Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-72).

This research was designed to assess 7-week-old infants' preference for infant directed and adult directed talk. (IDT and ADT) using the infant controlled habituation/dishabituation looking procedure. Infants were presented with short audio recordings of either a female or a male speaking in IDT during habituation and ADT during dishabituation or the reverse. In the control conditions, the stimulus did not change. Infants demonstrated preference for IDT over ADT in both male and female speaker conditions. They also demonstrated preference for the female speaker used in this study over the male speaker. Interactions among the dependent variables (first three looks), and the independent variables (infant gender, and style of speaking as well as infant gender, and speaker gender), suggest that the preference might not be as robust as the preference found in infants over 4 months. Evidence for discrimination between IDT and ADT was inferred from the between group demonstration of preference, but no evidence of within infant discrimination was found. Because the evidence suggests that 7-week-old infants demonstrate weaker preference for IDT over ADT than do infants of 4 months, it is assumed that infant preferences follow a developmental sequence. Thus, it is possible that developing preferences are influenced by experiential factors. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Using a modified still-face procedure the present study explores 3-6-month-old infants' behavioral and physiological responses to mothers' screen distractions during mother-infant interactions. In the modified phone still-face procedure the neutral face of the traditional still face procedure was replaced with mothers' texting on their mobile phones. Infants' cortisol stress responses to mothers' device use were assessed through the collection of 3 infant saliva samples. Infants' behavioral responses including facial expressions, vocalizations, gaze and self-comforting behaviors were also explored. All mother-infant interactions were videoed recorded and coded for analysis. Thirty-four mother-infant dyads participated, average ages for mothers was 29 years and 4.4 months for infants. As predicted, infants demonstrated the changes in affect associated with the still-face effect, with significant differences in positive and negative affect during the play phases and the phone still face phase. As a whole, infants did not respond with increased cortisol responses, however, when individual differences were explored 47% responded with increased stress during mothers' phone distractions. Mother's frequency and attitudes towards device use were also assessed but were unrelated to infant responses. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The overarching goal of this thesis was to compare the mother-child relationship and child behaviour across cultures. The three articles in this thesis were part of a multi-method investigation comparing England (an individualistic culture) and Turkey (a collectivistic culture). Accounts from two children and their mothers were obtained from 218 two-parent families in total. Mothers completed questionnaires, children were interviewed using the Berkeley Puppet Interview, and observations recorded during various play tasks. The study was unique as it recorded the perspectives of mothers and young children aged from 4 to 8 in each family across cultures. Results showed that English mothers used more positive methods of discipline with their older children, and reported less conflict with both of their children compared to Turkish mothers. In contrast, English children reported more anger and hostility from their mothers than did their Turkish peers (Paper 1). Cultural differences in maternal values partially explained these differences in positive discipline and anger and hostility (Paper 1). Using structural equation modelling, partial cross-cultural measurement invariance for parenting and child adjustment was revealed (Paper 2), and a stronger association between parenting and child adjustment was found for the English versus Turkish families (Paper 2). Finally, multi-level modelling yielded significant prediction of children's adjustment from both family-wide and child-specific aspects of parenting (Paper 3). The implications of the findings include appreciating different perspectives of parenting when conducting cross-cultural research (Paper 1); the culturally distinct meanings of both parent and child adjustment should be considered when interpreting their association (Paper 2); and that differential parenting within families can also have distinct cultural meaning (Paper 3). Future research would benefit from exploring within-and between-cultural differences in parent-child relationships further, across multiple countries, over time and in larger samples.