ABSTRACT
Introduction: To understand child development, a family systems approach is important. The Lausanne Trilogue Play has been used as the major method in this longitudinal study. The interaction has been analyzed with the measurement for alliances; Organisation, participation, joint focus and emotional engagement. To understand the micromoments in the interaction CPICS (Child-Parent-Interaction-Coding –System) was used.
Aims: To investigate child-mother-father communication prospectively from children’s age 3–48 months and how such communicating correlates to peer and social competence at the children’s age of 4 and 16 years.
Method: 20 families with their first-born babies have been part of a multicenter study. They were videotaped in Lausanne Triologue Play situations (child-mother-father interactions) when the children were 3, 9, 18 and 48 months and 16 years of age. The findings were related to the preschool teachers’ assessments of children’s peer and social competence at 4 years of age and to the teachers´ assessment of prosocial behavior and peer problems at 16 years.
Results: Parents’ responsiveness and the child’s capacity to initiate turn-taking sequences in the family triad early in life correlated to the child’s later peer and social competence. According to the preschool teachers’ assessments, children who initiated turn-taking-sequences at 9 months of age had better peer competence (p=0.008) and social competence (p=0.028) at 48 months. At 16 years of age prosocial behavior correlated with social competence and peer problems correlated negatively with peer competence. The LTP method has opened up new doors to combine child development and family systemic perspective in familytherapy and interaction guidance work.
Conclusion: The results indicate that the family system is important to understand children’s later social competence and that a Lausanne Triologue Play situation can be used to identify competent children and children/families with communicative deficits.
Monica Hedenbro, Ph.D