Abstract
Person-directed and object-directed interactions are culturally universal and developmentally significant for mother-infant relationships and children’s development. This chapter investigated the extent to which mother-infant person- and object-directed interactions in infancy were specialized, coordinated between partners, and influential for children’s development among three immigrant groups living in the United States. All mothers in the study self-identified as Japanese, South Korean, or South American, and all were first generation; their infants were born in the United States (second generation). A prospective longitudinal multimethod research design was employed, although this chapter focuses on observations of two particular behaviors. Mothers and infants were found to be specialists with respect to person- and object-directed interactions. Mother-infant dyads across cultures were coordinated in their responsiveness to person-directed interactions by 5 months of age but were not uniformly so for object-directed interactions. Maternal and infant responsiveness to person- and object-directed interactions predicted culturally specific longitudinal outcomes in toddlerhood and early childhood.
This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health. We thank Samantha Goldstein, Mira Kaufman, and Joan T. D. Suwalsky for their assistance.
This chapter summarizes selected aspects of our research, and portions of the text have appeared in previous scientific publications.
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Cote, L.R., Bornstein, M.H. (2018). Specialization, Coordination, and Developmental Sequelae of Mother-Infant Person- and Object-Directed Interactions in American Immigrant Families. In: Chuang, S., Costigan, C. (eds) Parental Roles and Relationships in Immigrant Families. Advances in Immigrant Family Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71399-1_6
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