Joint Book-Reading Strategies in Middle-Class African American and White Mother-Toddler Dyads: Research Note

Abstract

Twenty middle-socioeconomic class mother-toddler dyads were video recorded during three joint book-reading activities. Ten of the dyads were White, and 10 were African American, who were balanced for family income and parental occupation. The children ranged in age from 18 to 30 months and were normally developing. The parents read an experimental book to their child two times and a favorite book they brought from home one time. Videotapes of the joint book-readings were analyzed to determine cultural differences and the effects of book familiarity on the occurrence of maternal and child communication behaviors. The results do not support the findings of an earlier study in which differences in caretaker questioning behaviors were found between working-class African American and White participants. In contrast, the present study showed many similarities between the cultural groups in joint book-reading behaviors. However, the White group used significantly more labeling as compared to the African American group. These findings suggest the importance of considering socioeconomic level in multicultural research. Several effects of familiarity were also found. The findings are compared to anthropological reports on caretaker-child interaction in African American families, and implications are discussed.