Recent re-conceptualisation of paternal involvement (Pleck, J. H. (2010). Paternal involvement: Revised conceptualization and theoretical linkages with child outcomes. In M. Lamb (Ed.), "The role of the father in child development" (5th ed., pp. 67-107). London: Wiley), while proving fruitful, has yet to be applied to investigations into…

A team of facilitators describe the process and content of portfolios they create for families attending weekly playgroup sessions based on the philosophy and practices of the Parents Interacting with Infants (PIWI) model. The parent-child portfolios are a form of authentic assessment and highlight children's development within the context of…

An attempt was made in the present study to identify mothers' and caregivers' teaching (mediation) behaviour in relation to toddlers' social behaviour. Participants were 103 toddlers, two- to four-year olds, their mothers, and 28 caregivers at 16 public daycare centres in Israel. Two observations were carried out, one in toddlers' homes and the…

The study investigated the ability of child protective service workers to distinguish videotaped interactions of physically abusive parent-child dyads from interactions of nonabuse dyads during a teaching task. Child protection workers achieved a 76 percent rate of accuracy in identify the abuse status of dyads after only three minutes of observed…

The effects of an observer's presence on maternal interactive behavior were examined through observation of mother-child pairs under informed and uninformed conditions. Results indicate mothers played with their children more, were more positive in their verbal behavior, and structured their children's activities more during the informed than…

This paper outlines the research on the reciprocal effects of children and parents on one another and briefly discusses the methods and concepts currently employed in the area. Three types of observational studies are identified: (1) parent-infant studies in which slow-motion and stop-frame video pictures are used to analyze minute details of…

This paper (1) discusses methodological issues in the study of interaction; (2) describes a statistical approach to data analysis that derives the amount of interaction empirically from separate and independent observations of simultaneously occurring behaviors of mother-child dyads; and (3) discusses the application of this technique to the…

Results suggested that preschool age siblings may facilitate mastery of the object environment by infants. (Author/JMB)

This study examined the public behavior between adults and children in 557 groups and evaluated the effects of group size, number of children (16 years of age and younger), and number of adults on the cross-age interactions. For a 10-second period, all social interactions between members of a group were recorded using an unobtrusive observational…

To address the need for objective evaluation of parent-child interactions, the investigators created a taxonomy of interactional behaviors used by parents and preverbal/early verbal children. Based on statistical analysis, the taxonomy was shortened to include only those objective behaviors that were highly correlated with the overall subjective…

An interaction analysis observation instrument, with categories found in the definition of "executive competence" by Wenar and related to R. White's effectance motivation, was used to observe 37 toddlers with their mothers. (SB)

Mothers of 20 infants ranging in age from 14 to 16 months were asked to predict their infants' preferences within sets of toys varying in a single attribute. Their accuracy was checked by observing the infants at play. (Author/JMB)

The relative heuristic usefulness of three data sources for investigating the relationship between parent attitudes and practices and children's characteristics are evaluated: behavior counts, based on naturalistic home observation; interview and a 24-hour diary; and measures based on an experimental playroom situation. (CS)

Dynamic aspects of maternal language instruction and first language learning were explored by observing one- to five-year-old middle-class children with their mothers. (CM)