The effects of caregivers’ responsiveness and situational stress levels on children’s expectations of caregivers’ support-giving behavior and willingness

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9787980
AutoresChenglong Jia (0000-0002-6467-2653, autor correspondente), Tong Zhou (0000-0003-3901-3477), Yuan Shen (0009-0001-4787-9644), Nitya Mahajan (University of Toronto), Jinliang Qin (0000-0002-2059-4075)
Ano2023
Volume59
Fascículo9
Páginas1727-1737
Data de publicação2023-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoDevelopmental Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0012-1649 • E-ISSN: 1939-0599
EditoraAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/dev0001571
PMID37410438
OpenAlexW4383302822
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3

Children develop expectations of caregivers' support-giving during early-life interactions. The present study examined whether caregivers' responsiveness would influence young children's expectations of caregivers' support-giving behavior and willingness under different situational stress levels. We manipulated the caregivers' responsiveness and situational stress levels. Children were tested to determine their expectations of caregivers' support-giving behavior and willingness. Sixty-four (33 boys, M age = 5.34) and 68 (34 boys, M age = 5.25) Chinese Han children from a city in Southeast China participated in Studies 1 and 2, respectively. In Study 1, we created a separation condition (i.e., a moderate level of stress) and found that children's expectations of caregivers' support-giving behavior and willingness were significantly lower in the unresponsive condition than in the responsive condition. The expectations in the unresponsive condition decreased significantly compared with the initial expectations. In Study 2, we created a danger condition (i.e., a high level of stress) and found that caregivers' responsiveness had no significant effect on children's expectations of caregivers' support-giving behavior and willingness. These results imply that both caregivers' responsiveness and situational stress levels affect children's expectations of caregivers' support-giving. They further suggest that children aged 4-6 can simultaneously assess caregivers' responsiveness and situational stress levels while forming support-giving expectations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Affect (linguistics · Developmental psychology · MEDLINE · Partner effects · PsycINFO · Situational ethics · Social support · Stress (linguistics · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Family and Disability Support Research · Family Support in Illness · Psychology · Social Psychology