Coercion Theory Case Study

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The development of antisocial behavior is a process that begins in early childhood and evolves into more serious externalizing behaviors throughout the school-age years and into adulthood. Coercion theory, developed by Patterson in 1982, describes how this trajectory begins. This extant literature on coercion theory posits that early interactions with the caregiver shape how children tolerate calls for compliance and teaches both children and parents to negotiate conflict in a coercive manner (Patterson, 1982). There are three basic processes in coercion theory: parental demand, child refusal, and parental withdrawal (Granic & Patterson, 2006; Patterson, 1982; Braungart-Rieker, Garwood & Stifter, 1997). More specifically, a coercive interaction …show more content…

Parents are therefore inadvertently reinforcing the child’s bad behavior, which causes them to become increasingly harsh in their expectations and compliance requests, which leads to more noncompliant child behavior (Smith et al., 2014b). This coercive family process is, in essence, a form of negative reinforcement (Patterson, 2002; Smith, Dishion, Shaw, & Wilson, 2014a; Smith et al., 2014b). The cycle of parent-child interaction is explained by operant conditioning because when a parent withdraws from the environment (i.e. takes their scolding and requests for compliance out of the environment) a behavior increases (i.e. the child’s noncompliance continues). On the surface, this type of interaction may manifest in children with defiance, disobedience, and destruction of belongings; in parents, this will manifest in harsh calls for compliance and punishment, as well as inconsistent involvement, supervision, and disciplining (Keenan & Shaw, 1995; Smith et al., 2014b). Coercive behaviors are more likely have a lasting impact if they have an early age of onset, occur often and in more than one setting, and result in a variety of negative parent and child behaviors (Keenan & Shaw, 1995). However, it is not this resulting noncompliant behavior itself, but rather the coercive interactions that increase the likelihood of future oppositional

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