WICHITA, Kan., Oct. 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- The relationship you've established with your children when they start kindergarten helps determine their behavior by the time they finish fourth grade, according to a study by Wichita State researchers published in the September/October issue of the journal Child Development.
How you interact with your kindergarten children, by showing warmth and having good communication, serves as an important building block for knowing where your child is and with whom, or what he or she is doing outside the home, later in childhood, the study said.
"Can you magically turn on good communication and problem solving when your child turns 12?" asked WSU psychology professor James Snyder, the lead researcher on the study. "This research says no, you can't. You have to establish a good relationship earlier."
Building a positive early parent-child relationship allows for effective monitoring of behavior outside the home in adolescence, Snyder said. "Prevention of conduct problems such as truancy, drug use and delinquency that become apparent in adolescence may usefully begin during early childhood," Snyder said.
WSU research assistant professor Lynn Schrepferman and doctoral graduate M. Renee Patrick co-authored the study, which was funded with a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.
The researchers tracked 267 boys and girls from kindergarten through fourth grade, 43 percent of whom lived in intact families with two biological parents at the start of the study.
A key finding is that effective early interventions need to focus on warmth and communication in the parent-child relationship, which are elements that reduce the early appearance of behavior problems and provide a good foundation for adolescent monitoring, the study suggests.
Talk to your kids, show an interest in what they are doing, be supportive and just listen, advised Snyder. Telling them how they should have acted, yelling or lecturing aren't good modes of communication, he warned. If your young child exhibits problems such as aggression, lying and stealing, those issues will interfere with developing effective monitoring during the transition to adolescence, he said.
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CONTACT: James Snyder, 316-978-3058,
james.snyder@wichita.edu.
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