PARENT-CHILD INTERACTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Agency Reports

The development of trust and individuality during infancy and toddlerhood have lasting consequences for personality development. Heredity influences early temperament, but child-rearing experiences determine whether a child’s emotional style is sustained or modified over time. Much has been said about the importance of attachment security, which can be affected by maternal deprivation, the quality of caregiving, infant characteristics, and family circumstances. Multiple attachments are often important, especially during infancy, to father, to siblings, and other household members. There are many ways in which parents can foster children’s development – by serving as warm models and reinforcers of mature behavior, by using reasoning, explanation, and inductive discipline, by avoiding harsh punishment, and by encouraging children to master new skills. In early childhood, peer interaction provides young children with learning experiences that they can get in no other way.

No data sets or reports concerning young children were found.

• Department of Health, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division, with U.H. Center on the Family
  Contact: Ray Gagner, 692-7531 or Ann Tom, 956-4133, http://uhfamily.hawaii.edu/Cof_Data/drug_prevention_sig/drug_prevention.asp

• Ka Leo O Na Keiki 2000 Hawaii Student Drug and Alcohol Use Study, 2000 (Klingle). Includes responses of 25000 students regarding family conflict, parental supervision, family attachment, positive involvement, parental sanctions for problem behaviors, etc.

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