Keyword phrases and its child words

Does google take in the child words along with the phrase?

[peschli]

I have noticed that they keywords I would like to get higher in the rankings with backfire on me because I want the word "keyword" to be up in the rankings but instead I am up in the rankings with "the keyword phrase". Now I do use the phrase alot on my site, but I do use my keyword with other phrases as well. Now the question is, should I start using that phrase less to try and get my keyword up in the rankings? (I hope this made sense, hard to explain.)

[zgb999]

It is much easier to get a good ranking for "the keyword phrase" than for keyword.

Keep adding content about keyword or keyword phrase and get others to link to you with keyword or keyword phrase and your ranking for keyword will get better and better.