Parental patterns of cooperation in parent-child interactions: The relationship between nonverbal and verbal communication

This study expands the existing research into forms of parent-child cooperation by simultaneously assessing verbal/nonverbal channels of communication and their congruent/incongruent interrelatedness. The study aims to explain parental patterns of cooperation and to analyze the effect of a wide range of social and situational factors, including parents' gender, child's gender, socioeconomic status, and task difficulty. Parent-child interactions (n=160) in structured joint game sequences were filmed in their homes and analyzed using a mixed multivariant design. The results highlight the importance of integrative congruence/incongruence patterns and the significant effects of background variables in parental inducing/inhibiting-cooperation patterns. The proposed model expands the theoretical and methodological framework of parental cooperation.