Mother-Child Communication Sequences: Play Activity, Child Gender, and Marital Status Effects.

Abstract

contextual-ecological models of sex-typing guided the examination of mother-child communication patterns in relation to mother's marital status, child gender, and play activity. Married mothers (n = 47) and single mothers (n = 30) were videotaped in their homes while playing with their preschool-age daughter or son (mean age = 45.5 months). Mother-child pairs played with both a masculine-stereotyped toy set (toy track with cars) and a feminine-stereotyped toy set (toy foods and plates) for 8 min each. Mothers' and children's use of controlling (assertive), supportive (affiliative), and collaborative (both assertive and affiliative) speech acts were coded, and speech act sequences were analyzed. Mothers' and children's speech was influenced by child gender, the other's prior behavior, the mother's marital status, and the play activity. The study lends support to a multidimensional and multivariate view of sex-typing processes.

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