A parent’s relationship with his or her kindergartner can help determine what kind of behavior that child exhibits by the 4th grade, according to a recently published study of 267 children by James Snyder, a psychology professor at Wichita State University in Kansas.
If parents display warmth toward their young children, have open communication with them, and keep track of their behavior, the children will be less resistant to monitoring later in childhood.
Such monitoring could include when parents want to know whom they are with, where they are, and what they’re doing, according to the findings.
“The Joint Contribution of Early Parental Warmth, Communication, and Tracking and Early Child Conduct Problems on Monitoring in Late Childhood” appears in the September-October issue of the journal Child Development.
