Reflection-Enhancing Regulative Communication: How Do Parents Vary Across Misbehavior Situations and Child Resistance?

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Abstract
This study examines parental regulative communication across misbehavior situations and child resistance. Regulative messages are analyzed using Applegate et al.'s (1985) hierarchical scheme for coding `reflection-enhancement', or the degree to which parents encourage their child to reflect on psychological consequences of misbehavior. We explore several questions about regulative communication that have been de-emphasized in previous research, including how parents mix power-assertion and reflection-enhancement within the same message, how parents as a group vary their responses depending on how their child has misbehaved, how parents also differ individually in the degree to which they vary across situations and how parents respond after child resistance. Our findings tentatively suggest the need to develop more detailed and contingent views of parental regulative communication.