Availability of Control and Preschoolers' Responses to Interadult Anger

Abstract

This study examined relations between availability of control and psychobiological and self-reported responses to interadult anger in 4-to 5 year-olds. Children heard two angry interactions between adults, followed by a reconciliation, while their heart rate, and skin conductance response, and level were monitored. Following exposure to each episode they were also interviewed regarding their responses. Control options made available to the experimental group subjects included: (1) terminating exposure to one of the arguments; and (2) proposing an intervention for an expenmenter to carry out. Children in the comparison group just listened to the interactions. The availability of control was associated with greater physiological reactivity to anger. On the other hand, children for whom control options were not available more often perceived adults as distressed and showed a decline in suggestions of control-oriented strategies over trials. The results demonstrate that, in a multi-response investigation, some dimensions of responding varied as a function of experimental manipulations of the availability of control.