Parental Influences on the Acquisition of Skills and Competencies

Parent-Child Coregulation of Behavior

Another way in which parents contribute to their school-age children's social development is through sharing social power with them. Children are prepared for a greater sharing of social power during middle childhood due to their advances in cognitive development. Thus, parent-child coregulation becomes a predominant aspect of appropriate child socialization during this developmental stage (Masten & Coatsworth, 1998). The advantage of parent-child coregulation is that is has been associated with fewer behavior problems in school-age children (Deater-Deckard & Petrill, 2004). An example of coregulation is demonstrated in the following exchange: Charlie: "Mom, can I invite Tommy and Mike over for dinner?" Mom: "Sure, that will be great. We're having spaghetti; I remember that those two seem to like my spaghetti. If Tommy and Mike come for dinner, will you please be sure that they pick up their dishes, rinse them off, and put them in the dishwasher after we have finished eating?" Charlie: "Okay, Mom."

What This Means for Professionals

It is important that parents make adjustments in their child socialization patterns to accommodate their children's need to develop the skills of coregulation during the school-age years. Whereas it is desirable for parents to support parent-child coregulation in many daily activities, the entire parent-child relationship is not coregulated. It is essential that parents of school-age children continue to structure their school-age children's daily activities, monitor their whereabouts, require certain levels of responsible behavior, and step in to exercise more control when necessary. It is possible, however, for parents to provide guidelines for their children's behavior without taking away their children's developing ability to work with parents in the coregulation of their behavior.