Tonal synchrony in mother–infant interaction based on harmonic and pentatonic series

This study reports the occurrence of ‘tonal synchrony’ as a new dimension of early mother–infant interaction synchrony. The findings are based on a tonal and temporal analysis of vocal interactions between 15 mothers and their 3-month-old infants during 5 min of free-play in a laboratory setting. In total, 558 vocal exchanges were identified and analysed, of which 84% reflected harmonic or pentatonic series. Another 10% of the exchanges contained absolute and/or relative pitch and/or interval imitations. The total durations of dyads being in tonal synchrony were normally distributed (M = 3.71, SD = 2.44). Vocalisations based on harmonic series appeared organised around the major triad, containing significantly more simple frequency ratios (octave, fifth and third) than complex ones (non-major triad tones). Tonal synchrony and its characteristics are discussed in relation to infant-directed speech, communicative musicality, pre-reflective communication and its impact on the quality of early mother–infant interaction and child's development.     

Are discrepancies among child,mother, and father reports on children's behavior related to parents' psychological symptoms and aspects of parent-child relationships?

Examined whether parents' symptoms and qualitative and quantitative aspects of parent–child relationships make unique contributions to mothers' and fathers' reports of, and mother–child, father–child, and father–mother discrepancies on, children's behavior. Participants were 100 children, aged 10–12, and their mothers and fathers. Parents' symptoms and parent–child relationships made unique contributions to both parents' ratings of externalizing behavior. Although parent–child relationship variables were related to both parents' ratings of internalizing behavior, only parents' symptoms made unique contributions. On mother–child and father–child discrepancies, differences emerged between mother and father, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Both fathers' and mothers' symptoms contributed to father–mother discrepancies on both behavior types, with parent–child relationships contributing unique variance to discrepancies on internalizing behavior. Results highlight the importance of each informant's symptoms and relationship variables in understanding informant discrepancies.     

Fear of abandonment as a mediator of the relations between divorce stressors and mother-child relationship quality and children's adjustment problems

This study examines whether fear of abandonment mediates the prospective relations between divorce stressors and mother–child relationship quality and adjustment problems of children of divorce. Participants were 216 children, ages 8–12, and their primary residential mothers. Children reported on divorce stressors and fear of abandonment; mothers and children reported on mother–child relationship quality and internalizing and externalizing problems. Structural equation models indicated that Time 1 fear of abandonment mediated the relation between Time 1 divorce stressors and Time 2 internalizing and externalizing problems. Time 1 fear of abandonment also mediated the relation between Time 1 mother–child relationship quality and Time 2 internalizing and externalizing problems. Implications of these results for understanding variability in children's postdivorce adjustment problems and interventions for divorced families are discussed.     

Mother-child relationships of children with ADHD: the role of maternal depressive symptoms and depression-related distortions

We investigated the DepressionDistortion hypothesis by examining the effects of maternal depressive symptoms on cross-informant discrepancies in reports of child behavior problems and several measures of parent–child relationship. The sample included ninety-six 6 to 10-year-old children diagnosed with ADHD-Combined Type, and their mothers, who provided baseline data before participating in a randomized clinical trial. Measures incorporated child characteristics, self-reports of maternal depressive symptoms, parenting practices, and laboratory mother–child interactions. Elevations in maternal depressive symptoms were associated with maternal reports of negative parenting style but not with observed laboratory interactions. Mothers' levels of depressive symptoms predicted negative biases in their reports of their child's ADHD symptoms, general behavior problems, and their own negative parenting style. Whereas levels of depressive symptoms did not predict observed parenting behaviors, maternal distortions did predict problematic parent–child interactions. Exploratory analyses showed a marginally significant mediation effect of the relationship between maternal depressive symptomatology and reports of negative parenting by depressive distortions. We discuss implications of linkages between depressive symptoms in mothers, depression-related distortions, and mother–child relationships for research and intervention in developmental psychopathology.     

Social and linguistic factors influencing adaptation in children's speech

The ability to appropriately reciprocate or compensate a partner's communicative response represents an essential element of communicative competence. Previous research indicates that as children grow older, their speech levels reflect greater adaptation relative to their partner's speech. In this study, we argue that patterns of adaptation are related to specific linguistic and pragmatic abilities, such as verbal responsiveness, involvement in the interaction, and the production of relatively complex syntactic structures. Thirty-seven children (3–6 years of age) individually interacted with an adult for 20 to 30 minutes. Adaptation between child and adult was examined among conversational floortime, response latency, and speech rate. Three conclusions were drawn from the results of this investigation. First, by applying time-series analysis to the interactants' speech behaviors within each dyad, individual measures of the child's adaptations to the adult's speech can be generated. Second, consistent with findings in the adult domain, these children generally reciprocated changes in the adult's speech rate and response latency. Third, there were differences in degree and type of adaptation within specific dyads. Chronological age was not useful in accounting for this individual variation, but specific linguistic and social abilities were. Implications of these findings for the development of communicative competence and for the study of normal versus language-delayed speech were discussed.     

The mediating role of maternal responsiveness in some longer term effects of postnatal depression on infant development

We hypothesized a mediating role for low maternal responsiveness in certain child developmental deficits found previously to be associated with postnatal depression. Forty depressed inpatients and 48 control (non-depressed) mothers and their infants were followed until 42 months postpartum. Mother–infant interactions were impaired at 6 months postpartum in the depressed group. Subsequent cognitive deficits were found in children's Full Scale IQ on the Wechsler Preschool Primary Scale of Intelligence (Revised) at 42 months of age. Statistical modeling of the mediation hypothesis confirmed that these effects were overwhelmingly explained by lowered maternal responsiveness at 6 months. Similarly, increased temperamental difficulties were apparent in children of depressed mothers but were not correlated with maternal responsiveness. Male infants of depressed mothers were disproportionately vulnerable (compared to females) to impaired cognitive abilities associated with maternal depression. The data concur with previous work and provide empirical support for the theoretical prediction that early disturbances of the mother–infant interaction will mediate some developmental deficits in the children of depressed mothers.     

从前语言到语言转换阶段的语言运用能力发展——3岁前汉语儿童语用交流行为习得的研究

研究着重探讨汉语儿童从前语言到语言交往阶段语用交流行为发展,通过质和量两种方式搜集14-32月儿童与母亲互动交往语料,采用汉化的CHILDES模式转录并用CLAN系统进行分析。研究发现3岁前汉语儿童语用交流行为清晰度的快速增长,语用交往行为类型的明显扩展和语用交流行为核心类型的运作倾向,是该阶段具有标志性的语用发展阶段特征。研究同时发现汉语儿童语用交流行为与母亲的语用交流行为存在着较为密切的关系。     

Attachment,Behavioral Inhibition,and Anxiety in Preschool Children

This study examined the association between insecure attachment, behavioral inhibition, and anxiety in an at risk sample of preschool children. The relationship between maternal anxiety and child anxiety was also assessed. Participants were 104 children aged 3–4 years who were assessed for behavioral inhibition and mother–child attachment (using the Strange Situation procedure). DSM-IV criteria were used to assess childhood anxiety disorders. Insecure attachment and behavioral inhibition were both independently associated with child anxiety, even after controlling for the effect of maternal anxiety. Maternal anxiety was also associated with child anxiety. This study identified both constitutional and environmental factors associated with the expression of anxiety in young children. Furthermore, the highest levels of anxiety were shown by children who were behaviorally inhibited and insecurely attached and whose mothers were also anxious.     

Dynamic analyses of mother-child interactions in functional and dysfunctional dyads: a synergetic approach

Describes the application of a new analytical approach (derived from synergetics, a complex dynamic systems theory) to home observational data of mother–child interactions in average dyads and dyads with children referred for disruptive behavior problems at home and school (n = 11 in each group). Results show that (1) the two groups differed in their daily interactions in predictable ways, and (2) the most frequent patterns of interactions observed in the two groups brought them back repeatedly to behave in similar ways toward each other. The findings are in keeping with a body of literature on mother–child interactions. However, they add to it by providing multivariate, graphical representations of these interactions and by offering a conceptual framework within which to move from an observational to an inferential level of analysis. At that level, the transactional processes that are characteristic of functional and dysfunctional relationships may become apparent.     

Infants in group care: their interactions with professional caregivers and parents across the second year of life

Seventy children were observed during structured play with their primary professional caregivers and three peers in the child care center and with their primary caregiving parents at home at 15 and 23 months of age. The same structured play tasks were used in the two settings and the quality of the children's interactions with caregivers and parents was rated using the same 7-point scales. As expected, the quality of caregiver–child interactions significantly increased between 15 and 23 months. At 15 months, the quality of caregiver–child interactions was significantly lower than the quality of parent–child interactions, particularly with regard to caregiver supportive presence and respect for the child's autonomy. At 23 months, however, the quality of caregiver–child interactions was no longer lower and in some respects even higher than the quality of parent–child interactions. At both ages, the children expressed more negativity towards their parents than towards their professional caregivers.     

Understanding Triadic and Family Group Interactions During Infancy and Toddlerhood

This paper outlines recent conceptual and methodological developments in the assessment of triadic and family group process during infancy and toddlerhood. Foundations of the emerging family group process are identified, and conditions specific to the assessment of the family during the early phases of family formation are summarized. Both microanalytic and global approaches to evaluating mother–father–child interactions are discussed. We highlight both similarities and differences in the strategies and methods employed by several different investigators who have been studying the group dynamics of families with infant and toddler children, and underscore several important family patterns and emerging themes that appear to be cutting across these different methods and measurement strategies. Preliminary evidence for the validity and clinical significance of family-level assessments is summarized, and directions currently being pursued by researchers engaged in studies of the family triad are outlined. We close by identifying several conceptual and clinical issues that remain to be addressed by subsequent work.     

Inner-City Children Living with an HIV-Seropositive Mother: Parent–Child Relationships, Perception of Social Support, and Psychological Disturbance

Despite ongoing concern about the well-being of HIV-seronegative children living in urban poverty with a seropositive mother, very little is known about this expanding population of children. In this cross-sectional study, the psychosocial adjustment of 60 ethnic minority children 11 to 16 years of age who were living with an HIV-seropositive mother was compared with that of 108 children attending public school in the same community. Results of three multivariate analyses of covariance indicated that, after allowance for differences associated with age, gender, ethnicity, and family structure, the HIV-affected group confirmed (a) greater disturbance in the parent–child relationship, (b) less social support, and (c) greater disturbance in psychological functioning. Secondary analysis of the multivariate findings indicated that the differences were characterized primarily by (a) perception of more indifference and hostility in the mother–child relationship, (b) perception of less social support available from parents, friends, and teachers, and (c) less self-esteem. The findings suggest that HIV infection and concurrent problems may compromise parent–child relationships and perception of social support in ways that leave older, seronegative children living with an infected mother at risk for psychological disturbance.     

Communicative impairment in traumatic brain injury: a complete pragmatic assessment

The aim of the present study was to examine the communicative abilities of traumatic brain injury patients (TBI). We wish to provide a complete assessment of their communicative ability/disability using a new experimental protocol, the Assessment Battery of Communication, (ABaCo) comprising five scales—linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic, context and conversational—which investigate all the main pragmatic elements involved in a communicative exchange. The ABaCo was administered to 21 TBI subjects and to a control group. The results showed that performance by TBI patients was worse than that of controls on all scales; moreover they showed a trend of increasing difficulty in understanding and producing different pragmatic phenomena, i.e., standard communication acts, deceits and ironies, whether such phenomena are expressed through the linguistic or extralinguistic modality.     

The timing of verbal/vocal communications between mothers and their infants: a longitudinal cross-cultural comparison

Early dialogues between parent and child constitute an important factor for the acquisition of culture and hence verbal interaction is considered to be a universal parenting system. Parenting strategies and socialization practices are strongly influenced by the cultural conception of the self, prototypically defined as the model of independence and interdependence. Our study focuses on the temporal organization of spontaneous verbal/vocal behavior of 20 German middle-class and 28 Cameroonian Nso mother–infant dyads. The infants and their mothers were observed weekly in a 5 min free-play interaction scene from 0 to 3 months of age. We hypothesized to find different amounts of vocalization time, synchronous vocalizations, and contingent maternal responses in the verbal/vocal patterns of the two samples. The findings indicate cross-cultural differences in the temporal structure of verbal/vocal interactions already during the first three months of life, reflecting underlying differences in the culture-specific modes of verbal interaction.     

From communication to language—a psychological perspective

Any realistic account of language acquisition must take into account the manner in which the child passes from pre-speech communication to the use of language proper. For it can be shown that many of the major organizing features of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and even phonology have important precursors and prerequisites in the prespeech communicative acts of infants. Illustrations of such precursors are examined in four different domains: The mother's mode of interpreting the infant's communicative intent; the development of joint referential devices en route to deixis; the child's developing strategy for enlisting aid in joint activity; the transformation of topic-comment organization in prespeech to predication proper. Finally, the conjecture is explored whether the child's knowledge of the requirements of action and interaction might provide the basis for the initial development of grammar.     

Predictors of maternal language to infants during a picture book task in the home: Family SES, child characteristics and the parenting environment

This study investigated the contribution of child characteristics and parenting environment to the relationship between family SES/demographic characteristics and maternal language to infants. 1157 children were drawn from a representative sample of 1292 infants born to mothers in rural Appalachian counties and rural counties in southern minority U.S. communities. Mothers and their 6–8 month old babies were videotaped at home while talking about a wordless picture book. Mothers' language output and complexity were analyzed. Child temperament, age, and parenting environment (knowledge of child development and observed mother–child engagement) were predictors of maternal language. Furthermore, their inclusion reduced the magnitude of the association between demographic characteristics and maternal language. Tests of mediation suggested that the parenting environment partially mediates the relationship between SES/demographic characteristics and maternal language. Findings are discussed with respect to identifying proximal processes that explain how SES may exert its influence on the language of young children.     

Time-out with children

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to determine the effect of an explanation prior to or after time-out on child compliance and on child disruptive behavior during time-out and (b) to determine the effect of brief parent training in time-out on child and parent behaviors. Thirty-two mother—child pairs served as subjects and were assigned to one of the following four groups: control, time-out only, explanation prior to time-out, or explanation following time-out. Each mother—child pair was observed for one session under pretraining, training, and posttraining conditions. The results indicated that time-out significantly increased compliance but the addition of an explanation did not further alter the effectiveness of time-out. Training in the use of time-out decreased the incidence of maternal interruptions but did not affect maternal responses that were not trained. Finally, following brief time-out training for noncompliance, the mothers used the procedure only 50% of the time following noncompliance.This study was supported in part by a University of Georgia Research Council grant.     

The role of representational status and item complexity in parent–child conversations about pictures and objects

Mother–child conversations about pictures systematically differ from mother–child conversations about objects: Pictures are more likely than objects to elicit talk about kinds, whereas objects are more likely than pictures to elicit talk about individuals. The purpose of the current study is to examine whether this difference between pictures and objects is explained by differences in item complexity. Mothers and their 4-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: simple or complex. In each condition, participants viewed 12 toy objects and 12 pictures, matched for content. The items were either highly detailed (complex condition) or very plain (simple condition). Replicating previous research, mothers and children provided relatively more focus on kinds when talking about pictures, and relatively more focus on individuals when talking about objects. The current results go further, however, to demonstrate that this effect is independent of the items’ complexity. We therefore propose that the picture–object difference is not due to low-level differences in amount of perceptual detail provided, but rather is due to the greater ease with which pictures serve as representations [DeLoache, J. S. (1991). Symbolic functioning in very young children: Understanding of pictures and models. Child Development, 62, 736–752]. These data indicate the ways in which a fundamental conceptual distinction between kinds and individuals arises in different linguistic expressions and in different contexts.     

Early parent-child relations and family functioning of preschool boys with pervasive hyperactivity

This study examined the quality of parent–child relationships and family functioning of preschool children with early onset hyperactivity by comparing a community sample of 33 pervasively hyperactive preschool boys with a comparison sample of 34 boys. Mothers and children were assessed at home on a range of interview, parent questionnaire, and observational measures of parenting and family functioning. Results of the study showed that higher rates of reported lax disciplinary practices, less efficient parental coping, lower rates of father–child communication, and less synchronous mother–child interactions were significantly associated with hyperactivity following statistical adjustment for the effects of conduct problems and other confounding factors. The best parenting predictor of hyperactivity was maternal coping. The present findings suggest that the way in which parents interact with their preschool children may make a unique contribution to the development and ongoing behavioral difficulties experienced by children with pervasive hyperactivity. Findings also highlight the importance of considering the role of fathers in the behavioral development of boys with early tendencies to hyperactive and distractible behavior problems.     

Children's Personal Narratives and Their Mothers' Responsiveness as Covariates of the Children's Compliance

Twenty-six mother–child dyads volunteered to be observed interacting at home, and the children agreed to participate in interviews designed to elicit their personal narratives. Observers coded the children's compliance with mother instructions and the mothers' responsiveness to their children's prosocial behaviors. Other raters coded the children's narratives for coherence of story structure. Correlational analyses of the data sets confirmed hypotheses that mother responsiveness and child coherence scores would account for separate variance in the children's willingness to comply with their mothers' instructions. These results were interpreted within the literature on child–mother synchrony and functional aspects of children's personal narratives.