No abstract

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.

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This study explored adults' judgments of competent and dysfunctional children's behavioral adjustment based solely on children's physical appearance. Adults rated photographs of preschoolers (6 boys, 6 girls) who previously had been classified as socially competent or dysfunctional on the basis of independent, standardized teacher ratings. Participants, who were not given any information about the stimulus children, rated their photographs one at a time on measures of attractiveness, aggression, anxiety, social competence, and overall adjustment. Results indicated that dysfunctional children were easily distinguished from their competent peers. Specifically, dysfunctional children were rated as less attractive, more aggressive, more anxious, less socially competent, and more likely to have an emotional or behavioral problem than competent children. These findings (especially strong for aggressive boys), remained significant when group differences in attractiveness were statistically controlled. Implications for interpreting the current literature on attractiveness and for modification of childhood behavior disorders are discussed.

No abstract