Into the Unknown: Maternal Responsiveness Influences Young Children’s Support-Giving Expectations of Fathers but Not Unfamiliar Others

Interactions with primary caregivers shape children’s expectations of interactions with others, but the mechanism is not clear yet. We included Han Chinese children aged 5–6 (N = 121, 61 boys) from a city in East China and tested their support-giving expectations of mothers, fathers, and unfamiliar others after observing mother-child interactions with different levels of maternal responsiveness. Across two studies, we found that children’s support-giving behavior and willingness expectations decreased significantly in the unresponsive condition for mothers and fathers but not for unfamiliar others. The results suggest that relationship type between children and interaction partners moderates the effects of maternal responsiveness on children’s expectations of partners’ support-giving. They shed light on how young children understand and represent interpersonal interactions.