Maternal Reminiscing and Autobiographical Memory Features of Mother–Child Dyads in a Cross-Cultural Context

Maternal reminiscing styles and mother–child memory features were examined in a cross-cultural context. Fifty-five Chinese (Guangzhou, China) and 48 Australian (Melbourne, Australia) mother–child dyads (child age: 3–6 years) independently retrieved autobiographical memories and jointly discussed past events. Australian mothers used greater elaborative and supportive reminiscing and provided more specific memories than Chinese mothers. Australian children provided greater memory elaboration than Chinese children, but they did not differ in memory specificity. Maternal reminiscing styles and cultural group were independently predictive of child memory elaboration but not specificity. Nonetheless, moderation analyses showed that the two maternal reminiscing styles (elaborative and supportive) interacted to predict child memory specificity. These findings indicate the importance of culture and types of reminiscing on memory development.     

Reflective Functioning,Limit Setting,and Emotional Availability in Mother–Child Dyads

Objective. There is a need for better understanding the relation between parents’ mentalizing about their child and their actual behavior toward the child. Specifically, it is important to understand the significance of mentalization about discrete parental challenges in comparison with mentalization about the relationship in general in relation to their interaction with the child. This study aimed to examine parental mentalization and observed emotional availability. Design. Forty mothers were observed in a play situation with their children (aged 3–10 years) to rate the emotional availability in the interaction. Mothers were also interviewed with the parent development interview and about parental limit setting to assess parental reflective functioning. Results. Analyses showed moderate correlations between the reflective functioning scores and the emotional availability dimensions. Approximately 15% of the variance in emotional availability scales could be accounted for by the reflective functioning ratings. Conclusions. The results suggest that parents’ ability to mentalize about limit setting behaviors may affect interactions between the parent and child.     

Child and Mother

有时候我很乖,有时候我淘气。我乖,妈妈就高兴。我淘气,妈妈就生气。所以,我永远不再淘气。Sometimes I*m good,Sometimes I*m bad.When I*m good,Mother is glad.When I*m bad,Mother is mad.So I try to be good.Child and Mother!山东@刘宏     

Maternal Parenting Stress,Child Exuberance,and Preschoolers’ Behavior Problems

This study investigated whether child exuberance, an aspect of temperament related to emotion regulation, moderates the well-documented association between high parenting stress and increased risk for internalizing and externalizing problems during the preschool years. At 42 months of age child exuberance was observed in 256 children (47% girls) and maternal self-reports on parenting stress were obtained. At 48 months internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed through reports from both parents. Indeed, higher maternal parenting stress increased the risk for internalizing problems, and this association was more pronounced among children with high levels of exuberance. Existent emotion regulation difficulties in highly exuberant children may further heighten the risk conveyed by an unfavorable caregiving environment for developing internalizing problems.     

Mother–Child Referencing of Environmental Print and Its Relationship With Emergent Literacy Skills

Research Findings: Environmental print provides children with their earliest print experiences. This observational study investigated the frequency of mother–child environmental print referencing and its relationship with emergent literacy. A total of 35 mothers and their children (ages 3–4 years) were videotaped interacting in an environmental print–rich play setting. The frequency of environmental print referencing of letters and words was measured. Children were assessed on emergent literacy skills (letter name and sound knowledge, print concepts, phonological awareness, name and letter writing, environmental print reading). In all, 69% of mothers referenced environmental print. After child age, home literacy teaching, and maternal education were controlled for, greater maternal referencing of environmental print was positively related to print concepts and name and letter writing. Child environmental print referencing was positively related to name and letter writing as well as to maternal environmental print referencing. Mothers used a range of mediation strategies to support children's interactions with environmental print. Practice or Policy: Maternal referencing of environmental print may be a useful way to scaffold emergent literacy in young children.     

Cumulative Risk,the Mother–Child Relationship,and Social-Emotional Competence in Latino Head Start Children

Research Findings: Supportive mother–child interactions promote the development of social-emotional competence. Poverty and other associated psychosocial risk factors have a negative impact on mother–child interaction. In spite of Latino children being disproportionately represented among children living in poverty, research on mother–child interactions among economically disadvantaged Latino families remains scarce and results are mixed. The current study used an ecological approach to examine the relationship between maternal cumulative risk, child developmental delay, observed and self-reported quality of the mother–child relationship, time spent in Head Start, and teachers’ and parents’ ratings of social-emotional competence among 106 Latino Head Start children and their mothers. Cumulative risk showed a negative association with observed maternal supportiveness and self-reported quality of the mother–child relationship. Cumulative risk had negative and positive indirect effects, respectively, on child social competence and problem behavior through perceived quality of the mother–child relationship. This association only occurred when parent ratings of child behavior were used. Time spent in Head Start moderated the association between observed maternal supportiveness and social competence. Practice or Policy: Implications for providers and researchers attempting to improve social-emotional competence in disadvantaged Latino children by enhancing positive and supportive parenting practice are discussed.     

The Role of Child Interests and Collaborative Parent–Child Interactions in Fostering Numeracy and Literacy Development in Canadian Homes

Children’s involvement in home literacy and numeracy activities has been linked to school achievement, but the subtleties in the home environment responsible for these gains have yet to be thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study was to determine how children’s interests and collaborative parent–child interactions affect exposure to home literacy and numeracy activities. Parents of 170 four-to-five year old children completed a survey about their child’s home learning environment. They rated their children’s interests in 14 activities, and the extent of parent–child collaboration on a cooking and card-making task. Follow up interviews were also initiated with four mothers to provide validation of the survey data in numeracy. Factor analyses reduced the number of survey items. Parents whose children preferred exploratory, active or crafts activities reported frequent engagement in literacy and numeracy activities. Parents seeking a collaborative approach during activities reported increased exposure to home literacy and numeracy activities than families with less collaborative involvement. Interview data confirmed that parents of children with high numeracy scores were exposing their children to rich numeracy activities during play. The findings suggest that children’s interests and collaborative parent–child involvement impact literacy and numeracy exposure in the home.     

Early Full-Time Day Care,Mother–Child Attachment,and Quality of the Home Environment in Chile: Preliminary Findings

Research Findings: Two longitudinal studies are reported examining the effects of full-time day care in Mapuche and non-Mapuche families in Chile. First, the Magellan-Leiden Childcare Study (MLCS) used a sample of 95 mothers with children younger than 1 year old (n = 36 in day care). Second, we partially cross-validated our results in a large and representative sample of 10,723 mothers and their children from the Chilean Encuesta Longitudinal de la Primera Infancia (Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey). In both studies, the quality of care for children provided at home was measured with the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment. In the MLCS study, additional indicators of the mother–child relationship were measured. Day care was not negatively associated with the mother–child relationship and maternal sensitivity, compared to maternal care, or with the quality of the home environment. Positive changes in attachment security were found in Mapuche children who attended day care centers. Practice or Policy: We were able to confirm that type of care was not differentially associated with quality of the home environment.     

Mothers' Acculturation and Beliefs About Emotions,Mother–Child Emotion Discourse,and Children's Emotion Understanding in Latino Families

Research Findings: We examined associations among Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, maternal beliefs, mother–child emotion talk, and emotion understanding in 40 Latino preschool-age children and their mothers. Mothers self-reported Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, and beliefs about the value/danger of children's emotions and parent/child roles in emotion socialization. Mother–child emotion talk was observed during a Lego storytelling task. Children's emotion understanding was measured using 2 age-appropriate tasks. Correlations showed that mothers' Latino enculturation was associated with mothers' stronger belief in guiding children's emotions and children's lower emotion understanding. Anglo acculturation was associated with mothers' lower belief that emotions can be dangerous and children's better emotion understanding. Mothers with a stronger belief in guiding children's emotions more frequently labeled emotions. Mothers with a stronger belief that emotions can be dangerous less frequently explained emotions. Regressions controlling for child age and maternal education demonstrated that mothers with a stronger belief that children can learn about emotions on their own and mothers with greater Latino enculturation had children with lower emotion understanding, whereas mothers with greater Anglo acculturation had children with better emotion understanding. Practice or Policy: Results suggest that understanding both family acculturation and family enculturation will be helpful for early childhood researchers and educators seeking to assess and promote children's socioemotional development.     

The Spockian Mother: Images of the “Good” Mother in Dr. Spock’s The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, 1946–1992

Dr. Spock’s, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, one of the best-selling self-help texts of all-time, “second only to the Bible in popularity” (Meakin & Tattersall, 2004) was one of the most influential childcare books in American culture. The author has been both heralded and disparaged as instrumental in the shaping of untold generations. In the present study, we address the rhetorical construction of the Spockian Mother as she is developed during Spock’s tenure from 1946–1992. We employ a feminist rhetorical perspective to examine the progression of Spock’s texts in order to understand how patriarchal images of motherhood are constructed and maintained through Spock’s lifetime and the first 46 years of its publication. We argue that Spock both reinforced and challenged the institution of motherhood; he challenged institutionalized motherhood by encouraging mothers to “trust themselves” while simultaneously conforming to a patriarchal model of motherhood which is at odds with empowered mothering.     

Mother–Child Relationships and Children’s Psychosocial Functioning: The Specific Roles of Attachment Security and Maternal Behavior

Objective. This paper aimed to examine the contributions of a second assessment time point of attachment security, along with assessments of maternal behavior (sensitivity and autonomy support), to the prediction of children’s behavior problems. Design. Maternal behavior and mother–child attachment were assessed in 73 mother–child dyads when children were between 15 months and 26 months old. Children’s internalizing and externalizing problems were reported by their teachers in kindergarten and first grade. Results. Each assessment time point of attachment security, as well as maternal behavior, explained comparable portions of the variance in children’s anxious/depressed behavior, jointly predicting more than three times the variance explained by either measure of attachment alone. Conclusion. Researchers should consider a multidimensional approach to the assessment of the quality of mother–child relationships, at least when attempting to explain the development of child internalizing problems.     

Teacher–Child Interactions in Infant/Toddler Child Care and Socioemotional Development

Research Findings: The teacher–child relationships that develop in infant/toddler child care provide a critical caregiving context for young children’s socioemotional development. However, gaps remain in researchers’ understanding of the individual-level processes that facilitate socioemotional development, specifically in center-based child care programs. Guided by ecological theory, this article offers a review of the current literature on this topic, including influential factors and developmental outcomes associated with teacher–child interaction quality, the teacher–child relationship as a compensatory mechanism for children facing risk, and differential susceptibility to caregiving experiences. Practice or Policy: Within the context of infant/toddler child care, many opportunities exist for researchers to refine the measurement of individual teacher–child interactions, test young children’s self-regulation as an outcome variable, and develop understanding of compensatory and differential susceptibility mechanisms. Clarifying these processes will inform early childhood education teacher training in terms of how teachers can best facilitate healthy socioemotional outcomes, especially for the most vulnerable children.     

Reading to Children and Listening to Children Read: Mother–Child Interactions as a Function of Principal Reader

Research Findings: Although storybook reading has received considerable research attention, listening to children read has been the source of much less inquiry. In this study, 40 mother–child dyads were videotaped during adult-to-child and child-to-adult reading. Relations between book-related themes (e.g., types of talk), maternal evaluative feedback (e.g., praise, criticism), maternal miscue feedback (e.g., graphophonemic clues, terminal feedback), and child engagement (e.g., laughter, questions) were analyzed. The results suggest that the development of literacy appreciation and literacy skill can occur during the same storybook-reading session. Specifically, when mothers read to their children, communication about the illustrations was associated with increased child engagement, yet a positive correlation was also observed between text-related productions and child engagement. When children read to their mothers, text-related productions were featured more prominently. After children made reading errors (miscues), graphophonemic and terminal feedback were the 2 most frequent responses by mothers. In addition, graphophonemic cues were positively associated with child engagement. Practice or Policy: In sum, the results demonstrate that adult-to-child and child-to-adult reading serve the goals of both literacy acquisition training and literacy appreciation; furthermore, orienting children toward the text during either session did not hamper child engagement.     

Do Stability of Care and Teacher–Child Interaction Quality Predict Child Outcomes in Early Head Start?

Research Findings: This study examined whether children’s outcomes at age 3 were predicted by their experiences in Early Head Start (EHS), focusing on 2 key features of infant and toddler care: (a) stability of care and (b) teacher–child interactions. This study further explored potential interaction effects between stability of care and teacher–child interactions in predicting child outcomes. Three main results were found from secondary analyses of the recently released EHS longitudinal data set the EHS Family and Child Experiences Study (Vogel & Boller, 2009–2012). First, children who had stability of care (no teacher change) were rated as having fewer behavior problems and higher social competence. Second, children were rated as demonstrating better orientation/engagement and emotional regulation when they were in EHS classrooms observed to have higher emotional and behavioral support. Third, teacher–child interactions that are emotionally and behaviorally supportive may mitigate the potential drawbacks of experiencing instability of care on early social-emotional development. Study implications are discussed. Practice or Policy: Both stability and quality teacher–child interactions are important in center-based infant and toddler care, and ensuring quality teacher–child interactions is particularly important for children who experience teacher changes during their infant and toddler years.     

Chinese Parents’ Expectations and Child Preacademic Skills: The Indirect Role of Parenting and Social Competence

Research Findings: This study examined how parenting styles and child social-emotional functioning may help explain the indirect relations between Chinese parents’ expectations for their preschool-age children’s social-emotional development and their children’s preacademic skills. A total of 154 parents with preschool-age children were recruited from 7 preschools located in northeastern China. The results showed that when parents expected their child to master social-emotional skills at a younger age or when they placed more value on social-emotional skills, they were more likely to adopt authoritative parenting, their children had better social competence, and finally their children showed better preacademic skills. The findings not only provided support for the interconnections between Chinese young children’s social-emotional functioning and preacademic skills but also revealed parenting styles and child social competence as potential pathways through which parents’ social-emotional expectations relate to children’s preacademic skills. Practice or Policy: The findings can be used to facilitate parent education efforts to help contemporary Chinese parents reflect on and even adjust their developmental expectations for young children. Parental expectations can also be an important element to consider in prevention and intervention programs that are designed to improve young children’s social-emotional and preacademic skills.     

Explicit and Implicit Dimensions of Adult–Child Interactions in a Quality Childcare Center

The case study presented in this article is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of how a highly trained and experienced early childhood educator thinks about her interactions with children within the context of a setting identified as providing quality childcare for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. Qualitative research methods are used, including interviews, participant observation, videotaping, and the teacher's reflections on interactions with children. Verbal and nonverbal patterns emerging from videotaped observations demonstrate how the teacher integrates information about specific children into these interactions. Although children's conceptions of time and space are consistently embedded in her thinking and reflected in her behavior, she never explicitly acknowledges these dimensions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the discrepancy between the teacher's implicit and explicit understanding of her interactions with children to childcare and the preparation and development of early childhood practitioners.     

Child homicide and neglect in France: 1991–2008

The aim of this study is to investigate epidemiological characteristics of the victims and the offenders in children homicide cases and to propose preventive measures. We retrospectively investigated homicides and deaths by neglect involving children aged 15 or less, which have been autopsied in the Department of Pathology and Legal Medicine of the Raymond Poincaré Hospital, Garches, France, during the 18-year period from 1991 to 2008. Cases included were analyzed for victims’ age and gender, victim-assailant's relation, death cause and scenery, and offender's motivation. For the purposes of the study, victims were divided into four age groups: new born; infants (1–23 months); young children (2–5 years); and children (6–15 years). During the study period, 70 victims of homicide or fatal neglect were identified, which equates to a child homicide prevalence of 0.56 per 100,000 children per year. Slightly more than half of the victims (51.4%) were less than 1 year old. Neonaticide prevalence was 0.12 per 100,000 births with an equal distribution between genders. Neonates were most likely to be killed by their mothers while fathers were the most frequent assailants in both infants and children groups. Stepparents were involved in only one case. Familicide cases where children and spouses are killed were perpetrated only by fathers. The leading cause of death was blunt trauma (especially head trauma). In the neonaticide group, half of the victims died from passive neglect whereas gunshots were predominant in the children groups.     

Parenting and Cortisol in Infancy Interactively Predict Conduct Problems and Callous–Unemotional Behaviors in Childhood

This study examines observed maternal sensitivity, harsh-intrusion, and mental-state talk in infancy as predictors of conduct problems (CP) and callous–unemotional (CU) behaviors in middle childhood, as well as the extent to which infants’ resting cortisol and cortisol reactivity moderate these associations. Using data from the Family Life Project (n = 1,292), results indicate that maternal sensitivity at 6 months predicts fewer CP at first grade, but only for infants who demonstrate high levels of cortisol reactivity. Maternal harsh intrusion predicts fewer empathic–prosocial behaviors, a component of CU behaviors, but only for infants who demonstrate high resting cortisol. Findings are discussed in the context of diathesis–stress and differential susceptibility models.     

Mother–child attachment and cognitive performance in middle childhood: An examination of mediating mechanisms

Although mother–child attachment has been shown to predict cognitive performance, there has been a lack of attention to the mediating mechanisms that explain these associations. In the present study, we investigated relations of early mother–child attachment and cognitive performance in middle childhood (the latter in terms of both academic performance and IQ), and potential mediating mechanisms. Mother–child attachment was assessed at 15, 24, and 36-months, and child grades and IQ were assessed at grades 3 and 4. Attachment patterns at 15 months and avoidant attachment at 36-months were not related to school performance or IQ in middle childhood. Children more securely attached at 24 or 36-months had better school performance and higher IQs in middle childhood, and parental quality of assistance, encouragement of academics, children's social relationships, and children's regulatory characteristics significantly mediated these relationships. Both insecure-ambivalent attachment and disorganized attachment predicted later cognitive performance, and these associations were primarily mediated by the quality of parental assistance and child cooperation. This study advances our understanding of how and why early mother–child attachment is related to children's cognitive performance during middle childhood.     

Comparing Language and Literacy Environments in Two Types of Infant–Toddler Child Care Centers

Language development is a significant milestone in the infant/toddler years; vocabulary by 2 years of age is predictive of later school success. It has been recognized within the bioecological systems theoretical framework that language develops as a result of an interplay between characteristics of the child, features of the setting, and interactions between children and adults (Bronfenbrenner and Morris 2006; Dunst et al. 2006). Child care centers serve as an important setting for many young children. The purpose of this article was to compare the language and literacy environments in two distinct types of child care centers. Partnership Centers (n = 33) had higher standards for structural quality than Typical Centers (n = 29). Language literacy environments as well as caregiver communication strategies were significantly better in Partnership Centers. Improvements in both environments and interactions are possible with professional development that provides caregivers opportunities to gain knowledge and reflect on current practices.