Positive transactional processes from age 3 to 15: Social competence, maternal parenting, and fathers’ support for mothers

This research focused on the transactions between the social competence of the child, positive maternal parenting, and the maternal perception of the father’s support for the mother from early childhood to adolescence. Specifically, whether the transactions between these domains are consistent or limited to certain developmental periods and whether they impact the development of social competence. Prior research found inconsistent transactional effects between these three domains. Accordingly, this study tested the hypothesis of whether such transactional effects are more intense during periods of rapid development and transformation of roles. It also tested whether transactional effects between the three domains and other unobserved evocative effects of social competence resulted in widening individual differences in social competence. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model identified the between-family differences and within-family changes in the three domains of interest. The data came from a nationally representative sample of 919 families from Turkiye, a society where traditional gender roles prevailed. Although the correlations between the stable components of the three domains were substantial, transactional effects between the three processes were evident only during periods of developmental change, that is, in early childhood and during the transition to school. Nevertheless, large and significant contemporaneous associations between maternal positive parenting and social competence suggested mutual influences on real-time micro-level interactions. The model predicted a substantial widening of individual differences in social competence and positive maternal parenting during childhood.