Natural Rates of Compliant Behavior in Preschool Children in Day Care Settings

Noncompliance in preschool children is a common problem. In fact, it is the most frequent complaint of parents of children referred to clinics for treatment of behavior problems, and of parents of children with mental disabilities. Noncompliance also underlies, or is associated with, a number of other childhood disorders and appears to be a significant predictor of maladjustment later in life. Thus, the goal of many treatment programs for children with behavior disorders is to improve their rate of compliant behavior. Yet, despite its pervasiveness, little normative data exists on compliant behavior. The purpose of this study was to collect data on the natural rates of compliant behavior in preschool children in day care centers at 2-, 3-, and 4-years of age. The results show that the mean rate of compliant behavior for all children was 84%. In general, overall compliance appeared to increase with age. Children were more compliant to direct requests than to indirect or group requests. Overall, girls were not significantly more compliant than boys, regardless of age or type of request. Finally, teachers delivered more direct requests than either group or indirect requests. Implications for future research are discussed.