Solitary behavior and friendly social activity: Differential gateways for conduct problem versus normal child-mother dyads

Compared 13 conduct problem children and their mothers with 13 normal dyads in home observations. Observations concerned child and mother reactions to episodes of the children's own solitary activity and episodes of child-mother friendly social interaction. Conditional probabilities of child compliance and aversive behavior showed the normal children to be unaffected following episodes of the activities, whereas the conduct problem children were influenced by both activities. Following episodes of social activity, these children were unlikely to act in aversive ways; following their solitary activities, they showed reductions in compliance as well as aversive behavior. The mothers in both groups reacted in positive ways following the episodes of friendly social interaction, and the clinic-referred mothers curbed their aversive reactions. These mothers proved less likely to give instructions or to offer positive and aversive reactions following the children's appropriate solitary activity, whereas the normal mothers were inclined to offer both reactions. Discussion was geared to speculations on the behaviors of the conduct problem children and their mothers following the children's solitary activities.