The Child's Behavioral Pattern as a Determinant of Maternal Punitiveness.

MULHERN, RAYMOND K., JR., and PASSMAN, RICHARD H. The Child's Behavioral Pattern as a Determinant of Maternal Punitiveness. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 815-820. The extent to which a boy's behavior can determine the aversiveness of events administered to him by his mother was investigated. With the premise that she was teaching her son a task, each of 30 mothers selected consequences for her child's errors. In actuality, feedback to the mother regarding her son's performance was controlled by electromechanical equipment. Successful responding by her son was programmed to follow the mother's choice of particular consequences for his errors. Desirable changes in the child's behavior were found to reinforce the intensity of maternal punitiveness first above and then below initial baseline levels. The results are discussed in terms of the reciprocal interaction of parent-child behaviors and implications regarding child abuse.