Behavior Transactions between Disturbed Children and Their Mothers

10 children between 4 and 6 yr. of age, coming from families who had sought help from the University of Washington Child Psychiatry Clinic, were observed in the laboratory in interaction with their mothers. Interactive patterns were analyzed, utilizing observational methods and rating procedures developed in other research. Ss each tended to exhibit some unique and deviant occurrences of certain classes of behaviors, but the only respect in which they systematically differed as a group from the comparison sample of non-clinic mother-child pairs was in the more frequent occurrence of strongly controlling behaviors on the part of the mothers. This control characteristically occurred in the context of some degree of high status on the part of the child, whereas in the comparison Ss the child tended to be displaying neutral status when his mother was being strongly controlling. Comparison mothers tended to exercise their control by directing their children what to do; clinic mothers tended to exercise their control by non-acceptance of what their children had already done. Two illustrative cases summarized the application of sequence analysis methods to understanding the unique interaction styles of individual pairs.