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The authors compared mother-to-child and child-to-mother control exchanges in dyads involving socially competent, aggressive, and anxious children (aged 2.5-6.5 years) observed in a laboratory setting. Competent children and their mothers influenced each other positively and reciprocally, making prudent use of control exchanges and setting firm limits to coercive attempts. Aggressive children and their mothers were relatively positive, but children made regular use of coercive control and mothers responded indiscriminately and failed to oppose more extreme forms of coercion. Anxious children and their mothers were generally aversive: mothers attempted to control their children by being coercive and unresponsive, and children tried to manage their mothers by being resistant and coercive. Results show that young children are active agents who influence and are influenced by their relationship with their mother and who behave--across contexts and with different social partners--in ways that reflect this relationship.

Forty 4-to 5-year-old first-born children in two preschool groups, differing markedly in terms of classroom ecology (class size, number of children with behavior problems), were observed throughout a school year. Peer competence was assessed via (a) teacher rankings of social competence, (b) peer sociometrics, and behavioral measures of (c) social participation, (d) attention structure and (e) social dominance. Also, rates of positive and negative affect, affiliation, leadership, assertiveness, and aggression were recorded in two different settings. Individual rates of affective expression and social behavior were temporally stable and consistent across contexts for both classes. However, patterns of intercorrelations revealed substantial differences between the behavioral ecologies of the two classes. Teacher judgements and peer sociometrics were most robust with respect to these ecological influences and most consistently related to external criteria. Finally, two dimensions of peer competence were evident: (a) an affiliative dimension characterized by emotional warmth, social maturity, and peer popularity and (b) a power dimension involving positive and negative affect and high peer status. Children with secure attachment histories were higher on the affiliative dimension, whereas anxious-resistant children were lowest in peer status. These results were especially evident for girls.Requests for reprints should be sent to L.

An analysis of the Preschool Socioaffective Profile (PSP) using a sample of 608 preschoolers revealed high internal consistency, interrater reliability, and stability for the 8 10-item scales and identified 3 coherent factors representing externalizing and internalizing behavior problems and social competence. Boys scored higher than girls on externalizing measures, but not on internalizing measures, which were largely orthogonal. PSP scores were correlated with Child Behavior Check List teacher ratings, and each scale was found to differentiate a clinical sample from the complete sample. Using a typological approach, the anxious-withdrawn group was found to be the least interactive with peers; the angry-aggressive group, the most interactive and most rejected; and the competent group, highest in sociometric status. Finally, substantial coherence was reported between laboratory observations of mother-child interaction and PSP classification.

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