Many scholars contribute their time and expertise to the quality of this journal by providing rev... more Many scholars contribute their time and expertise to the quality of this journal by providing reviews of submitted manuscripts. We thank the individuals listed here, as well as members of the Editorial Board listed on the inside cover, for their recent work on behalf of this journal. The Editors
The goal of this study was to examine the links among attachment, child temperament, and the qual... more The goal of this study was to examine the links among attachment, child temperament, and the quality and frequency of mother-toddler conflict. Sixty-four mothers and children took part in a series of laboratory tasks when the child was 30 months of age and an audiorecorded home observation when the child was 36 months of age. All episodes of conflict were identified from the videotapes/audiotapes, transcribed, and coded for conflict strategies, resolution, and themes. Mothers also completed measures of attachment security and child temperament. Concurrent attachment security was related to the quality of mother-toddler conflict (including resolution, justification, and compromise) at both periods but not to the frequency of conflict. In addition, aspects of child temperament (i.e., negative reactivity and activity level/impulsivity) were related to both the quality and the frequency of mother-toddler conflict.
Although there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies that reminiscing is an important con... more Although there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies that reminiscing is an important context in which children construct socioemotional understanding, longitudinal evidence is lacking. The goal of this study was to examine longitudinally the links between the quality of reminiscing at 42 months and children's subsequent socioemotional development at 48 months. At 42 months, mothers and children reminisced about a past negatively-valenced emotional event. These conversations were coded for maternal elaboration, the children's contribution and engagement, and the degree to which meaning was co-constructed by the dyad. At 42 and 48 months, children took part in laboratory measures of socioemotional development. Whereas there were few links between concurrent reminiscing quality and sociomoral development, aspects of reminiscing quality at 42 months (including children's engagement and the dyad's co-construction of meaning) were related to children's emotional understanding, empathy, representations of relationships, and moral-self at 48 months. This study provides some of the first longitudinal evidence that reminiscing conversations are linked with children's subsequent sociomoral understanding.
This study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family ... more This study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family relationships, and children's social behavior. Seventy-four children (M age = 6.01 years; 39 boys; 35 girls) and their parents took part in the study. Children completed relationship-oriented doll stories that were coded for coherence, prosocial themes, and aggressive themes. Parents completed a report of their child's social behavior, a parenting scale, and a number of demographic items. Teachers also completed measures of children's social competence and externalizing behavior. Warm parenting predicted both a child's representation of prosocial themes in the doll stories and social competence, whereas harsh parenting predicted both a child's use of aggressive themes in the doll stories and a child's externalizing behavior. These findings support the idea that children are constructing models of relationships out of the early interactions with caregivers, and that they use these representations to guide their social behavior.
Researchers have speculated that a number of factors likely predict the quality of reminiscing be... more Researchers have speculated that a number of factors likely predict the quality of reminiscing between preschool children and their mothers. This study was designed to investigate three such factors, including child temperament, maternal personality, and maternal caregiving representations. 70 mothers and their preschool children were recruited for the study. When the child was 42 months of age, mothers completed measures of her personality and the child's temperament. Mothers also took part in the shortened Parent Development Inventory that was coded for coherence, pleasure, comfort, and perspective taking. At both 42 and 48 months, the mother-child dyad reminisced about a past event in which the child experienced a negative emotion. These conversations were coded for the amount of maternal elaboration, the discussion of emotion, and dyadic qualities (such as collaboration and intersubjectivity). At 42 months, aspects of maternal personality and child temperament were most associated with reminiscing quality. However, at 48 months, it was primarily maternal representations of relationships that predicted high quality reminiscing in the dyad. There is growing empirical evidence that children's emotional and relational understanding is socialized in the context of parent-child discourse (Brown & Dunn, 1996; Denham, 1992; Denham, Zoller, & Couchoud, 1994; Laible, 2004a). In the context of everyday discourse with children, parents help clarify the aspects of social experiences that are not always apparent and are often confusing for young children, including intentions, beliefs, and emotions (Thompson, Laible, & Ontai, 2003). Conversations about emotion begin remarkably early in development, often before the age of 2, and continue throughout the preschool years (Beeghly, Bretherton, & Mervis, 1986; Capatides & Bloom, 1993; Dunn, Brown, & Beardsall, 1991). By discussing emotion with young children, parents can elucidate the causes of emotion, discuss the consequences of emotion, and suggest ways to cope with emotion, all of which are important aspects of emotional competence (Denham, 1998). Thus, it is not surprising that frequent rich discussion about emotion in the toddler and preschool years has been linked both with children's subsequent use of emotional language and their subsequent emotional understanding (Brown & Dunn, 1996; Denham et al., 1994; Dunn et al., 1991). Research suggests that young children struggle with understanding and coping with negative emotion in particular (Laible & Panfile, 2009). Parent-child discussions about negative
Accepted Manuscript Negative emotionality and emotion regulation: A person-centered approach to p... more Accepted Manuscript Negative emotionality and emotion regulation: A person-centered approach to predicting socioemotional adjustment in young adolescents Deborah Laible, Tia Panfile, Jessica Eye, Gustavo Carlo, Jeffrey Parker PII: S0092-6566(10)00111-X DOI: ...
Many scholars contribute their time and expertise to the quality of this journal by providing rev... more Many scholars contribute their time and expertise to the quality of this journal by providing reviews of submitted manuscripts. We thank the individuals listed here, as well as members of the Editorial Board listed on the inside cover, for their recent work on behalf of this journal. The Editors
The following paper provides an introduction to the work of the EU funded DISCUS (Distance Inform... more The following paper provides an introduction to the work of the EU funded DISCUS (Distance Information, Support and Communication for European Carers) project. The paper summarises the work carried out in the project since it began in July 1998 and provides an overview of ...
Notes that most Early Head Start children have either a father who lives with them or an involved... more Notes that most Early Head Start children have either a father who lives with them or an involved nonresident father. However, there is considerable variation across programs, with some programs serving a higher percentage of resident fathers, depending on the program setting or population served. Furthermore, programs vary in how they perceive their experience with father involvement, with most (72 percent) viewing themselves as novices in this area.
Bidirectional theories of social development have been around for over 40 years (Bell, 1968), yet... more Bidirectional theories of social development have been around for over 40 years (Bell, 1968), yet they have been applied primarily to the study of antisocial development. In the present study, the reciprocal relationship between parenting behavior and children's socially competent behaviors were examined. Using the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care data set (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005), bidirectional relationships between parental sensitivity and children's prosocial behavior were modeled using latent variables in structural equation modeling for mothers and fathers, separately. Children and their parents engaged in structured interactions when children were 54-month-olds, 3rd graders, and 5th graders, and these interactions were coded for parental sensitivity. At 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades, teachers and parents reported on children's prosocial behavior. Parental education and child gender were entered as covariates in the models. The results provide support for a bidirectional relationship between children's prosocial behavior and maternal sensitivity (but not paternal sensitivity) in middle childhood. The importance of using a bidirectional approach to examine the development of social competence is emphasized.
This study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family ... more This study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family relationships, and children's social behavior. Seventy-four children (M age = 6.01 years; 39 boys; 35 girls) and their parents took part in the study. Children completed relationship-oriented doll stories that were coded for coherence, prosocial themes, and aggressive themes. Parents completed a report of their child's social behavior, a parenting scale, and a number of demographic items. Teachers also completed measures of children's social competence and externalizing behavior. Warm parenting predicted both a child's representation of prosocial themes in the doll stories and social competence, whereas harsh parenting predicted both a child's use of aggressive themes in the doll stories and a child's externalizing behavior. These findings support the idea that children are constructing models of relationships out of the early interactions with caregivers, and that they use these representations to guide their social behavior.
The purpose of the study was to examine the differential relations between motherchild reminiscin... more The purpose of the study was to examine the differential relations between motherchild reminiscing about a positive emotional event vs. a negative emotional event and attachment security, family climate, and young children's socioemotional development. Fifty preschool children (M age = 50.69 months, SD = 4.64) and their mothers completed two reminiscing conversations at the laboratory, which were coded for emotion-laden discourse, affect, and elaboration, and children completed measures of emotional understanding and representations of relationships. At their homes, mothers completed the attachment Q-sort and the self-report family inventory. Both attachment security and family climate were related to the quality of mother-child affect and maternal elaboration during both positive and negative reminiscing conversations. Attachment security and family climate, however, were principally related to discussion of emotion during the negative event discussions. In addition, it was mother-child reminiscing about the negative emotional event that was associated with high levels of children's socioemotional development.
The goal of this study was to examine how aspects of self-regulation and negative emotionality pr... more The goal of this study was to examine how aspects of self-regulation and negative emotionality predicted children's co-operative and prosocial behavior concurrently and longitudinally using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Mothers completed measures of children's temperamental proneness to negative emotionality and self-regulation at 54 months. Teachers and parents completed measures of children's co-operative and prosocial behavior at 54 months, first grade, and third grade. A latent profile analysis of the temperamental variables revealed four profiles of children: those high in regulation and low in negative emotionality, those moderate in regulation and moderate in negative emotionality, those low in regulation and high in negative emotionality, and finally those who were very low in regulation but high in anger emotionality. Generally, children with profiles that were high or moderate in terms of regulation and low or moderate in terms of negative emotionality were rated as the most prosocial and co-operative. Children with profiles that were less well regulated and who were high in negative emotionality (particularly anger proneness) were rated as less co-operative and prosocial by parents and teachers.
well as aggressive behaviors and social information processing. Children completed multiple asses... more well as aggressive behaviors and social information processing. Children completed multiple assessments of social information processing (including attribution biases and strategy response selection) from the 3rd to 5th grades. Mothers and teachers completed measures of children's prosocial and aggressive behavior from the 3rd to 6th grades. Overall, the findings demonstrated that some of the links between social information processing and social behavior are bidirectional but that the direction of effects depends on when such links were assessed. At Grade 3, it was mostly children's social behavior that predicted social information processing. At Grades 4 and 5, however, social information processing predicted children's social behavior.
Although there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies that reminiscing is an important con... more Although there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies that reminiscing is an important context in which children construct socioemotional understanding, longitudinal evidence is lacking. The goal of this study was to examine longitudinally the links between the quality of reminiscing at 42 months and children's subsequent socioemotional development at 48 months. At 42 months, mothers and children reminisced about a past negatively-valenced emotional event. These conversations were coded for maternal elaboration, the children's contribution and engagement, and the degree to which meaning was co-constructed by the dyad. At 42 and 48 months, children took part in laboratory measures of socioemotional development. Whereas there were few links between concurrent reminiscing quality and sociomoral development, aspects of reminiscing quality at 42 months (including children's engagement and the dyad's co-construction of meaning) were related to children's emotional understanding, empathy, representations of relationships, and moral-self at 48 months. This study provides some of the first longitudinal evidence that reminiscing conversations are linked with children's subsequent sociomoral understanding.
Emotionality and emotion regulation are presumed to interact to produce social behavior. Prior em... more Emotionality and emotion regulation are presumed to interact to produce social behavior. Prior empirical evidence for this interaction has been weak. Researchers have tended to take a variable-centered approach to predicting social behavior and this may have obscured the relations between negative emotionality, emotion regulation, and social behavior. Therefore, a person-centered approach was used to examine the links among these variables. Two-hundred and three adolescents (M age = 13.3 years) completed measures of negative emotionality, emotion regulation, and socioemotional behavior. Cluster analysis suggested four profiles of adolescents: those moderate on regulation and negative emotionality, those low in both, those high in negative emotionality and low in regulation, those low in negative emotionality and high in regulation. LDF analysis suggested that these profiles of adolescents differed along two dimensions on socioemotional behavior.
The goal of this study was to examine whether attachment security and child temperament predicted... more The goal of this study was to examine whether attachment security and child temperament predicted differences in the elaboration and emotional content of mother-child discourse in 2 contexts and whether those differences were related to a child's socioemotional development. Fifty-one preschool children and their mothers were videotaped reading a storybook and discussing the child's previous behavior. These conversations were coded for maternal elaboration and emotional content. Mothers also completed reports of child temperament, attachment security, and social behavior. Children completed measures of emotional understanding, behavioral internalization, and representations of relationships. The findings suggested that both aspects of mother-child discourse were related to attachment, temperament, and socioemotional competence, although the findings varied depending on the context of the discourse.
Many scholars contribute their time and expertise to the quality of this journal by providing rev... more Many scholars contribute their time and expertise to the quality of this journal by providing reviews of submitted manuscripts. We thank the individuals listed here, as well as members of the Editorial Board listed on the inside cover, for their recent work on behalf of this journal. The Editors
The goal of this study was to examine the links among attachment, child temperament, and the qual... more The goal of this study was to examine the links among attachment, child temperament, and the quality and frequency of mother-toddler conflict. Sixty-four mothers and children took part in a series of laboratory tasks when the child was 30 months of age and an audiorecorded home observation when the child was 36 months of age. All episodes of conflict were identified from the videotapes/audiotapes, transcribed, and coded for conflict strategies, resolution, and themes. Mothers also completed measures of attachment security and child temperament. Concurrent attachment security was related to the quality of mother-toddler conflict (including resolution, justification, and compromise) at both periods but not to the frequency of conflict. In addition, aspects of child temperament (i.e., negative reactivity and activity level/impulsivity) were related to both the quality and the frequency of mother-toddler conflict.
Although there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies that reminiscing is an important con... more Although there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies that reminiscing is an important context in which children construct socioemotional understanding, longitudinal evidence is lacking. The goal of this study was to examine longitudinally the links between the quality of reminiscing at 42 months and children's subsequent socioemotional development at 48 months. At 42 months, mothers and children reminisced about a past negatively-valenced emotional event. These conversations were coded for maternal elaboration, the children's contribution and engagement, and the degree to which meaning was co-constructed by the dyad. At 42 and 48 months, children took part in laboratory measures of socioemotional development. Whereas there were few links between concurrent reminiscing quality and sociomoral development, aspects of reminiscing quality at 42 months (including children's engagement and the dyad's co-construction of meaning) were related to children's emotional understanding, empathy, representations of relationships, and moral-self at 48 months. This study provides some of the first longitudinal evidence that reminiscing conversations are linked with children's subsequent sociomoral understanding.
This study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family ... more This study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family relationships, and children's social behavior. Seventy-four children (M age = 6.01 years; 39 boys; 35 girls) and their parents took part in the study. Children completed relationship-oriented doll stories that were coded for coherence, prosocial themes, and aggressive themes. Parents completed a report of their child's social behavior, a parenting scale, and a number of demographic items. Teachers also completed measures of children's social competence and externalizing behavior. Warm parenting predicted both a child's representation of prosocial themes in the doll stories and social competence, whereas harsh parenting predicted both a child's use of aggressive themes in the doll stories and a child's externalizing behavior. These findings support the idea that children are constructing models of relationships out of the early interactions with caregivers, and that they use these representations to guide their social behavior.
Researchers have speculated that a number of factors likely predict the quality of reminiscing be... more Researchers have speculated that a number of factors likely predict the quality of reminiscing between preschool children and their mothers. This study was designed to investigate three such factors, including child temperament, maternal personality, and maternal caregiving representations. 70 mothers and their preschool children were recruited for the study. When the child was 42 months of age, mothers completed measures of her personality and the child's temperament. Mothers also took part in the shortened Parent Development Inventory that was coded for coherence, pleasure, comfort, and perspective taking. At both 42 and 48 months, the mother-child dyad reminisced about a past event in which the child experienced a negative emotion. These conversations were coded for the amount of maternal elaboration, the discussion of emotion, and dyadic qualities (such as collaboration and intersubjectivity). At 42 months, aspects of maternal personality and child temperament were most associated with reminiscing quality. However, at 48 months, it was primarily maternal representations of relationships that predicted high quality reminiscing in the dyad. There is growing empirical evidence that children's emotional and relational understanding is socialized in the context of parent-child discourse (Brown & Dunn, 1996; Denham, 1992; Denham, Zoller, & Couchoud, 1994; Laible, 2004a). In the context of everyday discourse with children, parents help clarify the aspects of social experiences that are not always apparent and are often confusing for young children, including intentions, beliefs, and emotions (Thompson, Laible, & Ontai, 2003). Conversations about emotion begin remarkably early in development, often before the age of 2, and continue throughout the preschool years (Beeghly, Bretherton, & Mervis, 1986; Capatides & Bloom, 1993; Dunn, Brown, & Beardsall, 1991). By discussing emotion with young children, parents can elucidate the causes of emotion, discuss the consequences of emotion, and suggest ways to cope with emotion, all of which are important aspects of emotional competence (Denham, 1998). Thus, it is not surprising that frequent rich discussion about emotion in the toddler and preschool years has been linked both with children's subsequent use of emotional language and their subsequent emotional understanding (Brown & Dunn, 1996; Denham et al., 1994; Dunn et al., 1991). Research suggests that young children struggle with understanding and coping with negative emotion in particular (Laible & Panfile, 2009). Parent-child discussions about negative
Accepted Manuscript Negative emotionality and emotion regulation: A person-centered approach to p... more Accepted Manuscript Negative emotionality and emotion regulation: A person-centered approach to predicting socioemotional adjustment in young adolescents Deborah Laible, Tia Panfile, Jessica Eye, Gustavo Carlo, Jeffrey Parker PII: S0092-6566(10)00111-X DOI: ...
Many scholars contribute their time and expertise to the quality of this journal by providing rev... more Many scholars contribute their time and expertise to the quality of this journal by providing reviews of submitted manuscripts. We thank the individuals listed here, as well as members of the Editorial Board listed on the inside cover, for their recent work on behalf of this journal. The Editors
The following paper provides an introduction to the work of the EU funded DISCUS (Distance Inform... more The following paper provides an introduction to the work of the EU funded DISCUS (Distance Information, Support and Communication for European Carers) project. The paper summarises the work carried out in the project since it began in July 1998 and provides an overview of ...
Notes that most Early Head Start children have either a father who lives with them or an involved... more Notes that most Early Head Start children have either a father who lives with them or an involved nonresident father. However, there is considerable variation across programs, with some programs serving a higher percentage of resident fathers, depending on the program setting or population served. Furthermore, programs vary in how they perceive their experience with father involvement, with most (72 percent) viewing themselves as novices in this area.
Bidirectional theories of social development have been around for over 40 years (Bell, 1968), yet... more Bidirectional theories of social development have been around for over 40 years (Bell, 1968), yet they have been applied primarily to the study of antisocial development. In the present study, the reciprocal relationship between parenting behavior and children's socially competent behaviors were examined. Using the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care data set (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005), bidirectional relationships between parental sensitivity and children's prosocial behavior were modeled using latent variables in structural equation modeling for mothers and fathers, separately. Children and their parents engaged in structured interactions when children were 54-month-olds, 3rd graders, and 5th graders, and these interactions were coded for parental sensitivity. At 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades, teachers and parents reported on children's prosocial behavior. Parental education and child gender were entered as covariates in the models. The results provide support for a bidirectional relationship between children's prosocial behavior and maternal sensitivity (but not paternal sensitivity) in middle childhood. The importance of using a bidirectional approach to examine the development of social competence is emphasized.
This study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family ... more This study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family relationships, and children's social behavior. Seventy-four children (M age = 6.01 years; 39 boys; 35 girls) and their parents took part in the study. Children completed relationship-oriented doll stories that were coded for coherence, prosocial themes, and aggressive themes. Parents completed a report of their child's social behavior, a parenting scale, and a number of demographic items. Teachers also completed measures of children's social competence and externalizing behavior. Warm parenting predicted both a child's representation of prosocial themes in the doll stories and social competence, whereas harsh parenting predicted both a child's use of aggressive themes in the doll stories and a child's externalizing behavior. These findings support the idea that children are constructing models of relationships out of the early interactions with caregivers, and that they use these representations to guide their social behavior.
The purpose of the study was to examine the differential relations between motherchild reminiscin... more The purpose of the study was to examine the differential relations between motherchild reminiscing about a positive emotional event vs. a negative emotional event and attachment security, family climate, and young children's socioemotional development. Fifty preschool children (M age = 50.69 months, SD = 4.64) and their mothers completed two reminiscing conversations at the laboratory, which were coded for emotion-laden discourse, affect, and elaboration, and children completed measures of emotional understanding and representations of relationships. At their homes, mothers completed the attachment Q-sort and the self-report family inventory. Both attachment security and family climate were related to the quality of mother-child affect and maternal elaboration during both positive and negative reminiscing conversations. Attachment security and family climate, however, were principally related to discussion of emotion during the negative event discussions. In addition, it was mother-child reminiscing about the negative emotional event that was associated with high levels of children's socioemotional development.
The goal of this study was to examine how aspects of self-regulation and negative emotionality pr... more The goal of this study was to examine how aspects of self-regulation and negative emotionality predicted children's co-operative and prosocial behavior concurrently and longitudinally using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Mothers completed measures of children's temperamental proneness to negative emotionality and self-regulation at 54 months. Teachers and parents completed measures of children's co-operative and prosocial behavior at 54 months, first grade, and third grade. A latent profile analysis of the temperamental variables revealed four profiles of children: those high in regulation and low in negative emotionality, those moderate in regulation and moderate in negative emotionality, those low in regulation and high in negative emotionality, and finally those who were very low in regulation but high in anger emotionality. Generally, children with profiles that were high or moderate in terms of regulation and low or moderate in terms of negative emotionality were rated as the most prosocial and co-operative. Children with profiles that were less well regulated and who were high in negative emotionality (particularly anger proneness) were rated as less co-operative and prosocial by parents and teachers.
well as aggressive behaviors and social information processing. Children completed multiple asses... more well as aggressive behaviors and social information processing. Children completed multiple assessments of social information processing (including attribution biases and strategy response selection) from the 3rd to 5th grades. Mothers and teachers completed measures of children's prosocial and aggressive behavior from the 3rd to 6th grades. Overall, the findings demonstrated that some of the links between social information processing and social behavior are bidirectional but that the direction of effects depends on when such links were assessed. At Grade 3, it was mostly children's social behavior that predicted social information processing. At Grades 4 and 5, however, social information processing predicted children's social behavior.
Although there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies that reminiscing is an important con... more Although there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies that reminiscing is an important context in which children construct socioemotional understanding, longitudinal evidence is lacking. The goal of this study was to examine longitudinally the links between the quality of reminiscing at 42 months and children's subsequent socioemotional development at 48 months. At 42 months, mothers and children reminisced about a past negatively-valenced emotional event. These conversations were coded for maternal elaboration, the children's contribution and engagement, and the degree to which meaning was co-constructed by the dyad. At 42 and 48 months, children took part in laboratory measures of socioemotional development. Whereas there were few links between concurrent reminiscing quality and sociomoral development, aspects of reminiscing quality at 42 months (including children's engagement and the dyad's co-construction of meaning) were related to children's emotional understanding, empathy, representations of relationships, and moral-self at 48 months. This study provides some of the first longitudinal evidence that reminiscing conversations are linked with children's subsequent sociomoral understanding.
Emotionality and emotion regulation are presumed to interact to produce social behavior. Prior em... more Emotionality and emotion regulation are presumed to interact to produce social behavior. Prior empirical evidence for this interaction has been weak. Researchers have tended to take a variable-centered approach to predicting social behavior and this may have obscured the relations between negative emotionality, emotion regulation, and social behavior. Therefore, a person-centered approach was used to examine the links among these variables. Two-hundred and three adolescents (M age = 13.3 years) completed measures of negative emotionality, emotion regulation, and socioemotional behavior. Cluster analysis suggested four profiles of adolescents: those moderate on regulation and negative emotionality, those low in both, those high in negative emotionality and low in regulation, those low in negative emotionality and high in regulation. LDF analysis suggested that these profiles of adolescents differed along two dimensions on socioemotional behavior.
The goal of this study was to examine whether attachment security and child temperament predicted... more The goal of this study was to examine whether attachment security and child temperament predicted differences in the elaboration and emotional content of mother-child discourse in 2 contexts and whether those differences were related to a child's socioemotional development. Fifty-one preschool children and their mothers were videotaped reading a storybook and discussing the child's previous behavior. These conversations were coded for maternal elaboration and emotional content. Mothers also completed reports of child temperament, attachment security, and social behavior. Children completed measures of emotional understanding, behavioral internalization, and representations of relationships. The findings suggested that both aspects of mother-child discourse were related to attachment, temperament, and socioemotional competence, although the findings varied depending on the context of the discourse.
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