[3] At NIMH, Kochanska worked with Marian Radke-Yarrow on studies of child-rearing practices,[4] children's noncompliance to adult directives,[5] and the development of inhibitory control.
[6] In 1991, she started her own laboratory at the University of Iowa, conducting research on social emotional development and developmental psychopathology.
Her research team studied mother–child and father–child relationships in approximately 200 families and found evidence of intergenerational transmission of adaptive and maladaptive behaviors.
[13] Some Kochanska's most cited research explored young children's inhibitory control, a critical aspect of temperament related to executive functioning.
At both ages, girls outperformed boys across tasks designed to provide opportunities to break the rules, such as playing a game where it was possible to cheat or being left alone with a forbidden object.