1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The general goal of the current study was to investigate children’s displays of social competence when interacting with their mothers.» (p. 6) More specifically, the «first objective [of the current study] was to investigate how ratings of children’s social competence as assessed by their mothers, their teachers, and themselves related to the child’s observed social competence.» (p. 7) «The second objective was to investigate how maternal childhood characteristics such as maternal childhood histories of aggression, withdrawal, and likability impacted children’s observed social competence.» (p. 8)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Cette étude mobilise un sous-échantillon de l’Enquête longitudinale sur les risques de l’Université Concordia. L’échantillon original était composé de 4109 enfants d’âge primaire (1re, 4e ou 7e année) qui furent recrutés dans la ville de Montréal en 1976. Le sous-échantillon utilisée dans la présente étude est composé de 119 enfants (66 filles et 53 garçons) ainsi que de leurs mères.

Instruments :
-Questionnaires
-Guide d’entretien semi-directif
-Grille d’observation

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

The «results of the present study demonstrate how informant reports of children’s social competence are reflected in children’s displays of social competence when interacting with their mothers.» (p. 32) «Pertaining to the first objective, […] children who were rated highly on measures of social incompetence engaged in less socially competent behaviours and in more socially incompetent behaviours. More specifically, higher ratings of inappropriate assertiveness and impulsiveness by mothers were associated with less frequent use of positive affect and cooperative statements by children during the interaction. Teachers’ ratings of children’s inappropriate assertiveness and impulsiveness predicted greater use of disruptive communication techniques. Further, children who were rated as engaging in aggressive behaviours by their mothers displayed less positive affect throughout the conflict discussion.» (p. 25) «Pertaining to the second objective, as expected, maternal childhood histories of aggression or social withdrawal were risk factors for their children’s displays of social competence. In a quadratic relationship, mothers who had higher levels of social withdrawal in childhood had children who used less positive affect during the interaction. Similarly, a curvilinear relationship demonstrated that mothers with histories of aggression marginally predicted their children making fewer cooperative statements. Whereas maternal childhood likeability did not predict to any child behaviour on its own, its interaction with maternal childhood aggression predicted children’s use of disruptive communication behaviours during the interaction.» (p. 28-29)