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TODDLER-PEERINTERACTIONS: LEARNING AND USINGNEGOTIATION STRATEGIES

Linda Luthi, Regina Kuersten and James P. McHale Department of Psychology

Clark University Worcester, MA 01610

Social development has been conceptualized as involving two primary goals: becoming individuated from others as a distinct and unique self, while simultaneously becoming connected to others as an accepted and valued member of the group (Kegan, 1984). The tension between autonomy and comrectedness is a particularly salient issue during toddlerhood, when children’s emerging interest in peers runs parallel to their desire to be self-directed and in control. These dual goals - of developing social connections while asserting ones autonomy - present a unique twist for researchers interested in the study of toddlers’ interactions with peers. More specifically, when both participants are concerned with directing a peer exchange, there is a great potential for conflict, which threatens the likelihood of the toddlers’ being able to establish and maintain successful interactions. One important mechanism upon which toddlers may draw to mediate this situation is their experience with and use of negotiation strategies to reach mutually acceptable agreements (and hence sustain peer interaction). In this study, we examine characteristics of mother-child dyads which may shape toddlers’ experience of autonomy and use of negotiation strategies, and trace links between these parent-child characteristics and toddlers’ willingness to compromise and negotiate within peer interactions.

Participants in this project were 26 toddler-aged children (mean age: 34 months) from intact families, and a parent-identified “best friend” of the toddler (mean age = 34 months). Assessments of mother-child interaction were conducted for the 26 “target” children in a laboratory playroom, where parents worked with the child on a series of play and teaching tasks. Videotaped records of these sessions were rated by trained coders for the locus of control within the session (parent- or child-directed), categories of parental response to control attempts by the child (ignoring, agreeing, or disagreeing), and parental use of negotiation strategies (counter- involvement, or agreeing/adding).

All but two of the peer dyads were assessed in the homes of target children. Trained coders rated target children for their responses to the control attempts of the best friend, and for their use of negotiation strategies, using the same categories of response as described for mothers. In addition, “outcome” measures, which captured the immediate impact of different negotiation strategies on the ongoing quality of peer interaction, were gathered.

Results suggest a strong correspondence between positive, additive, and elaborative negotiation strategies by mothers during dyadic play with their children, and children’s ability to maintain or continue (rather than disrupt) play with best friends following an initiation or influence bid in the peer dyad. Additive strategies by parents seemed to show particularly strong links with children’s ability to agree with peers. Such children were also much less likely to ignore peers bids. Conversely, mothers who ignored their children’s bids more frequently in the parent-child dyad had children who were more likely to disagree with peers during child-child play, and who were more likely to have an initiation bid with the peer end in a disruptive outcome. Findings concerning the success and failure of particular child-peer strategies are also discussed.