Montena, Alexandra L.

The purpose of the current study is to examine emotional and behavioral
interdependence within the triadic family system. Interdependence was assessed over
time between 17 participant groups of mothers, fathers and preschoolers. Responses of
each parent and preschooler were observed during story recitations that were chosen to
elicit positive or negative responses; observations included measures of attention,
external affect, and affective congruency. Parental self-report ratings of expressivity,
negative emotions, and child temperament were compared to observations during story
recitations, as well. Some father-child interactions appeared to be affected by story
condition. However, parent gender had little effect on parent-child interactions overall in
regards to child consistency. The findings suggest that children drive the interactions
more so than parents. Further research with a larger sample size is needed to fully examine the emotional and behavioral interdependence between parents and
preschoolers.