The quality of the mother-child relationship during collaborative problem solving /

The quality of the mother-child relationship was examined in relation to joint planning, maternal teaching strategies, maternal emotional support, mutual positive affect and attachment security. Fifty-five grade five children and their mothers participated in a laboratory session comprised of various activities and completed questionnaires to evaluate attachment security. Joint planning and social problem solving were assessed observationally during an origami task. Problem solving effectiveness was unrelated to maternal teaching strategies, maternal encouragement and mutual positive affect. A marginally significant relationship was found between maternal encouragement and active child participation. Attachment security was found to be significantly related to sharing of responsibility during local planning, but only for child autonomous performance. An examination of conditional probabilities revealed that mutual positive affect did not increase the likelihood of subsequent mother-child dyadic regulation. However, mutual positive affect was found to be significantly related to both active child participation and dyadic regulation. The hypothesis predicting a mediational model was not supported. The implications of these findings in the theoretical and empirical literature were considered and suggestions for future research were made.

Psychopathy and Antisocial Behaviour: The Moderating Effects of Maternal Neglect and Warmth

Psychopathy researchers have long debated the role of antisocial behaviour and criminality as part of the construct of psychopathy. The current study examined the relationship between the interpersonal and affective traits (Factor 1) of psychopathy and antisocial behaviour (a facet of Factor 2), examining possible predictors of antisocial behaviour. It was hypothesized that early environment would moderate the relationship between Factor 1 traits and antisocial behaviour. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used in order to test for possible moderators. Sex differences were found, where men scored higher in Antisocial Behaviour. Childhood Abuse did not moderate the relationship between Factor 1 traits and Antisocial Behaviour, but predicted higher Antisocial Behaviour scores independently. Maternal Neglect was especially influential as a risk factor, significantly interacting with Factor 1 traits to predict higher Antisocial Behaviour scores. Maternal Warmth was also important, interacting with Factor 1 in a protective fashion, predicting lower Antisocial Behaviour Scores.