Do mothers support and peers inhibit skilled object play in infancy?

Abstract

Videotapes of 14 infants observed longitudinally at 12, 15, and 18 months were coded. Three 10-minute conditions had been videotaped: play with the infant's mother, with a familiar peer, and alone. The infant's play with objects was coded using Belsky and Most's (1981) Development of Play Scale. This scale assigns ordinal numbers to successively higher levels of play. Two measures were analyzed: highest level of play seen and percentages of time spent at different levels of object play. For both, play was more sophisticated with mothers than with peers; in general, play with peers and play alone were indistinguishable. These results suggest that, at least for infants in their second year of life, peers may exercise an inhibitory effect on both the elicitation and expansion of conventional and symbolic play. Such roles may be reserved for more competent members of the culture.