Children's Emerging Regulation of Conduct: Restraint, Compliance, and Internalization from Infancy to the Second Year

Abstract

We examined emergent regulation of conduct from infancy to the second year. Multiple observational measures at home and in the laboratory assessed, at 8-10 months, the child's restraint and attention (N = 112), and at 13-15 months, compliance to mother, internalization of her prohibition, and quality of motivation in the mother-child teaching context (N = 108). We replicated the findings previously reported for older children that supported our view of compliance and noncompliance as heterogeneous: Committed compliance was higher to maternal "don'ts" than "dos," with the reverse true for situational compliance; girls surpassed boys in committed compliance; and committed, but not situational, compliance related positively, and passive noncompliance negatively, to children's internalization of maternal prohibition. We extended previous work into three new directions: children's committed compliance and passive noncompliance in control contexts related predictably to their motivation in mother-child teaching contexts; restraint at 8-10 months predicted higher committed compliance at 13-15 months; and focused attention at 8-10 months was associated with contemporaneous restraint and modestly with committed compliance to maternal "dos" at 13-15 months.

Paternal Alcoholism and Toddler Noncompliance

“…Each 30-sec segment was coded for the predominant quality of child compliance or noncompliance. The coding categories developed by Kochanska and her colleagues consist of five mutually exclusive codes: committed compliance, situational compliance, passive noncompliance, overt resistance, and defiance [see Kochanska et al (1998) for further details about this coding scheme]. Given that situational compliance was fairly common at both 18 and 24 months and did not predict any later outcome, it was dropped from analyses.…”

“…Child compliance with parental rules is viewed as the first step in the gradual developmental shift from external to internal control of behavior. In this view, compliance is important as a precursor to conscience development (Kochanska et al, 1998). Researchers have established that compliance with rules of conduct emerges during the second year of life (Smetana et al, 2000).…”

“…Researchers have established that compliance with rules of conduct emerges during the second year of life (Smetana et al, 2000). The construct of compliance has also been demonstrated as being somewhat heterogenous, with committed compliance being a predictor and an early form of internalization of rules of conduct Kochanska et al, , 1998. Kochanska and her colleagues have defined committed compliance as reflecting wholehearted engagement with parental agenda and following of parental directives in an enthusiastic, self-regulated, and proactive fashion without immediate parental control (Kochanska et al, , 1998.…”

“…The construct of compliance has also been demonstrated as being somewhat heterogenous, with committed compliance being a predictor and an early form of internalization of rules of conduct Kochanska et al, , 1998. Kochanska and her colleagues have defined committed compliance as reflecting wholehearted engagement with parental agenda and following of parental directives in an enthusiastic, self-regulated, and proactive fashion without immediate parental control (Kochanska et al, , 1998. Various degrees of noncompliance have also been established, with passive noncompliance (mostly ignoring parental control) being most common in the second year of life and being negatively associated with later internalization of rules of conduct.…”

Easily Frustrated Infants: Implications for Emotion Regulation Strategies and Cognitive Functioning

“…Nigg et al (2004) believes that some of these regulatory behaviors rely on attention, as captured in the regulatory construct of effortful control. Kochanska, Tjebkes, & Forman (1998) suggested that easily frustrated infants are more likely to have shorter attention spans and longer latencies to organize a response requiring focused attention. Calkins et al (2002) concludes that difficulties in the control of attention and the ability to sustain attention may be related to frustration reactivity.…”