Table of Contents | Previous | Next |
MOTHERS’ SOCIALIZATION OF TODDLER CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Lisa Baumwell, Tonia Cristofaro, and Mark Spellmann
New York University
Numerous studies show that peer conflict is quite prevalent in young children’s lives. As part of children’s socialization, parents transmit beliefs regarding appropriate responses to conflict situations. Extant literature suggests that as these beliefs become instantiated in parental behavior, they influence children’s social behavior and become critical to the development of social competence.
One such belief about conflict resolution is that aggression is a legitimate solution to social problems. Parents who fail to intervene when children behave aggressively implicitly communicate to their young children that aggression is acceptable. Investigations have linked the belief that aggression is a socially acceptable response with childhood aggression. This is troublesome since children’s early patterns of aggression become increasingly stable and destructive as they grow older. Fortunately, intervention programs that target social problem solving have shown that the cognitions underlying aggression are potentially modifiable especially if interventions are introduced early.
While many studies demonstrate the importance of mothers’ attributions of their children’s social behaviors and mothers’ overall parenting goals, few studies have investigated low-income mothers’ beliefs about how their children should resolve peer conflicts. Likewise, many studies of children’s conflict resolution have been conducted with elementary school children and have not been extended to parents’ socialization of toddler conflict resolution. Therefore, in this particular examination, we sought to characterize mothers’ attitudes about the strategies that their young children should employ in conflict situations with peers. We also explored how these maternal beliefs are affected by participation in Early Head Start.
The sample was comprised of a subset of families from the 36-month Early Head Start (EHS) cohort in New York City. Sixty mothers of 27 girls and 33 boys were participants in this particular study. Mothers’ mean age at the time of their children’s 3-year-old birthday was 24.6 (SD = 7.1). Mothers were from ethnically diverse backgrounds. Children’s gender and mothers’ ethnicity did not relate to maternal beliefs about conflict resolution.
During the 36-month-home visit, mothers were instructed to complete a conflict resolution self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on a social problem-solving scale used by Slaby and Guerra (1988) geared to a sample of adolescents. The questionnaire required mothers to choose strategies that they would want their 3-year-old children to use in four hypothetical conflict situations. Participants were asked to imagine that their child was involved in a situation with a peer who is intrusive or interferes with a goal, such as in the following situation:
Your child is standing in line for a drink at a water fountain. Another child comes along and pushes your child out of the way and takes his/her place. What would you want your child to do? (fill in ALL that apply)
-
Call the other child names.
-
Push the other child out of the way.
-
Walk away.
-
Tell an adult (parent, teacher) and ask for help.
-
Tell the other child that “This is my place, please get in line.”
The other three scenarios depicted conflict over a toy, name-calling, and physical belligerence. For each conflict, mothers were presented with solutions appropriate to the target situation. The five solutions reflected: ask an adult for help, verbal prosocial responses (words with peers), walk away, physical aggression, and verbal aggression. Chronbach’s alpha ranged from .66 to .89 indicating the internal reliability of the scale.
The ranges for ask an adult for help, verbal prosocial responses, walk away, physical aggression, and verbal aggression were 0-4, 0-6, 0-4, 0-3, and 0-1, respectively. To assess mothers’ beliefs regarding their children’s resolution of peer conflicts, frequencies of the five strategies were calculated across the four situations. Ninety-two percent of the mothers responded that ask an adult for help was desirable as opposed to 8 percent who did not choose the strategy once (see Figure 1). In fact, 29 of the mothers believed that asking an adult for help was preferred in all four situations. Responses that were verbally prosocial (with peers) were also common in that 75 percent of the mothers preferred it at least once; 25 percent of the mothers did not single it out (see Figure 2). Thirty-eight percent chose walk away at least once while 62 percent never viewed it as a way to solve peer conflicts (see Figure 3). Surprisingly, 23 percent of the mothers opted for physical aggression while 77 percent did not (see Figure 4). Only 8 percent of mothers stated that verbal aggression was an appropriate strategy at least once. Ninety-two percent never chose verbal aggression as a justifiable response to peer conflict (see Figure 5).
Some interesting patterns emerged regarding mothers’ number of children and age. Mothers with more children were less likely to consider walk away as a viable alternative in conflict situations as compared to mothers with less children (r = -.29, p < .05). Older mothers were more likely than younger mothers to view verbal prosocial peer strategies as legitimate responses to peer conflict (r = .26, p < .05).
|
[D] |
|
[D] |
[D] |
[D] |
|
[D] |
Although it was possible for mothers to choose both aggressive and prosocial responses in the same situations, mothers tended not to do so. Mothers who chose physical aggression as a strategy were less likely to choose verbal prosocial responses (r = -.27, p < .05). Mothers who selected verbal prosocial strategies and ask an adult for help were less likely to select verbal aggression (rs = -.36, and -39, ps < .01). In contrast, mothers who viewed verbal aggression as a solution to peer provocation tended to view physical aggression as a noteworthy strategy (r = .47, p < .001). Walk away was not associated with any other variables.
Multiple t tests were calculated to examine the effects of Early Head Start on mothers’ beliefs about strategies for children’s peer conflict resolution. When Treatment mothers (N = 28) were compared to Control mothers (N = 32), no differences were found regarding conflict resolution strategies. However, many of the families randomly assigned to the two Early Head Start sites, Teen Aid High School and Educational Alliance, did not actually participate at the centers. Hence, program participation was determined by the staff at the Early Head Start sites. Families were considered to be “receiving” Early Head Start services only when attendance was “fair” or better and were called attendees. Families with “poor” attendance (no services from EHS) were excluded from further analyses. Importantly, findings suggested that the poor attendees had more traditional values, more violence in their lives, and less social support than attendees (M. Spellmann, personal communication, 2002).
Teen Aid attendees (N = 8) advocated walk away more than Teen Aid controls (N = 15), t(21) = 2.12, p < .05. Educational Alliance attendees (N = 7) endorsed physical aggression and walk away less than controls (N = 17), t(22) = 2.50, p < .05 and t(22) = 1.77, p < .10. In contrast to controls, mothers who received services from Educational Alliance tended to support ask an adult for help, t(22) = 1.94, p < .07.
In this study, we sought to elucidate mothers’ attitudes about how their children should resolve peer conflicts. Although the literature suggests that mothers see their children’s peer aggression as misbehavior, almost one quarter of the mothers in this study endorsed physical aggression as a desirable strategy in resolving peer conflict. This belief contributes to a socialization environment in which the child believes that aggression is appropriate and acceptable. In fact, highly aggressive children and adolescents see aggression as a legitimate response to social discord.
An important finding was that most of the mothers in this study selected conflict resolution strategies predictive of children’s prosocial competence. In addition, mothers were consistent in their adoption of strategies. In general, those mothers who endorsed verbal aggression also endorsed physical aggression. Mothers who promoted verbal prosocial peer responses and asking an adult for help did not advocate aggression.
Although aggression is a relatively stable behavior, our findings suggest that mothers’ beliefs about children’s conflict resolution can be modified by intervention. Teen Aid mothers supported walking away more often than those participants who did not attend Teen Aid. Mothers that were present at Educational Alliance endorsed physical aggression less often than those participants who did not attend Educational Alliance. Instead, Educational Alliance mothers wanted their children to ask adults for assistance with peer disputes. It is notable that attendance in Early Head Start did not impact mothers’ selection of prosocial peer responses, a solution touted in the literature and in schools. Programs may need to educate parents about the benefits of encouraging children to employ verbal strategies in negotiations with peers. Nevertheless, three quarters of the mothers chose this strategy at least once indicating that prosocial verbal negotiation is a recognized solution of mothers in this sample.
It is likely that Early Head Start program participation, perhaps by informing parenting or influencing child behaviors, positively influenced mothers’ beliefs about how children should resolve peer conflict. Specifically, antiviolence messages, such as encouraging teens to walk away from potential conflicts, were possibly modeled and promoted in the Early Head Start sites. The particular content of the Early Head Start programs, which supported nonaggressive prosocial beliefs, should be identified to facilitate replication in other centers.
This study aimed to shed light on the value of maternal beliefs in shaping young children’s resolution strategies in peer conflicts. However, it must be remembered that a mother’s approach to conflict resolution is just one, albeit important, facet of a broader childrearing perspective. Further research should illuminate how parental beliefs emerge, how beliefs contribute to the developmental outcomes of children, and the styles of parenting that beliefs subsume.
References
Guerra, N.G., & Slaby, R.G. (1990). Cognitive mediators of aggression in adolescent offenders: 2. Intervention. Developmental Psychology, 26 (2), 269-277.
Hastings, P.D., & Coplan, R. (1999). Conceptual and empirical links between children’s social spheres: Relating maternal beliefs and preschoolers’ behaviors with peers. In C.C. Piotrowski and P.D. Hastings (Eds.), Conflict as a context for understanding maternal beliefs about child rearing and children’s misbehavior (pp. 43-59). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Hastings, P.D., & Rubin, K.H. (1999). Predicting mothers’
beliefs about preschool-aged children’s social behavior: Evidence
for maternal attitudes moderating child effects.
Child Development, 70 (3), 722-241.
Ladd, G.W., & Golter, B.S. (1988). Parents’ management of preschoolers’ peer relations: Is it related to children’s social competence? Developmental Psychology, 24 (1), 109-117.
Ross, H., Tesla, C., Kenyon, B., & Lollis, S. (1990). Maternal intervention in toddler peer conflict: The socialization of principles of justice. Developmental Psychology, 26 (6), 994-1003.
Slaby, R.G., & Guerra, N.G. (1988). Cognitive mediators of aggression in adolescent offenders: 1. Assessment. Developmental Psychology, 24 (4), 580-588.
| Table of Contents | Previous | Next |