SOCIAL POWER AS A REGULATOR OF CAREGIVING SYSTEMS

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DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): The proposed research, using concepts and theories drawn from social psychology, tests hypotheses regarding factors that create risk for family violence and other dysfunctional caregiving. The ways in which parents and children interact and process social information are expected to be influenced by interpersonal power perceptions. Parents who perceive children as having more social power than self are predicted to be highly reactive to apparent "challenge" from children responding with negative affect and defensive arousal. These responses, in turn, mediate (a) information-processing deficits and biases, and (b) defensive interaction strategies, e.g., power assertion or social derogation. Adult "power repair" efforts subsequently lead to elevated arousal, avoidant responses, and performance deficits in children. Predictions are tested within studies that include both naturalistic and experimental, and cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. Study a focuses on information-processing patterns of high and low power adults attempting to teach responsive versus unresponsive children. Study B focuses on spontaneous interaction between high and low power parents and their own children. Study C focuses on interaction between parents and children following an arousal manipulation. Study D assesses the responses (emotional, behavioral, and cognitive) of children to the teaching style of adults with low perceived power. Study E explores the extent to which perceived social power represents a chronically- accessible schema, i.e., social threat ideation is highly accessible for those with low self-perceived power. Study F explores the long-term sequelae of parental power perceptions. As part of a community abuse prevention effort, power perceptions of pregnant women will be assessed before the birth of the child, and temperament characteristics of children will be assessed at birth. Future instances of abusive or coercive patenting will be assessed as a combined function on parental power perceptions and child temperament characteristics.