Processes of mutual interpersonal influence are studied in dyads comprised of well and depressed mothers and their 5-year-old children. This is a longitudinal study, following up the sample of 87 dyads, in which control and discipline interactions were studied when the children were 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 years old (Z01 MH 02152). Two major themes are followed: difficulties of depressed mothers in controlling their children, which were identified in the original study, and the development of children's competent interpersonal strategies of influence, which in their emerging form were studied in toddler period. In contrast to the first study, where the focus was on the mother as the agent of control and child as a respondent, in this study the focus is on bilateral interpersonal influence processes. Every episode of control, which can be initiated either by the mother or by the child, is coded.
