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The emergence of negotiation: Developmental trends and caregivers' contributions

The purpose of the present study was to explore developmental patterns of negotiation used by young children interacting with their mothers. Participants included a younger cohort of 30 children who were observed between 18 and 30 months of age and an older cohort of 37 children who were observed between 30 and 48 months of age. The children's parents were primarily well-educated, middle to upper-middle class, Caucasians. Behavioral observations in a laboratory toy clean up task was the primary method of documenting child negotiation. Various forms of verbal resistance were coded including resistive episodes (included negotiation and refusal), negotiation and various subcategories of negotiation including the type (on-task or off-task), level (increasing in verbal complexity) and outcome (effective). As predicted, an increase in the frequency of resistive episodes, negotiation and off-task negotiation in the toddler years was followed by a decline frequency of these behaviors in the preschool years. A second pattern revealed that, with age, children used increasingly higher proportions of negotiation. Thus, although children in the older cohort engaged in resistance progressively less often, they were more likely to use negotiation and higher levels of negotiation when they resisted. In regard to caregivers' contributions to negotiation, the findings supported a link between child negotiation and maternal strategies. However, the findings were less conclusive in regard to the relationship between child negotiation and maternal style. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-12, Section: B, page: 6582. / Major Professor: Janet A. Kistner. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76826
ContributorsKlimes-Dougan, Bonnie., Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText
Format158 p.
RightsOn campus use only.
RelationDissertation Abstracts International

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