Child Development, March/April 2008, Volume 79, Number 2, Pages 426 – 443 The Quality and Frequency of Mother – Toddler Conflict: Links With Attachment and Temperament Deborah Laible and Tia Panfile Lehigh University Drika Makariev University of California-Davis The goal of this study was to examine the links among attachment, child temperament, and the quality and frequency of mother – toddler conflict. Sixty-four mothers and children took part in a series of laboratory tasks when the child was 30 months of age and an audiorecorded home observation when the child was 36 months of age. All episodes of conflict were identified from the videotapes/audiotapes, transcribed, and coded for conflict strategies, resolution, and themes. Mothers also completed measures of attachment security and child temperament. Concurrent attachment security was related to the quality of mother – toddler conflict (including resolution, justification, and compromise) at both periods but not to the frequency of conflict. In addition, aspects of child temperament (i.e., negative reactivity and activity level/impulsivity) were related to both the quality and the frequency of mother – toddler conflict. Conflict between young children and their parents is both normative and frequent during the toddler and early preschool years (Klimes-Dougan & Kopp, 1999; Kuczynski, Kochanska, Radke-Yarrow, & Girnius- Brown, 1987; Laible & Thompson, 2002). In a review of the literature on parenting and emotion, Dix (1991) suggested that parents with young children are engaged in conflict with them on average between 3.5 and 15 times an hour, although others (Klimes- Dougan & Kopp, 1999; Laible & Thompson, 2002) have reported even higher rates of conflict. It is hardly surprising that parent – child conflict peaks in the toddler years; at the very time children become capable of asserting their own will, their parents begin to assert control over their children’s behavior to ensure that children comply with social and moral norms. However, it is important to note that not all conflict between parents and their young child- ren surrounds issues of socialization (Dunn, 1988; Eisenberg, 1992). In fact, to view conflict solely in terms of socialization attempts or child noncompli- ance would be to neglect the diversity of daily conflict in the lives of parents and children of this age. In addition to child noncompliance, disagreements between young children and their mothers frequently surround issues of fact, caretaking, and parental noncompliance with child requests (Eisenberg, 1992). In addition, there is a growing recognition that these early conflicts may serve important develop- mental functions (Dunn & Slomkowski, 1992; Klimes- Dougan & Kopp, 1999; Laible & Thompson, 2002). Thus, children may learn important lessons out of these early conflicts with parents. Conflicts between young children and their parents frequently involve the discussion of emotions, rules, needs, and conse- quences of actions, all of which likely promote the child’s understanding of emotions and morality (Laible & Thompson, 2002). Furthermore, there are good reasons to believe that children are learning how to argue and how to manage conflict from these early conflicts with parents. Research has shown that in the context of these early arguments with mothers, children are learning how to negotiate and to justify their side of arguments and that these skills are even- tually transferred to arguments with peers (Herrera & Dunn, 1997). As children develop, their ability to negotiate in the context of conflict improves (Klimes- Dougan & Kopp, 1999) not only because children’s perspective taking and other related cognitive skills improve but also because they begin to understand that conflict resolution requires some degree of per- suasion and compromise. Researchers, however, have argued that for conflict to be developmentally enhancing, it must be of high quality (Laible & Thompson, 2002). Conflict that is constructive and that involves high levels of mitiga- tion, justification, and resolution is more likely to Support for this research was provided by a NICHD Grant 1R03 MH65381-01 to D.L. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Debbie Laible, Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, 17 Memorial Dr. East, Bethlehem, PA 18015. Electronic mail may be sent to del205@lehigh.edu. # 2008, Copyright the Author(s) Journal Compilation # 2008, Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2008/7902-0012