Fathers’ and mothers’ distancing strategies towards toddlers

Abstract

Fathers’ and mothers’ distancing strategies towards preschoolers were studied in 30-month-old ( N = 13) and 42-month-old ( N = 15) parent-children dyads, using Sigel’s scheme. This coding scheme concerns either direct verbal requests (or denominations), or indirect demands about presented objects. Afree play situation included objects that allowed several activities, functional or not (doll, little cars, etc). The aim was twofold. First, distancing was linked to the child’s age and to the sex of parent with the assumption that fathers would be more challenging. Second, children’s symbolic activity was linked to parental distancing strategies at each age. Results showed that there was a significant effect of children’s age on the distancing measures as well as on children’s symbolic activity. The hypothesis of a more challenging father was not supported. The child’s symbolic activity was better predicted by mother’s distancing than by father’s. Such results indicate a need to consider more complex relationships between paternal interaction and children’s outcomes and to take into account extra-familial contributions.