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WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN PARENT-TODDLER INVOLVEMENT CHANGES NOTICEABLY FROM PARENT-CHILD TO WHOLE FAMILY CONTEXTS?

Kelly Carpenter, Anna King, Regina Kuersten, and James P. McHale

Clark University Worcester, MA 0 16 10

Most studies of family “systems” examine inter-relationships among various relationship subsystems (e.g. parent-child, husband-wife) in families, but overlook the related issue of how qualities of the same relationship dyad change as members of that dyad move from one level of the family system (parent-child) to another (the whole family group). This question is important from a systems perspective; families for whom relationship qualities change significantly across family contexts may experience different internal or external prompts or pressures than families in which relationship qualities remain relatively stable across contexts.

While some diminution in the JFequency of behaviors is expectable as more family members engage in interaction (Lewis, 1980), shifts in the quality of interaction are not. Unexplored through empirical study, explanations for major shifts in behavior across family contexts abound among family therapists. Unfortunately, these explanations often contradict; significant increases in each parent’s involvement with a child as family members move from dyads to the family group may reflect positive energy drawn from the family unit, or the competitive instincts of maritally-distressed adults. Resolution of this question will largely reside in the constructs chosen for study. Enhanced affect in the group is likely to bode well for families; increases in parental ego involvement probably are not.

This paper examines discrepancies in parental behavior across family settings. 75 mothers and fathers were studied alone at play with their 30-month-old, and together during family play sessions. To test the aforementioned hypotheses concerning affect and investment, we examined separately intrafamilial shifts in parental warmth and parental investment - and identified marital and child indices that differed as a function of parental change patterns.

Blind coders rated videotaped records of either family-child or parent-child play sessions. Raters were never assigned to code more than one interaction (either mother or father, in either a dyadic or triadic context) in the same family. Discrepancy scores (the difference between each parent’s dyadic and family warmth or investment ratings) were used to subdivide families into groups, so group membership reflected whether the intensity of parental behavior increased, remained the same, or decreased from dyad to triad.

As anticipated, different results emerged for the two constructs studied. In families where both parents were warmer in the family group than in their respective parent-child dyads, toddlers were rated as having fewer behavior problems than toddlers in any other category, suggesting that greater affective involvement in the family group was a positive force. Conversely, in families where both parents’ investment was heightened in the family group (relative to the dyad), marriages appeared to be under duress. Independent blind coders who rated videotapes of couples participating in a problem-solving task ranked high investment parents low on measures of warmth, intimacy, egalitarianism, and problem-solving in the marital task.

Related findings addressing families in which one partner’s behavior increased or decreased significantly, while the other’s remained constant, are also presented. Findings are interpreted and discussed in the context of structural family theory.