Analysis of mother-child interaction data for 36 children and their mothers revealed that the three groups of mothers' verbal interactions differed significantly in their mean length of utterance, percentage of yes-no questions, percentage of information questions, and percentage of clarification questions. (Author/CS)

This paper presents the history of parent education in the United States and describes a mother-toddler program designed to help young mothers acquire knowledge and skills in child rearing through modeling, counseling and discussion. Included are reviews of current methods of education for child rearing, the need for programs to aid young parents,…

This study explored the relationship between maternal sensitivity and the development of mother-infant vocal interaction. Two characteristics of mother and infant vocalizations were assessed at six and nine months in a home feeding situation: (1) the degree of mutual responsiveness, and (2) the affective quality of vocalization. These assessments…

The relationships between aspects of mother-infant interaction and both communication and cognitive skills at 1 year of age were examined in 92 African American dyads, of whom 64 were poor. The overall quality of the home environment and maternal ratings of stimulation and elaborativeness were the most consistent correlates of infant communication…

In this study, twenty 3-day-old Caucasian neonates were observed before and during feeding in an attempt to demonstrate that individual characteristics of infants, such as alertness and social behaviors, are related to the interaction of mothers and infants during feeding situations. Ten of the infants were males, 10 were females; approximately 70…

Twenty dyads--ten middle-class mothers and ten lower-class mothers and their two-year-old children--were videotaped in a play situation. Variables in speech and utterance production were examined for change across condition (awareness or ignorance of being observed) and across socioeconomic class within condition. The number of utterances was…

This intensive longitudinal study of mother-infant interaction during the first year of life focuses on the development of attachment. Data on 26 middle-class families were collected by five methods: (1) naturalistic observation of each mother-infant pair during 4-hour home visits, which occurred at 3-week intervals from the infants' 3rd to 54th…

A study on child day care is presented. The primary function of the research strategy was to pretest and develop an independent sample measurement scales to use in a panel study. The focus of the research is on family day care arrangements made by working mothers for children under six years of age. The sample used was a fairly successful one of…

This project was designed to study the process of parents teaching preschool age children using a direct observational method. Six mothers and their own three-year-old sons from seven ethnic groups participated: middle-class Anglo, lower-class Anglo, English-speaking Mexican-American, bilingual Mexican-American; Spanish-Speaking Mexican-American,…