Abstract
Mind-mindedness (MM), the parent’s propensity to treat their young child as an individual with a mind of their own, has repeatedly been found to be positively associated with subsequent child development outcomes. In the current Swedish study, the first aim was to investigate the main features of MM in this cultural context and the second aim was to investigate its association with early child language development. Sixty-three parent-child dyads participated. MM was assessed by videotaped laboratory-based parent-child dyad free-play sessions. Language development was assessed using the parent questionnaire Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory (SECDI), a Swedish adaptation of the internationally used MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI). The ratio between Appropriate MM and Non-attuned MM was 4:1 and there was no statistically significant correlation between these two variables. There were no statistically significant correlations between Total MM or Appropriate MM and language ability ratings at either 9 or 25 months. This may be due to methodological issues concerning elicitation of MM in a Swedish context. We emphasize the importance of further theoretical and empirical studies of cross-cultural validation of MM.
Highlights
A child’s language environment is a crucial contributor to their subsequent communicative and language development (e.g. Hoff, 2014)
The average proportion of Total MM was 5.48% (SD = 3.74, Min = 0.00, Max = 13.66), meaning that on average just over 5% of parental utterances were classified as MM per play situation
We show for the first time that MM in Swedish parent-infant dyads is similar to what have previously been found in Anglophone and Francophone studies
Summary
A child’s language environment is a crucial contributor to their subsequent communicative and language development (e.g. Hoff, 2014). A child’s language environment is a crucial contributor to their subsequent communicative and language development MM has been a subject of research for over 20 years (Meins, 1997) and has previously been found to positively predict child outcomes, especially mentalizing abilities (McMahon & Bernier, 2017). MM as a predictor for subsequent language development has, been the focus of limited investigations to date and the findings are inconsistent (McMahon & Bernier, 2017). The aim of the current longitudinal study conducted in Sweden was to investigate parental MM at 9 months and its association with parental reports of child language development at 9 and 25 months. Language development in 0–25 months old children
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