent to the child, and of involvement by the parent
for the acceptability of agonistic encounters with emotional involvement on the part of the parent (a
in the child's welfare and development. However,
other children; and exposing the child to various factor-analytically derived measure) was associated
variability in involvement above and beyond this
principles that underlie a range of interpersonal ex- with the emotional development of the child. Loeb et
base level is considerable, ranging from the parent
changes. These parental functions may be greatly al. (1980) found that involvement was positively
who is completely consumed by the parenting role to
reduced or simply disappear, and the minimally correlated with the child's self-esteem, and Gordon,
the parent who is heavily involved in other activities
functional relationship can still survive. It would be Nowicki, and Wickern (1981) report a positive rela-
and has little time or attention to spare for the child.
useful to know whether and to what extent some tionship between observed maternal involvement
The uninvolved parent is likely to be motivated to do
parenting functions do indeed drop out more readily and inner locus of control in second graders. Hat-
whatever is necessary to minimize the costs in time
than others for relatively uninvolved parents, and if field, Ferguson, and Alpert (1967) studied parent-
and effort of interaction with the child.
they do, whether the order of dropping out is invar- child interaction in 4- to 5,5-year-olds, and found a
Parental involvement is orthogonal to many of
iant across families or within certain clusters of negative relationship between a global rating of ma-
the dimensions of parenting we have discussed thus
families. ternal involvement and behavioral measures of ag-
far in this chapter. An abrasive, unresponsive, un-
Egeland and Sroufe (1981a,b) have documented gression and disobedience in the children. Seeg-
supportive parenting style can be coupled with either
some of the more extreme implications of low levels miller and King (1975) found that maternal
high or low levels of involvement. Likewise low
of parent involvement, in their study of a group of involvement at 14, 18, and 22 months was correlated
demands and low enforcement are compatible both
abusive parents. They distinguished several aspects positively with scores on the Bayley Mental scale at
with high and low commitment to the child, repre-
of these parents' behavior: physical abuse, hostile 22 months.
senting a child-centered orientation toward child
verbal abuse, neglect, and psychological un- Uninvolved Parenting and Ego Processes.
rearing on the one hand and an orientation toward
availability. The latter pattern involved a parent's Parental involvement was critical in a classic study
expedience on the other. A highly involved parent
being detached, emotionally uninvolved, often de- of personality development by Block (1971). One
need not be intrusive or dominating, but on the con-
pressed, and uninterested in the child. Children of focus of this study was on what Block called "ego
trary may grant the child considerable autonomy;
the psychologically unavailable mothers showed control," defined as "the individual's characteristic
such a parent, however, is by definition unlikely to
clear disturbances in their attachment relationships mode of monitoring impulse . . . representing ex-
ignore or neglect the child. In general, the parenting
to the mother. Of special importance, they also cessive containment of impulse and delay of grati-
styles that are associated with low levels of involve-
showed increasing deficits in all aspects of psycho- fication at one end (over-control) versus insufficient
ment are likely to reflect a desire to keep the child at a
logical functioning by the age of 2—greater deficits modulation of impulse and inability to delay grati-
distance. The parenting styles that are associated
than occurred with the other patterns of parental fication at the other end (under-control)" (p. 261).
with high levels of involvement probably cover a
maltreatment. The subjects were taken from the two major Berke-
broader range, being reflections of parents' differen-
What are the correlates of high or low parental ley longitudinal studies: the Oakland Growth Study
tial hypotheses about optimal parenting. A more
involvement in a more normal sample? In a micro- and the Guidance Study. Data were available on the
general point is that involvement may in fact be un-
analytic study of parent-child interaction involving parents and their relationships with their children at
related to optimal parenting. Some kinds of high-
10-month-olds and their mothers, Martin (1981) de- two points in time: when the children were between
level involvement—that is, some of the parenting
fined involvement as the extent to which the moth- the ages of 21 and 36 months of age, and later when
styles associated with considerable commitment to
er's behavior fluctuated with respect to her infant's the children were preadolescent and adolescent. The
the child—may, though motivated by the best in-
activity rather than with respect to her own prior early family ratings were based both on observations
terests of the child, be incompatible with optimal
level of activity. Follow-up studies were subse- during home visits, and on parent interviews. The
child development.
quently conducted when the children were 22 and 42 second set of ratings were based on mother inter-
With decreasing involvement (and concomi-
months old. At 42 months, mother noninvolvement views, in most cases, three interviews were ob-
tantly decreasing levels of interaction between par-
was measured with an autonomy questionnaire, de- tained, one at age 11, one at 14, and one at 15.
ent and child), some parenting functions will corre-
signed to determine the extent to which mothers ig- Personality data on the children were derived from Q-
spondingly decrease in importance or drop out
nored the child's needs and preferences in setting sorts completed by a team of clinical psychol-
altogether, whereas others will be maintained. That