Continuing Controversies About Children and Their Development Relevant to Parent-Child Interaction
Theoretical Orientations
What the Child Becomes
Three Selected Variables
The Child as Clay
An Overview of the Unidirectional Approach
The Child as Clay
The Unidirectional Approach to Three Variables
Through the Looking Glass
An Overview of Bidirectional Approaches
Through the Looking Glass
Bidirectional Approaches to Three Variables
The Family as a Spiral of Recursive Feedback Loops
An Overview of the Systems Approach
The Family as a Spiral of Recursive Feedback Loops
A Systemic View of Three Variables
Epilogue
Conclusions, Concomitant Concerns, and Closing

Family communication is a topic of central interest in a large number of fields across the social and behavioural sciences - for instance, in the domains of language acquisition, cognitive development and socialization. This concise, readable book is the first to offer an interdisciplinary integration of current research on parent-child interaction in the `traditional' family structure.

Examining the important variables of self-control, self-concept and communication competencies in childhood, this volume functions as a research heuristic and a vehicle for conversation between theorists, researchers and practitioners.