RELATIONS BETWEEN SOCIAL CONTINGENCY IN MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTION AND 2-YEAR-OLDS SOCIAL COMPETENCE

This study examined relations between social contingency in mother-chi ld interaction and low-income 2-year-olds' social competence, using a cross-sectional design (N = 47). Measures of social contingency includ ed time spent in joint attention and dyadic turn-taking behaviors foll owing maternal bids. Measures of child social competence included emot ional self-regulation during a delay-of-gratification task and empathi c responsiveness toward an experimenter Feigning injury Social conting ency was related to children's use of self-regulatory strategies, but not to empathic responsiveness. Child negative emotionality and gender contributed to explanations of children's self-regulatory strategy us e. More emotionally negative children spent less time using self-distr action; girls used less self-distraction and more comfort-seeking duri ng delay than did boys. However, time spent in joint attention made an additional independent contribution over and above child factors.