Negotiation Over Bids for Compliance of Three-Year-Old Kibbutz Children: A Narrative Approach

Thirty kibbutz children, boys and girls, whose ages ranged between 35 and 38 months, participated in a study on compliance to bids of mother and caregiver. Children participated in the Doll Play Interview, and were requested to determine whether a narrated child will indulge his or her wish or comply with opposing bids of a narrated mother or a narrated caregiver. Results indicated that narrated mothers were described more often as initiating close contact with the child, whereas caregivers were perceived as more strict and aggressive. However, narrated mothers were not perceived as more willing to accept child incompliance. Narrated children responded in either a more compliant or a more self-assertive way to bids of mother. Rather than choosing between complying or uncomplying with similar bids of caregiver, they tended more often to ignore them. In the presence of a narrated mother children expressed their thoughts and feelings more freely. They spoke with caregiver more often on actions and objects. Conflict with a narrated mother was associated with seeking close contact between the child doll and the mother doll, whereas similar conflict with a narrated caregiver resulted more often in seeking physical proximity outside the story, with the child's real mother.