Mother-child Communication Research Articles

Non-verbal mother-child communication in conditions of maternal HIV in an experimental environment

Non-verbal communication is predominant in the mother-child relation. This study aimed to analyze non-verbal mother-child communication in conditions of maternal HIV. In an experimental environment, five HIV-positive mothers were evaluated during care delivery to their babies of up to six months old. Recordings of the care were analyzed by experts, observing aspects of non-verbal communication, such as: paralanguage, kinesics, distance, visual contact, tone of voice, maternal and infant tactile behavior. In total, 344 scenes were obtained. After statistical analysis, these permitted inferring that mothers use non-verbal communication to demonstrate their close attachment to their children and to perceive possible abnormalities. It is suggested that the mothers infection can be a determining factor for the formation of mothers strong attachment to their children after birth.

Adolescents' perceptions of family communication patterns and some aspects of their consumer socialization

AbstractThis study examined the effects of family communication patterns (FCP) on adolescent consumers' decision‐making styles and influence in family purchase decisions. Two underlying dimensions of FCP (concept‐orientation and socio‐orientation) were measured separately for mother–child communication and father–child communication and regressed on adolescents' use of the selected decision‐making styles and influence in purchase decisions involving durable products and nondurable products for their own use. Results show that only mother–child communication patterns have significant associations with adolescents' decision‐making styles and family purchase influence. Specifically, mothers' concept‐oriented communication was positively linked to children's use of utilitarian decision‐making styles (e.g., careful and deliberate decision making) and social/conspicuous decision‐making styles (e.g., recreational and hedonic decision making) as well as to children's influence in family purchase decisions involving both durable and nondurable products for themselves. On the other hand, mothers' socio‐oriented communication was linked positively to children's use of undesirable decision‐making styles (e.g., confusion by overchoice) and negatively to children's influence in family purchase decisions. This study also investigated the presence (or absence) of a same‐gender effect in the relationships between parent–child communication orientations and children's consumer socialization outcome. If present, a same‐gender effect would be indicated by a greater influence from the same‐sex parent's communication orientations on the adolescent's decision‐making styles and influence in family decisions relative to that of the opposite‐‐ sex parent's communication orientations. Comparisons of the two gender‐group regression results revealed no systematic pattern that suggests the presence of such an effect. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Predictors of young adults' amphetamine use and disorders: A prospective study

Understanding the risk factors that predict amphetamine use and development of amphetamine abuse or dependence (disorder) may help guide preventive interventions. This study aimed to investigate the correlates and predictors of young adults' amphetamine use and use disorders. Prospective cohort, population-based study which started in Brisbane, South East Queensland (Australia) in 1981. The study participants were a cohort of 2042 young adults, followed up from birth to young adulthood. At the 21-year follow-up, amphetamine use was assessed via a self-report questionnaire, and amphetamine use disorder (AUD) was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI-Auto). Potential predictors (15 risk factors) were assessed between baseline (antenatal visit) and the 21-year follow-up. These included participant's gender, mother's age and education, maternal marital status and quality of marital relationship, maternal tobacco and alcohol consumption, mother-child communication, child mental health and problem behaviours, child smoking and alcohol consumption and child school performance. Young adult amphetamine users were more likely to have concurrent symptoms of mental illness and problem behaviours and to use or abuse cigarettes, cannabis, or other illicit drugs. In multivariate analyses, young adults' amphetamine use and disorder were disproportionately more common among males and those who have prospectively reported aggression/delinquency or smoking at 14 years, or who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. Our findings suggest that problem behaviours, smoking and childhood sexual abuse are predictors of initiation to use of amphetamines and development of amphetamine abuse and dependence.

Using Focus Groups to Understand Mother–Child Communication About Sex

The purpose of this descriptive focus group study was to examine communication themes regarding sex and sexual risk behavior in low-income mothers of adolescent children. Focus group questions were guided by Jaccard's communication constructs. Data analysis provided three overriding themes in all five construct areas: mothers are often uncomfortable discussing sex with their male children, mothers feel strongly that their own values and beliefs must guide discussion, and mothers believe their children need developmentally appropriate information. This information may be useful in assisting pediatric nurses in discussing adolescent sex and sexual risk behavior with families.

Correlates of sexuality communication among mothers and 6–12‐year‐old children

This study assessed the extent to which personal characteristics, knowledge and beliefs, and family interactions and relationships are related to the occurrence of mother-child communication about sexuality. The study used a descriptive, cross-sectional design among a convenience sample of 298 predominantly lower- to middle-income African American mothers and 298 of their 6-12-year-old-children recruited from a youth-serving, community-based organization. Participants completed a computer-based interview to collect data on sexuality communication, general mother-child communication, parental involvement and monitoring, parent relationship with child's peer group, child's social skills and problem behaviours, mothers' self-efficacy, outcome expectations, comfort with sexuality communication, and demographics. Mothers were more likely to communicate with daughters and older children. Greater self-efficacy and comfort in sexuality communication were related to greater sexuality communication. We also explored several inconsistent findings in previous studies - mother's age, socio-economic status and religiosity. Mother's age and socio-economic status were not significant, and religiosity approached statistical significance. Mother's self-efficacy and comfort are potentially modifiable variables and therefore should be taken into consideration when designing interventions that aim to increase parent-child communication about sexuality.

Maternal Predictors of Noncoital Sexual Behavior: Examining a Nationally Representative Sample of Asian and White American Adolescents Who Have Never had Sex

Current research in adolescent sexuality has largely focused on vaginal-penile intercourse, with less attention to noncoital sexual activity. This study examined how maternal factors influence the transition from virginity to noncoital behavior among White and Asian American youth who have never experienced vaginal intercourse. We conducted logistic regression analyses to examine whether traditional maternal predictors of coital sex were important in understanding noncoital sexual activity of these two populations. Waves 1 and 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were utilized. For White Americans (n = 3,926), direct and indirect maternal factors were associated with noncoital sexual involvement: maternal support, control, mother–child communication about sex, and adolescents’ perceptions of maternal approval of sex. In contrast, only maternal support was associated with the onset of noncoital sexual behavior for Asian Americans (n = 611). The study underscores the need to explore culturally specific factors that may influence Asian American adolescent noncoital sexual behaviors.

Children’s Expectations Of Parent–Child Communication Following Interparental Conflict: Do Parents Talk to Children About Conflict?

The present study offered an initial investigation into parent–child communication about interparental conflict and its relation to children’s psychological functioning. Seventy-five predominantly African-American children ages 6–12 and their mothers were interviewed. Children listened to an unresolved interparental conflict and answered questions regarding the frequency and content of mother–child communication as if the conflict had occurred in their home. Descriptives of mother-and child-initiated discussions were provided in detail. Children who expected mothers to initiate discussions about interparental conflict with them were in turn more likely to initiate discussions with their mothers. Surprisingly, less than half of mothers were reported by children to communicate in a validating manner, and an equal number of children expected their mothers to communicate in an invalidating manner. Findings demonstrated significant relations between the content of mother–child communication (i.e., validation, invalidation) and children’s adjustment (e.g., externalizing problems, depression). Future directions are discussed with an emphasis on the importance of further “process-oriented” research.

Risk Factors for Conduct Problems and Depressive Symptoms in a Cohort of Ukrainian Children

Potential risk factors for conduct problems and depressive symptoms were tested in a cohort of 10- to 12-year-old Ukrainian children (N = 544, 47.6% male). Risk factors examined were child emotional lability, child attention problems, poor mother-child communication, coercive maternal discipline, maternal depression, and low marital satisfaction. Results indicated that poor mother-child communication was related to conduct problems and depressive symptoms for both boys and girls. In addition, conduct problems and depression were associated with attention problems for boys and with low marital satisfaction for girls. Emotional lability was related specifically to conduct problems, and maternal punishment was related specifically to depressive symptoms.

Set the P.A.C.E.! A Curriculum to Promote Mother-Child Communication About Sexuality and Reduce Sexual Risk Behaviors in Children Ages 6–12

In this article, we describe the Set the P.A.C.E.! (Parents And Children Empowered) curriculum designed for mothers of children 6–12 years of age. The development of the curriculum was part of a research study to test an intervention to enhance the mother's role in promoting resilience among 6- to 12-year-old children and to reduce the risk of early initiation of sexual intercourse as the children grow. The curriculum was based on an ecological model and social cognitive theory. It consisted of 10 sessions, each two hours in length and held once per week. The session content included communication and listening skills, parenting skills, sexual development of children and adolescents, and peer pressure and monitoring. Motivational interviewing techniques were used by facilitators in the conduction of the program. The implementation of the program taught us that such programs are appreciated by mothers. The program does take considerable effort to develop and to refine. Process evaluation data are discussed along with lessons learned from the implementation of the program.

Research on Day Treatment Programs for Preschoolers With Disruptive Behavior Disorders

Research on Day Treatment Programs for Preschoolers With Disruptive Behavior Disorders

Notes for a dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience

The author postulates that the dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience is based on the assumption that both deal with virtual structures. They are two facets of the same noumenal reality, but with different phenomenal realities, and it is possible to use metapsychology as a lingua franca to develop communication between the two fields. In the second part of the paper, the author reflects on the results of recent neurophysiological research which seem to offer to psychoanalysis possibilities for finding an anatomical physiological correlate of some well-known psychic phenomena and mechanisms, such as imitation, introjection, identification, empathy, identity, mother child communication, learning, social communication and the analyst patient relationship. Particular neurons, called mirror neurons, have been located in the F5 area of baboons' brains. They are also present in man's brain within Broca's area. These neurons activate our motor system during both the performance of actions and the observation of actions performed by others giving rise to an automatic response, a sort of simulation or, rather, imitation, as the process is not intentional, but automatic and unaware, that is, unconscious.

Maternal Correlates of Growth in Toddler Vocabulary Production in Low‐Income Families

This study investigated predictors of growth in toddlers' vocabulary production between the ages of 1 and 3 years by analyzing mother–child communication in 108 low‐income families. Individual growth modeling was used to describe patterns of growth in children's observed vocabulary production and predictors of initial status and between‐person change. Results indicate large variation in growth across children. Observed variation was positively related to diversity of maternal lexical input and maternal language and literacy skills, and negatively related to maternal depression. Maternal talkativeness was not related to growth in children's vocabulary production in this sample. Implications of the examination of longitudinal data from this relatively large sample of low‐income families are discussed.

Manuscripts Accepted for Publication

This study investigated predictors of growth in toddlers' vocabulary production between the ages of 1 and 3 years by analyzing mother-child communication in 108 low-income families. Individual growth modeling was used to describe patterns of growth in children's observed vocabulary production and predictors of initial status and between-person change. Results indicate large variation in growth across children. Observed variation was positively related to diversity of maternal lexical input and maternal language and literacy skills, and negatively related to maternal depression. Maternal talkativeness was not related to growth in children's vocabulary production in this sample. Implications of the examination of longitudinal data from this relatively large sample of low-income families are discussed.

Supportive Relationships and Sexual Risk Behavior in Adolescence: An Ecological–Transactional Approach

To examine the longitudinal associations between supportive relationships with friends and parents and sexual risk behavior in adolescence based on an ecological-transactional perspective. Analyses were conducted on 2,652 sexually active adolescents from the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). African-American adolescents had lower risk for sexual risk behavior. Supportive friendships and parent connectedness interacted in predicting decreased likelihood of sexual risk behavior. Mother-child communication about sex contributed to decreased likelihood of sexual risk only for girls. There were also small reciprocal effects of sexual risk behavior on decreased relationship quality over time. To better understand the parents' role in adolescent sexual risk behavior, multiple facets of parenting, the social contexts of parenting and adolescents' peers, and the effects of adolescents' behavior on these relationships should be taken into consideration.

Mediators of the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing and disruptive behavior disorders.

Drawing on a normative sample of 224 youth and their biological mothers, this study tested 4 family variables as potential mediators of the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms in early childhood and child psychological outcomes in preadolescence. The mediators examined included mother-child communication, the quality of the mother-child relationship, maternal social support, and stressful life events in the family. The most parsimonious structural equation model suggested that having a more problematic mother-child relationship mediated disruptive behavior-disordered outcomes for youths, whereas less maternal social support mediated the development of internalizing disorders. Gender and race were tested as moderators, but significant model differences did not emerge between boys and girls or between African American and Caucasian youths.

A longitudinal examination of the transition to symbolic communication in the second year of life

AbstractBetween 10 and 24 months of age, children progress from communicating through conventional signals to communicating through symbols in a variety of situations. The present study investigates this transition analysing mother–child communication frames and the child's communicative acts, and tracing the developmental changes in both frames and communicative acts. Four children (2 girls, 2 boys) and their mothers were observed longitudinally and extensively, from 10 to 24 months of age, using a multiple case‐study method. Through the detailed investigation of these single cases, clear developmental rajectories were found, showing that conventional frames and representational gestures ‘bridge’ the transition from attentional to symbolic communication. There were significant differences between dyads and children in the developmental trajectories for several frames and communicative acts. The results not only confirm previous findings on the development of verbal and gestural communication, but provide new insights into the transition to symbolic communication in the second year of life, first because of the use of frame analysis and second because of a focus on individual trajectories in development. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Open mother–pre-schooler communication: Relations with early secure attachment

The study examined the links between early infant-mother attachment assessed using Ainsworth's Strange Situation at 1 year and mother-pre-schooler communication at 4.5 years in 113 mother-child dyads. Mother-child communication was assessed during a reunion that followed a one-hour separation and was classified into one of three Open communication or one of five Non-open communication patterns. Results showed that boys who were classified as Secure (B) in infancy tended to have open communication with their mothers, while children of both genders who were classified as Insecure/Disorganized (D) in infancy were likely to have non-open communication with their mothers. No associations were found between the Insecure/Ambivalent (C) attachment pattern and later communication. The contributions of this study to the understanding of the expression of the secure base phenomenon in open mother-child communication are discussed.

Young children's communication with mothers and fathers: Functions and contents

The objective of this research is to test whether the contents and functions of young children's communication with fathers and mothers differ. Categories based on Speech Act Theory were used for the analysis of functions. As regards contents, messages were classified into three categories: (1) messages which refer to objects, actions or evaluations linked to task performance; (2) messages linked to characteristics of referents which are not linked to task performance; and (3) expressions of internal emotional states. The functions and contents of messages were analysed in two populations: American and French. Children were aged 20 to 26 months and were observed playing with a standard set of toys with each parent separately. The results show that fathers produce more messages linked to task performance and tend to produce more action directives than mothers and that, similarly, children produce more messages linked to task performance and more action directives with fathers than with mothers. Therefore, it seems that as young as 2 years of age, children adjust their communicative behaviours to fit characteristics of the interlocutor. Differences between the populations as well as the more precise nature of mother‐child communication are also discussed.

Responses to Ambiguous Stimuli by Three Toddlers who are Blind as a Measure of Mother-Child Communication

Three toddlers who are blind were observed in their homes within the context of ongoing family activities. The observations focused on interactive communication between the children and their mothers in response to spontaneous events, both routine and novel, and to a series of novel events that were introduced systematically to the children and their mothers. The findings support the use of quasi-experimental observations of responses to ambiguous stimuli as a tool for assessing interactional strengths and weaknesses in the communication of blind toddlers and their mothers.

A Descriptive Study of African-American Mother-Child Communication about Drugs and Health

A Descriptive Study of African-American Mother-Child Communication about Drugs and Health Parents' teaching styles and values about health shape children's health behaviors and attitudes. Parental influence is particularly salient with their children's use of illegal and addictive drugs. Children from families with open and positive communication are less likely to become involved with drugs than are children form families in which this kind of dialogue is absent (Block, Block and Keyes, 1988; Coombs, 1988). Comparisons of adolescents who use illegal drugs versus adolescents who do not document the importance of fathers who provide praise and encouragement and mothers who provide advice and guidance to drug abstaining youth (Coombs and Landsverk, 1988). While some patterns of drug use have changed for the better in the past decade, statistics on children's and adolescent's involvement with illegal and addictive drugs confirm the necessity of continuing to assess factors in the family environment which mitigate against drug use (Johnston and O'Malley, 1988; U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 1993). More information on the role of parents as related to children's health behavior and health status is especially important for low income African-American children. National health statistics over the past few decades document the serious health risks for low income African-American as compared to children from middle class families (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1993). Indicators of health problems begin before birth with higher rates of low birth weight and infant mortality for African-Americans and extend throughout childhood with elevated rates of chronic and acute diseases. African-American adolescents are often medically underserved and are more likely than their middle class peers to become pregnant during adolescence and to become involved in drug use (Office of Maternal and Child Health, 1990; Office of Technology Assessment, 1991). Although the circumstances of African-American children demand further study in order to identity ways to improve their health and well being, little attention has been given to date of the role of African - American parents teaching about health or drugs. With the exception of the three studies summarized below, research on aspects of family functioning contributing to or ameliorating against child and adolescent drug use has focused on white or Hispanic lower and middle class samples (Brook and Whiteman, 1981; Brook, Whiteman, Brook and Gordon, 1981; Coombs and Landsverk, 1988; Mercer and Kohn, 1980; Protinsky and Shilts, 1990; Sorosiak and Thomas, 1976; Stoker and Swadi, 1990). In the first study involving African-American families, inner city African-American caretakers were interviewed in the mid 1960s and again in the mid 1970s about their children's behavior in a longitudinal study of developmental trends in psychiatric symptoms and substance abuse (Kellam, Brown, Rubin and Ensminger, 1983). Children are used as the unit of analysis in reporting the results with little description of the family context provided as a potential predictor of adolescent substance abuse. Marked gender differences were observed in personality traits of shyness and aggressiveness as predictors of drug use in adolescence. A major longitudinal sample of adolescents from Los Angeles County included nine percent Black youth; race has not been separated out in the analyses of family or adolescent functioning related to drug use (Newcomb and Bentler, 1988a; Newcomb and Bentler, 1988b; Stein, Newcomb and Bentler, 1987). Another milestone longitudinal study included 25 Blacks in a sample of 105 but again family circumstances and parenting behavior potentially related to race was not treated as potential mediating factor (Block, Block and Keyes, 1988). For the sample overall in this last study, the interaction between mothers and daughters but not mothers and sons was predictive of subsequent involvement with drugs. …