Thesis
Exploring mothers' memories of their childhood peer experiences and their relationships to social coaching quality
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103060
Abstract
The current study aimed to examine the impact of mothers’ memories of their childhood peer experiences on their parenting behavior, specifically their social coaching qualities in a laboratory setting. The study also examined the relationship between mothers’ memories, social coaching quality, and beliefs about the importance of social skills and their role in teaching social skills to their children. Participants included 116 preschool-aged children (67 females; M age at school year start = 5.2 years) and their mothers. Dyads completed a book reading task where they read stories depicting clearly hostile or ambiguous acts. Mothers were instructed to read and discuss each story as they would at home. Discussions were rated on the following variables (elaboration, emotion reference, and rule violation). Mothers reported their retrospective memories of peer victimization (physical and relational, and the receipt of prosocial acts) and friendship (popularity, having close friends, and having many friends) over three developmental periods (elementary school, middle school, and high school). Mothers also rated their beliefs about the importance of social skills for children, and their beliefs about the importance of the direct role of parents in teaching these behaviors to children. Findings provide evidence that mothers’ memories of overall positive peer experiences and memories of being the recipient of prosocial behaviors were positively related to the belief that social skills are important and that parents play a direct role in teaching children those skills. Mothers who emphasized parents’ teaching role, in turn, used more emotion references during discussions with children. In addition, mothers who remembered high or low levels of positive peer experiences engaged in the most emotion talk with children.
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Details
- Title
- Exploring mothers' memories of their childhood peer experiences and their relationships to social coaching quality
- Creators
- Ashley Dawn Eaton
- Contributors
- Nicole E. Werner (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Human Development, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525292701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis