The relation of maternal control and warmth to infants’ regulation in a wait task

Abstract

As infants’ mobility increases at the end of the first year, they are more likely to move independently and approach prohibited objects or dangerous places, which makes parents more likely to exert control to cease such undesirable behaviors. Although power assertion is sometimes inevitable to protect child from injury or to prevent inappropriate behavior, little is known about the effect of maternal power assertiveness on infants younger than 2 years old. Moreover, research also reveals that maternal warmth is beneficial in the regulation of children’s behavior and emotions. Yet, only few studies have examined maternal warmth during a prohibition situation in infancy. In the present study, the additive and interactive roles of mothers’ power assertiveness and expression of warmth were examined on infant’s regulation in a laboratory task that involved a prohibition paradigm. A total of 74 mother-infant dyads (Mage = 13.3 months, SD = 0.42) from low-to-middle income families participated in the present study. Maternal power assertiveness, warmth, and different facets of infant’s regulation, i.e. noncompliance and distress, were coded in 5-second epochs during the task. Regression analyses revealed that maternal warmth negatively predicted children’s noncompliance and distress, whereas positively predicted infant’s regulation over and above power assertion. High power assertion made a unique contribution to the prediction of infants’ distress. Yet, this main effect was qualified with an interaction effect. High levels of power assertion were positively associated with infants’ more frequent distress expression, yet this relation was stronger in the case of low maternal warmth.