Abstract

Distinctive forms of child compliance, child temperament and parenting styles (i.e., autonomy supportive parenting and power assertive parenting) were examined in two contexts: the parental request context and the prohibition context. Sixty-seven parent-child dyads participated in this two year longitudinal study. Children first participated while they were two-years-old (Wave 1), and participated again one year later (Wave 2). Autonomy supportive parenting was positively associated with wholehearted committed compliance by the child during the request context at both Wave 1 and 2. Parental use of power assertion was negatively related to committed compliance by the child at Wave 1 and 2 in both the request and prohibition contexts. Moderate to large effect sizes were found for power assertion across contexts, highlighting its influential effect on child compliance. The interactions between power assertion and both aspects of child temperament in the two contexts further demonstrated the evidence that power assertion has a detrimental effect on child committed compliance.