Cognitive modifiability as a function of mother–child mediated learning strategies,mothers' acceptance–rejection,and children's personality

This study investigated (a) the effects of mediated learning experience (MLE) in mother–child interactions on cognitive modifiability as measured by dynamic assessment, (b) the effects of mothers' acceptance–rejection towards their children and the children's personality on the mothers' MLE strategies, (c) the combined effects of the mothers' acceptance–rejection, children's personality, and MLE strategies on children's cognitive modifiability, and (d) the prediction of cognitive modifiability by MLE interactions in two distinct conditions: free-play and structured. Fifty-four mother–child dyads (26 boys and 28 girls) in grade 2 were videotaped interacting in two situations: free-play and structured. The interactions were analysed with observation of mediation instrument using five criteria: intentionality and reciprocity, transcendence, meaning, feelings of competence, and regulation of behaviour. The children were administered the parent acceptance–rejection questionnaire, the personality assessment questionnaire, and the children's inferential thinking modifiability test. A distal–proximal factors of cognitive modifiability model was used to explain causal paths among mothers' acceptance–rejection and children's personality (distal) on MLE (proximal), and of both on children's cognitive modifiability. A structural equation model analysis revealed that (a) all MLE criteria were predicted by the distal factors of mothers' acceptance–rejection and children's personality, (b) none of the mothers' attitudes or children's personality factors explained the children's cognitive factors, (c) MLE criteria of transcendence and regulation of behaviour explained the children's CITM-post-teaching score but not the CITM-pre-teaching score. The results are discussed in relation to Feuerstein's MLE theory and Tzuriel's previous results with preschool children. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maternal Emotion Socialization: The Contribution of Inhibited Behaviour and Mothers' Dissatisfaction with the Parent–Child Relationship

In the present study, we examined the associations between children's inhibited behaviour, mothers' dissatisfaction with the parent–child relationship and mothers' self‐reported reactions to children's emotions. Fifty‐three mother–child dyads visited the laboratory, and mothers completed questionnaires about child temperament and emotion socialization. Maternal stress stemming from dissatisfaction with the parent–child relationship was negatively predictive of mothers' supportive reactions to happiness. In addition, the interaction between children's inhibited behaviour and parent–child relationship dissatisfaction significantly predicted mothers' supportive reactions to children's fear; specifically, mothers who reported the highest levels of dissatisfaction in their relationship with their children and had children who exhibited low levels of inhibition reported the lowest levels of supportive responses to their children's fear. Importantly, mothers reported the highest levels of supportive reactions to children's fear when their children were low in inhibition, and they reported low levels of dissatisfaction in their relationship with their child. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of quantity and quality of home proximal processes on Dutch,Surinamese–Dutch and Turkish–Dutch pre‐schoolers’ cognitive development

This study examines the effects of mother–child literacy and problem solving interactions on 3–4‐year‐old children's cognitive development in a sample of Dutch middle‐class, Dutch lower‐class, Surinamese and Turkish immigrant families (n=130). Following the bioecological model of Bronfenbrenner and Ceci, mother–child book reading and problem solving interactions are viewed as proximal processes actualizing genetic cognitive potential. Interactions are studied from a quantitative perspective, based on questionnaire data, concerning frequency of exposure to these interactions, and a qualitative perspective, based on observational data, concerning affective quality and cognitive content. The study was designed as a 1 year longitudinal study. It was found that effects of mother–child interactions on cognitive development differed across the groups, controlling for earlier cognitive competence and family's SES. The findings are interpreted within the frame of the bioecological model and the behavioral genetic research paradigm. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Child's behaviour in mother–child interaction predicts later emotional and behavioural problems

The aims were to examine the association of maternal or child interactive behaviour with emotional and behavioural problems of the child simultaneously and 3 years later, and to assess whether there is continuity in children's emotional and behavioural symptoms from 2 to 5 years. Sixty‐five 2‐year‐old children with their mothers were videotaped during a feeding situation. Their mothers completed the CBCL at 2 years and when the children were 5. Simultaneously, there were no strong correlations between child's emotional and behavioural problems and maternal or child interactive behaviour. Subsequently, mothers' higher sensitivity and more optimal structuring, as well as child's higher involvement of the mother, were associated with lower levels of child externalizing and total problem scores. Also, less responsive children showed more externalizing symptoms 3 years later. There was continuity of emotional and behavioural problems from 2 to 5 years. Problems in mother–child interaction may predict behavioural problems in the child subsequently. Besides maternal behaviour, it is important to consider the interactive behaviour of the child. Children who are less responsive and who show less involvement of the mother are more likely to subsequently present more externalizing symptoms, and these children should be recognized and treated early. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Precursors of language ability and academic performance: an inter‐generational,longitudinal study of at‐risk children

The current investigation examined whether inter‐generational transfer of risk could be revealed through mothers' and preschool‐aged children's expressive language, and whether continuity of risk persisted in these children's academic abilities, 3 years later. Participating families were drawn from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, a prospective, longitudinal investigation of French‐speaking families from low‐SES Montreal neighbourhoods. At Time 1, mothers' history of childhood social withdrawal was shown to predict mothers' child‐directed language. Mothers' language complexity was also shown to be predictive of preschoolers' expressive language and was found to mediate the relationship between maternal social withdrawal and child language. At Time 2, children's language‐related academic abilities were predicted by their expressive language at preschool age. The findings support an inter‐generational continuity of risk operating through language complexity and extending to children's performance in language‐related academic abilities at school age. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An observational measure of children's behavioural style: Evidence supporting a multi‐method approach to studying temperament

This study demonstrates the potential utility of the Behavioural Style Observational System (BSOS) as a new observational measure of children's behavioural style. The BSOS is an objective, short and easy to use measure that can be readily adapted to a variety of home and laboratory situations. In the present study, 160 mother–child dyads from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project (CLRP) were observed during an 11‐min behavioural sample. Videotaped interactions were coded using the BSOS for children's mood, activity level, vocal reactivity, approach to toys, mood consistency and adaptability. Comparisons between the BSOS observational ratings and mothers' ratings of the child on the EAS Temperament Survey (EAS) provided support for modest congruence between these two measurement systems, and revealed a differential predictive pattern of children's functioning. Specifically, the observation‐based BSOS predicted children's cognitive performance and adaptive behaviour during testing, whereas the mother‐rated EAS predicted maternal ratings of children's internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems. Both measures were found to independently predict mothers' ratings of parenting stress. Overall, the findings imply that neither observational measures nor maternal ratings alone are sufficient to understand children's behavioural style, and that comprehensive evaluations of children's temperament should optimally include both types of measures. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐efficacy as a moderator of negative and positive self‐fulfilling prophecy effects: mothers' beliefs and children's alcohol use

This research examined two issues relevant to self‐fulfilling prophecies. First, it examined whether children's risk for alcohol use, as indicated by their self‐efficacy to refuse alcohol from peers, moderated their susceptibility to negative and positive self‐fulfilling prophecy effects created by their mothers. Second, it explored behavioral mediators that could be involved in the self‐fulfilling process between mothers and children. Longitudinal data from 540 mother–child dyads indicated that (1) low self‐efficacy children were more susceptible to their mothers' positive than negative self‐fulfilling effects, whereas high self‐efficacy children's susceptibility did not vary, (2) mothers' global parenting and children's perception of their friends' alcohol use partially mediated mothers' self‐fulfilling effects, and (3) these mediators contributed to low self‐efficacy children's greater susceptibility to positive self‐fulfilling prophecy effects. The power of self‐fulfilling prophecies, their link to social problems, and the potential for mothers' favorable beliefs to have a protective influence on adolescent alcohol use are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison of dyadic interactions and coping with still‐face in healthy pre‐term and full‐term infants

Pre‐term birth has a significant impact on infants' social and emotional competence, however, little is known about regulatory processes in pre‐term mother‐infant dyads during normal or stressful interactions. The primary goals of this study were to investigate the differences in infant and caregiver interactive behaviour and dyadic coordination of clinically healthy pre‐term compared to full‐term infant‐mother dyads and to examine pre‐term infants' capacity for coping with stress using the face‐to‐face still‐face paradigm (FFSF). Fifty mother‐infant dyads, including 25 pre‐term infants and 25 full‐term infants were videotaped during the FFSF. All infants were 6–9 months of age (corrected for gestational age in the pre‐term group). Infant and maternal socio‐emotional expressivity and self‐regulatory behaviours were coded and measures of dyadic coordination (Matching, Reparation Rate, and Synchrony) were calculated. There were no significant differences in infant and caregiver socio‐emotional behaviours between the two groups and both groups demonstrated the still‐face (SF) effect and the reunion effect. There was a difference in self‐regulatory behaviour. Pre‐term infants were more likely than full‐term infants to use distancing (e.g., by turning away, twisting, or arching) from their mothers during the FFSF. Additionally, during the Reunion episode of the FFSF pre‐term infants showed more social monitoring compared to full‐term infants. Regardless of the birth status, the dyads showed less coordination and a slower rate of reparation during the Reunion episode than during the Play episode. The higher proportion of distancing in the pre‐term group and the increase in social monitoring suggest that even in normal interactions pre‐term infants may experience a higher level of stress and have less capacity for self‐regulation compared to the full‐terms and that pre‐term infants appear to use a compensatory strategy of increased social monitoring to cope with the stress of renegotiating the interaction during Reunion. The findings suggest that pre‐term infants have different regulatory and interactive capacities than full‐term infants.     

Maternal Psychological Absence and Toddlers' Social‐Emotional Development: Interpretations From the Perspective of Boundary Ambiguity Theory

The current study tests a novel latent construct reflecting psychological absence and examines its relations with maternal depression, mother–toddler interactions, and toddlers' social‐emotional outcomes in a low‐income sample (N = 2,632). Structural equation modeling confirmed a psychological absence construct and revealed that psychological absence, measured at the child's 36‐month birthday‐related assessment, is a significant predictor of children's social‐emotional development at 36 months, mediated by mother–child interaction. Results are interpreted within a boundary ambiguity framework.     

Relationships among parenting practices,parental stress,child behaviour,and children's social‐cognitive development

The present study included observational and self‐report measures to examine associations among parental stress, parental behaviour, child behaviour, and children's theory of mind and emotion understanding. Eighty‐three parents and their 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children participated. Parents completed measures of parental stress, parenting (laxness, overreactivity), and child behaviour (internalizing, externalizing); children completed language, theory of mind, and emotion understanding measures. Parent–child interactions also were observed (N=47). Laxness and parenting stress predicted children's theory of mind performance and parental usage of imitative gestures and vocalizations accounted for unique variance in emotion understanding. Associations also were found between child behaviour and emotion understanding. Results provide support for direct and indirect associations between parent–child interactions and early social‐cognitive development. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Work–family conflict,psychological availability,and child emotion regulation: Spillover and crossover in dual‐earner families

Work–family balance and child rearing are major social concerns. Few studies, however, have addressed how parents' work–family conflict (WFC) associates with children's emotion regulation. This study proposes the link to occur through parents' psychological availability (PA). In our model we tested both intraindividual and interindividual effects on a sample of 138 dual‐earner couples with preschool‐aged children. Our results showed that WFC related negatively to PA (actor and partner effects); fathers' and mothers' PA associated negatively with child lability and positively with child emotion regulation. Indirect effects were found for fathers' and mothers' WFC and children's emotion regulation and lability through partners' PA, controlling for child gender and temperament. These findings showed a dyadic pattern among couples' work–family balance, parenting, and children's emotion regulation.     

Maternal correlates of 2‐year‐old American Indian children's social‐emotional development in a Northern Plains tribe

The developmental experiences of very young American Indian children today are not well documented in the current literature. The present study sought to explore the social‐emotional development of American Indian toddlers living on a Northern Plains reservation, as a function of maternal variables. Mothers completed self‐report questionnaires about their experiences and their children's development. Observer ratings of children's development also were conducted. Maternal stress, substance use/abuse, perceptions of stress in the mother–child relationship, social support, and American Indian cultural identity were significantly related to children's social‐emotional development. This study is the first to explore these relationships in a Northern Plains American Indian sample of young children and their mothers. Results suggest possible points of intervention for improving the developmental outcomes of very young American Indian children.     

Mothers' and Fathers' Internal State Language with Their Young Children: An Examination of Gender Differences During an Emotions Task

The current study examined gender differences in mothers' and fathers' internal state language (ISL), children's use of ISL, and whether ISL was related to parents' ratings of the children's social skills. Fifty‐seven (28 boys, 29 girls) toddler/preschool children (M age = 32.5 months, SD = 5.38 months) were observed separately with their mothers and fathers in their homes while they discussed pictures of children's facial expressions of emotions. Parents completed a questionnaire concerning their child's social–emotional behaviours (i.e. BASC‐2). Parents used more ISL with sons compared with daughters, and sons used more ISL with mothers than with fathers. No overall differences were found between mothers' and fathers' ISL. Children's social skills as rated by mothers were predicted by mothers' ISL comments, whereas children's social skills as rated by fathers were predicted by children's age and fathers' ISL clarifications. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pregnancy Plans of First‐time Mothers and Their Children's Outcomes: An Examination of Mechanisms

Unintended pregnancy is prevalent in the United States and has been linked to challenges for both mothers and their children over time. However, studies have not yet identified mechanisms through which pregnancy intention is associated with children's outcomes. Identification of mechanisms among families at risk for negative outcomes will inform early clinical intervention. This current study examined the association between mothers' pregnancy plans reported during pregnancy and children's externalizing, internalizing, dysregulation, and social–emotional competence outcomes at 3 years old among an at‐risk sample of 682 first‐time mothers from the Predicting and Preventing Neglect in Teen Mothers Study. Further, this study identified mechanisms in the association that can be targeted in clinical intervention. Mediation analyses revealed that mothers' parenting stress when children were 24 months old served as a mechanism in the association between unplanned pregnancy and children's low social–emotional competence at 36 months. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed. Specifically, early intervention with mothers experiencing unplanned pregnancies may help to promote healthy outcomes among their children over time. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mothers' beliefs and children's long-term cognitive change: A developmental task interpretation

A longitudinal study was used to explore the following hypotheses concerning the relation between mothers' beliefs, their use of high distancing utterances and children's cognitive development: (1) beliefs moderate the impact of high-distancing utterances on children's development, and (2) beliefs reflect mothers' normative expectations that motivate themselves and their children to try to satisfy them. The participants consisted of 34 children and their mothers and teachers. Results for the motherchild dialogues indicated that the distancing–cognitive performance relationship was strongest for children whose mothers had the most positive beliefs. In addition, mothers' beliefs about a 4-year-old child were more strongly related to children's cognitive performance at ages 6 and 10 than to cognitive performance at age 4. Characteristics of both verbal parent–child and verbal teacher–child interactions at age 4 supported a developmental task interpretation of these findings.     

Does Mother Know Best? An Actor–Partner Model of College‐Age Women's Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Behavior

This study examined the associations of perceived threat, perceived efficacy, and parent–child communication with the extent to which college‐age women received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Daughters and their mothers completed a survey about the HPV vaccine (N = 182 dyads). The results showed that mothers' perceived self‐efficacy to talk to their daughters and mothers' response efficacy of the vaccine were indirectly related to mother–daughter communication about HPV. Further, mother–daughter communication mediated the relation between mothers' intention to talk to their daughters and daughters' HPV vaccination behavior. This study demonstrates the importance of the social context of health behavior and the role of communication in understanding maternal influence on the HPV vaccination behavior of young adult women.     

A lag between understanding false belief and emotion attribution in young children: Relationships with linguistic ability and mothers' mental‐state language

This study examines the contribution of children's linguistic ability and mothers' use of mental‐state language to young children's understanding of false belief and their subsequent ability to make belief‐based emotion attributions. In Experiment 1, children (N = 51) were given three belief‐based emotion‐attribution tasks. A standard task in which the protagonist was a story character and the emotional outcomes were imagined, and two videos in which the story protagonist was a real infant and the emotional outcomes were observable (high and low expressed emotion conditions). Children's verbal ability (semantic competence) was also measured. In Experiment 2, children (N = 75) were given two belief‐based emotion tasks: the standard story task and the high expressed emotion video. In addition, children's verbal ability (syntactic competence) and mothers' use of mental‐state attributes when describing their children were also measured. The results showed that: (1) the lag between understanding false belief and emotion attribution was a stable feature of children's reasoning across the three tests; and (2) children who were more linguistically advanced and whose mothers' described them in more mentalistic terms were more likely to understand the association between false belief and emotion. The findings underline the continuing importance of verbal ability and linguistic input for children's developing theory‐of‐mind understanding, even after they display an understanding of false belief.     

Does why we reminisce reflect how you behave? Linking maternal reminiscing goals to child behavioural and emotional problems

Recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that joint mother–child reminiscence may reflect both explicit and implicit socialization goals. The present study investigates mothers' explicit socialization goals that may be enacted during joint reminiscence in relation to children's behavioural and emotional problems. Two hundred and sixty‐five mothers of 3‐ to 8‐year‐old children completed an online survey that included a measure of seven reminiscing goals (emotional understanding, behaviour control, bonding, interdependence, entertainment, memory skill development, and maintaining peer relationships). In addition, mothers completed measures of children's emotion problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer problems as well as supportive parenting and maternal attachment. Findings indicated that controlling for supportive parenting and maternal attachment, emotional understanding was a unique predictor of children's emotion problems, directing behaviour was a unique predictor of conduct problems, and bonding was a unique predictor of hyperactivity. These findings provide support for the functional nature of joint reminiscence. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diversity Among Low SES Families: An Exploration of Predictive Variables for Mothers' Metacognitive Questions to Their Children

Research on children's cognitive development has documented the causal role of parent language on children's subsequent metacognitive reasoning. Although the effects of poverty have been addressed in the past, little is known about diversity among families labeled as "low socioeconomic status" (SES). In this study, we used the Mother/Child Interaction in Low Income Families database from the Henry Murray Diversity Archives to investigate mothers' metacognitive question use with their preschool children in 4 separate activities. Hundreds of mother/child variables including psychological function; emotional well-being; academic, cognitive, and behavioral assessments; along with numerous household, neighborhood, and community measures were explored. We used principal components factor analysis and multiple regression to explore clusters of family variables that may be predictive of mothers' metacognitive questions to children. Results suggest a broad and complex set of factors that can account for metacognitive language use in the home. We found key predictive areas to center around parenting style, mothers' self-efficacy, and mother and child affective and intellectual ability.     

Heterogeneity in Maltreated and Non‐maltreated Preschool Children's Inhibitory Control: The Interplay Between Parenting Quality and Child Temperament

This study examined the contribution of child temperament, parenting, and their interaction on inhibitory control development in a sample of maltreated and non‐maltreated preschool children. One hundred and eighteen mother–child dyads were drawn from predominantly low‐income, rural communities. Dyads participated in a laboratory session in which maternal warm autonomy support, warm guidance, and strict/hostile control were observationally coded during a joint teaching task. Independent assessments of children's inhibitory control were obtained, and observers rated children's temperament. After relevant covariates, including income, maternal education, and child age and IQ were controlled for, there were no differences between the maltreatment and non‐maltreatment groups in either children's inhibitory control or mothers' behaviours in the laboratory session. Even after much of the variance in children's inhibitory control was accounted for from the covariates, children's temperamental negativity moderated the effects of warm autonomy support on inhibitory control in both maltreatment and non‐maltreatment groups. Temperamentally negative children whose mothers displayed more warm autonomy support showed greater inhibitory control, at levels on par with low‐negative children. Findings suggest that heterogeneity in children's self‐regulation may be due in part to individual differences in sensitivity to caregiver support for children's independence, even among those exposed to maltreatment. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.