Function and Content of Maternal Demands: Developmental Signifieanee of Early Demands for Competent Aetion Leon Kuczynski University of Guelph Grazyna Kochanska University of Iowa KUCZYNSKI, LEON, and KOCHANSKA, GRAZYNA. Function and Content of Matemal Demands: De- velopmental Significance of Early Demands for Competent Action. GHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1995, 66, 616-628. The sources and effects of mothers' demands upon children were examined during naturalistic interactions of 70 mothers and their lV2-3V2-year-olds. Demands were categorized in terms of immediate function (e.g., do's vs. don'ts) and content area emphasized by mothers (e.g., competent action, appropriate behavior, caretaking). Ghildren's age and oppositional behav- ior influenced the nature of mothers' demands. Mothers with authoritative child-rearing attitudes emphasized proactive, competence-oriented demands and avoided regulatory controls. Maternal demands for competent action (prosocial behavior, chores, cognitive/play) predicted enhanced compliance and fewer behavior problems at age 5. Demands focused on the regulation of per- sonal and social behavior predicted more behavior problems at age 5. We propose that children's personal and social competence emerges from pressures for instrumentally competent behavior in a harmonious interactive context. A long-standing concern in parents' so- chores. Developmental changes in the con- cialization practices has been the nature and tent of matemal expectations may reflect consequences of parents' early demands changes in children's capacities and attain- upon children. Parental' demands are a per- ments as well as changes in parental social- vasive source of extemal pressures on chil- ization goals. dren's behavior (Lytton, 1980; Minton Ka- p^^^^^ ^j^^ .^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^.^^^ gan, & LeVme, 1971; Schoggen, 1963) and ^ emphasize cognitive, social, or other constitute an important dimension of chil- J^ .^ ^^.^ ^^^/^ ^^ socialize their chil- dren s environments. ^^^^^ ^^^ children's outcomes may well re- Age-associated changes in parental de- fleet these differential pressures. There is mands indicate how environmental pres- evidence that specific parental pressures for sures operating on children change during behavior that is instrumentally or cogni- development (Clifford, 1959; Dubin & tively competent is beneficial for children's Dubin, 1963; Maccoby, 1984; Power & Man- development. Examples include parental ire, 1992). Gralinski and Kopp (1993) found high expectations (Maccoby, 1980); cogni- a shift between the ages of 13 and 48 tive demands (Tizard, Hughes, Pinkerton, & months, from an early emphasis on safety to Carmichael, 1982), and pressures to engage an emphasis on self-care and rules govem- in "intellectually valuable experiences" ing social interactions, family routines, and (e.g., Carew, 1980), to play (Lytton, 1980), to This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, by the John D. and Gatherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Network on the Transition from Infancy to Early Ghildhood, and by an S.S.H.R.G grant to the first author. We would like to thank Ona Girnius Brown and Katherine Gleary for their work on the development and implementation of the coding system. We also thank the members of the staff of the Laboratory of Developmental Psychology, NIMH, involved in the data collection process: Barbara Belmont, Anne Mayfield, Anna Polissar, and Judy Stilwell. Special appreciation is due to Pamela Warton, Kay Bussey, and Jenny Bowes, Macquarie University, for their suggestions on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Requests for reprints should be sent to Leon Kuczynski, Department of Family Studies, Univer- sity of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Ganada NIG 2W1. [Child Development, 1995,66,616-628. © 1995 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. 0009-3920/95/6603-0019$01.00]