The purpose of this study was to examine the difference between working and nonworking mothers in terms of mother infant interaction social experience of their infants and infants' responsiveness to a stranger. The total number of subjects was 76 with 51 infants of nonworking mothers and 25 infants with working mothers. There were 38 males and 38 females and the infants ranged in age from 3 to 12 months. The measures consisted of a questionnaire and a laboratory observation. The questionnaire was designed to assess quantitative dimensions of mother infant interaction and previous social experiences of infants. The structured laboratory observation focused on infant's reaction to an approaching stranger. Infants in the working and nonworking group did not differ in the amount of mother infant interaction time either on weekdays or weekends. Both groups were similar in terms of the age at which the infants were first taken on outings to public places, the frequency of outings and the number of unfamiliar visitors in the home. Likewise both groups of mothers did not differ in the number of caregiving activities performed with their infant. A significant interaction was found between maternal work status and age of the infant. However, neither age of the infant nor maternal work status emerged as significant main effects. The significant interaction between the age of the infant and mother work status needs to be more thoroughly investigated to determine the variations in reaction at monthly intervals. / Master of Science