Mother-Child Dyadic Responses to Children Facing Challenges: An Examination Across Ethnicities

The current study (a) examined ethnic differences in mothers' and children's responses to children's performance in a challenging task, (b) tested the associations among children's desire for assistance, maternal control, and children's emotional responses to the challenge, and (c) explored whether these associations held across three ethnicities-Asian Americans (AA), Latinx Americans (LA), and European Americans (EA). Results showed that children's emotional arousal significantly increased and emotional valence became significantly less positive over the course of children experiencing repeated challenges in front of their mothers. In terms of ethnic differences, LA mothers exhibited more control than EA mothers, but LA children responded less negatively to the challenging task than EA children. AA dyads did not significantly differ from LA or EA dyads on any maternal or child responses. However, regardless of ethnicity, stronger child desire for assistance was associated with greater maternal control and greater maternal control was associated with less emotional arousal and more positive child emotional valence. These findings suggest that, in a challenging context, maternal control is likely experienced by children as guidance that mitigates decreases in positive emotion. Our work has implications for interventions to encourage more emotionally responsive parental involvement with children in late childhood and early adolescence.