Coordination of maternal directives with preschoolers' behavior: influence of maternal coordination training on dyadic activity and child compliance.

Investigated the impact of a specific intervention on child cooperation. The intervention was designed to increase maternal coordination with child behavior. Mothers assigned to the experimental condition were instructed on how to modulate the specificity of directives to their preschooler as a function of the child's moment-to-moment behavior. Mothers assigned to the control condition received no such training. Degree of maternal coordination was then assessed. Child compliance during a pick-up task was also assessed. Compared to controls, experimental mothers had significantly higher scores on several measures of maternal coordination and experimental children were significantly more compliant. The relation between parental coordination and child socialization is discussed.