Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

3-1984

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

Robert G. Wahler

Committee Members

Ann McIntyre, V.M. Nordquist, John Lounsbury

Abstract

This study examines the ability of Singly Coerced and Multiply Coerced parents to identify accurately child problem behavior and also looks at the manner in which these parents describe child problem behavior. It was hypothesized that the Singly Coerced parents would be more accurate in their identifications of child problem behavior, would be more specific in their descriptions of it, and would differ in the amount and type of additional information they presented in their descriptions. Arguments were presented supporting the idea that the Multiply Coerced parents were not attending adequately to the salient features of the child's behavior, and that it was this difference and not the socioeconomic ones that accounted for the results.

The subjects were 10 parents, 5 Singly Coerced and 5 Multiply Coerced, who came to the Child Behavior Institute (CBI), seeking treatment for their oppositional children. Coercion refers to negative feelings arising from interpersonal contacts. During the baseline phase of treatment, parents were videotaped while they were interacting with their children. Also during the baseline phase, they came to CBI both to identify child problem behavior evidenced on the videotape and to describe an episode of child problem behavior. Additionally they performed these tasks viewing a videotape of a family unfamiliar to them. Their identification of child problem behavior was compared with that of a standard observer. The descriptions were coded first along iv the dimension of specific versus global and then along a dimension which indicated the amount of extraneous material presented.

The Singly Coerced parents were significantly more accurate than the Multiply Coerced parents in identifying when child problem behavior occurs. There were no differences along the dimensions of global versus specific. Only one of six analyses supported the hypothesis that there were differences in the amount of extraneous information introduced and this cannot be called a confirmation of the hypothesis. The extraneous material which the Singly Coerced parents bring into their descriptions of child problem behavior may be related to these parents' abilities to put such behavior into a more comprehensive framework that helps the parents understand and identify their child's behavior.

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