The timing of verbal/vocal communications between mothers and their infants: a longitudinal cross-cultural comparison.
Early dialogues between parent and child constitute an important factor for the acquisition of culture and hence verbal interaction is considered to be a universal parenting system. Parenting strategies and socialization practices are strongly influenced by the cultural conception of the self, prototypically defined as the model of independence and interdependence. Our study focuses on the temporal organization of spontaneous verbal/vocal behavior of 20 German middle-class and 28 Cameroonian Nso mother-infant dyads. The infants and their mothers were observed weekly in a 5 min free-play interaction scene from 0 to 3 months of age. We hypothesized to find different amounts of vocalization time, synchronous vocalizations, and contingent maternal responses in the verbal/vocal patterns of the two samples. The findings indicate cross-cultural differences in the temporal structure of verbal/vocal interactions already during the first three months of life, reflecting underlying differences in the culture-specific modes of verbal interaction.
University of Osnabrueck, Germany. hkeller@uos.de
Heidi
H
Keller
Hiltrud
H
Otto
Bettina
B
Lamm
Relindis D
RD
Yovsi
Joscha
J
Kärtner
D000328:Adult; D002163:Cameroon / Q000208:ethnology; D003142:Communication; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D009035:Mothers; D013997:Time Factors; D014705:Verbal Behavior