Feature Story

February 7, 2008

Close Ties Between Parents and Babies Yield Benefits for Preschoolers

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

Having close ties with parents is obviously good for preschoolers, but what does that really mean?

That's the finding of a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Iowa and published in the January/February 2008 issue of the journal Child Development.

The researchers looked at 102 mostly white families---mothers, fathers, and babies---who had volunteered for the study from the time the children were 7 months old until they were almost 4 and a half years old.

When the children were 4 years and 4 months old, the researchers observed how the children responded when they were told not to do something by a parent when the parent then left the room.

The study found that children who had developed a close, positive, reciprocal, and mutually responsive relationship with their mothers in the first two years of their lives did much better in both respects---responding to their mothers' requests not to do something and regulating their own behavior--than children who hadn't developed such ties.

When mothers and babies develop this closeness in the first two years, the study found, mothers don't need to use forceful discipline later to get their children to do what they ask and refrain from other behaviors.

And in turn, subtle control on the part of the mothers leads to better, more compliant, and more self-regulated behavior when the children are at preschool age.

Mutually responsive, positive relationships between fathers and children in the first two years of life also were associated with children's better performance in tasks that called for self-regulation when the children were 4 and a half.

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