Judi Mesman

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Leiden University

The present study aimed to describe the level and nature of maternal sensitivity in an economically disadvantaged rural region in Peru, examining differences between measures and situations. Sixty-nine infant–mother dyads from rural Cusco, Peru, participated in this study. Maternal sensitivity was evaluated through the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale a...

Objectives: This study concerns Chinese mothers’ color-conscious socialization and social dominance orientation and how these relate to children’s racial attitudes. Method: Data were collected from a sample of 155 Chinese children (71 girls) aged 7–11 years and their mothers, from urban regions across China (Shanghai, Jinan, and cities in Jiangsu P...

This cross‐national European comparison examined gender representation and stereotypes in mathematics and language textbooks from Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Romania. The results showed that female characters were numerically underrepresented. Female characters were also less often a main character or individually portrayed compa...

Student–teacher gender congruence is suggested to be related to increased student performance, but little is known about the contexts in which these effects occur. Based on literature on gender stereotypes this study hypothesizes different effects of student–teacher gender congruence for male and female students across school subjects and in differ...

This research examines the endorsement of the nationality stereotype Dutch = White among children and associations with citizenship representations of their mothers (Study 1). Additionally, Study 2 explores how mothers include the concept of Dutch citizenship in the upbringing of their children. Study 1 shows that children (n = 197, 57% girls, 7-13...

Objectives: Parents can set examples of social norms about ethnic diversity and interethnic relations in interaction with their children. The present study examined whether and how parents set norms of color-evasiveness and White normativity when playing a social categorization game with their children. Method: In a sample of 141 White Dutch, 73 Tu...

This study examined adolescents’ gender‐stereotypic attitudes towards HEED (Health care, Early Education, Domestic) occupations and gender‐stereotypic interest in HEED careers and the role of parental gender‐stereotypic attitudes, role model behaviour and socialization values. We used questionnaire data from 501 White Dutch families. Our results sh...

Children may notice racial differences (i.e., show racial and/or skin‐tone salience), but deliberately avoid mentioning such differences (i.e., color evasion) with increasing age. This contradiction may be due to prevailing egalitarian social norms about race. Color evasion is understudied among children in China. In a sample of 155 Chinese childre...

Interethnic prejudice in children has been studied mostly among White and Black populations in the United States, but less among East Asian populations and Europe. Given that interethnic prejudice is sensitive to populations and contexts, research on previously neglected groups is needed. In the current study, interethnic prejudice is examined amon...

Parental ethnic-racial socialization messages play an important role in children’s development of ingroup knowledge and positive intergroup relations. This study investigated ingroup ethnic-racial socialization (transferring values and practices to children about the own ethnic group) and positive outgroup ethnic-racial socialization (transferring...

This study examined parent-child similarities in homophobic attitudes and observed parental discomfort with coming-out vignettes in interactions with their adolescent children (14-18 years old). Based on gender schema theory and the family process model we expected parent-child similarities in homophobic attitudes to be stronger in same-gender dyad...

The current study examined ethnic representation and stereotypes in textbooks from two core secondary school subjects: maths and Dutch. We examined all 25 hard-copy textbooks used in first-year secondary schools in the Netherlands in 2019, and coded characters’ ethnic background, competence-related activities, and occupational status. Ethnicity was...

Background Caregiver sensitivity is associated with positive child outcomes, and improving sensitivity is often the aim of parenting-directed interventions. However, sensitivity was conceptualized in Western cultures, and its application in populations with different backgrounds is still limited. Objective This study aimed to foster a contextualiz...

In this study, we examined gender and sexuality representation in language and math textbooks for Dutch secondary education. We analyzed all male and female characters in 13 language textbooks (N = 7,347) and 12 math textbooks (N = 4,591). Our results confirmed our expectations based on the theory of the hidden curriculum: female characters were un...

This study examined whether fathers’ and mothers’ sensitivity toward sons and daughters varies depending on whether they play with stereotypical girls’ toys or boys’ toys. In a sample of 144 predominantly White Dutch families with a child aged 4–6 years, fathers’ and mothers’ sensitivity was observed during two free play episodes while they played...

Parenting skills, such as Autonomy Support (AS), have been proposed as a potential mechanism explaining the intergenerational contiguity of Executive Function (EF). However, few studies have focused on mothers and fathers among non-Western families. The current study investigated the role of maternal and paternal AS in the relation between parental...

This study applies a within-family, age-snapshot design to investigate differences between siblings in the development of compliance during the preschool years by disaggregating situational, within-family, and between-family effects. The aim of the study was to investigate the relation between sibling differences in compliance and the within-family...

Emerging research from the United States indicates that people with an East Asian background experience COVID-19-related racial discrimination. There is some (although not consistent) evidence that these discrimination experiences can in turn have psychological and behavioral consequences, such as strengthening one’s ethnic identity and influencing...

The study of the ethnicity of authors, illustrators, and characters in children’s literature is important for understanding the ethnic normativity messages that children receive through books. However, ethnic representation in children’s books has rarely been studied in Asian countries. The present study examined the ethnic representation of author...

This study experimentally tested the influence of secondary school students' gender on Dutch language and math teachers' grading (n = 358) and examined the role of teachers' gender and gender stereotypes in gender grading bias. Results showed that grading, on average, was not gender biased. However, differences between teachers' gender grading bias...

Children often show a positive ingroup bias in altruistic behaviors such as sharing. Insight in factors related to ethnic bias in sharing can help towards understanding the origins of inequality in the distribution of resources in society. The present study examined the effect of priming secure attachment (versus positive affect) and multiculturali...

Although psychologically controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting are important indicators of social anxiety during early adolescence, less research has explored distinct roles of father and mother parenting, especially in interdependent-oriented culture. This 3-year longitudinal study examined the reciprocal associations between such parentin...

The current study investigated the ethnic hierarchy in ingroup and outgroup preference and rejection among 6‐ to 10‐year‐old children of the dominant White Dutch group (n = 145), and the underrepresented Turkish‐Dutch (n = 78), and Afro‐Dutch (n = 57) groups (55% girls, M = 7.49, SD = .98) in the Netherlands. Results from a social preference task i...

Black Pete, a blackface figure, is a popular but controversial part of the Dutch Sinterklaas festivity. Many ethnically Dutch people do not consider the figure to be a racist phenomenon and prefer not to change the figure, although many Black people in the Netherlands consider the figure to be racist. Prior research and public discourse suggest tha...

Narrative coherence reflects parents' ability to provide a believable, clear, relevant, and internally consistent story about their child. Parents demonstrating more narrative coherence have been theorized to show higher parental sensitivity, but this has not been examined in a normative sample, nor across the transition to parenthood, and only onc...

Attachment theory´s core hypotheses (universality, normativity, sensitivity, and competence) are assumed to be applicable worldwide. However, the majority of studies on attachment theory have been conducted in Western countries, and the extent to which these core hypotheses are supported by research conducted in Latin America has never been systema...

Objective: This study examined the quality of interaction between preterm-born preschoolers and their mothers and fathers, focusing on the role of child and parental sex. Methods: Participants included 88 preterm-born children (<37 wk gestational age) and 44 full-term–born children (≥37 wk gestational age) aged 3 1/2 years and their parents. Mother...

A prerequisite to anti‐racist socialization in families is acknowledging ethnic‐racial (power) differences, also known as color‐consciousness. In a sample of 138 White Dutch families from the urban Western region of the Netherlands with children aged 6–10 years (53% girls), observations and questionnaires on maternal color‐consciousness and measure...

This is the first study aiming to test two universality claims of attachment theory within a rural Andean sample from Cusco, Peru. A total of 69 mothers and their children (6 to 36 months) participated. Child attachment security was assessed with the Attachment Q-set (AQS), maternal sensitivity was measured during three naturalistic episodes (free...

Ethnic diversity and interethnic contact are increasing in Europe. Intergroup contact theory suggests interethnic contact to improve interethnic attitudes, but for young children, parental attitudes toward child interethnic relations might be an important factor determining whether they are exposed to these potentially positive contact effects. Thi...

Symbolic effects of bureaucratic representation assume that outcomes for citizen–clients change in response to the mere presence of bureaucrats with similar backgrounds. The social–psychological mechanisms in clients that may explain these changes are barely examined, though. Based on multi-source data on male and female high school students in the...

Infant attention and parental sensitivity are important predictors of later child executive function (EF). However, most studies have investigated infant and parent factors in relation to child EF separately and included only mothers from Western samples. The current study examined whether both infant attention at 4 months and parental sensitivity...

Mealtime is a parent–toddler interaction that occurs multiple times a day. This study examined whether observed maternal sensitivity differed between a mealtime and free‐play setting, aiming to explain differences between the two situations by studying moderating effects of children's eating behavior. The sample consisted of 103 first‐time mothers...

Grandparental caregiving is common in China, which can directly impact grandchild development. In addition, grandparents may have an indirect impact on children through their relationship with and support of the parents. However, associations between grandparenting, parenting, and child outcomes are rarely investigated. The current study is a pilot...

Parental diversity ideologies are linked to their own interethnic prejudice, but how do they relate to children's prejudice? This study examined self-reported endorsement of colorblind ideology and multiculturalism among mothers (138 White Dutch, 65 Turkish-Dutch, and 45 Afro-Dutch) of 6-to 10-year old children (55% girls), and its association with...

This study examines the links between parents’ religiosity, the way parents implicitly talk about gender with their preschoolers, and children's gender attitudes and preferences. Additionally, we focused on the degree to which parents’ gender talk mediates the relation between religiosity and children's gender attitudes and preferences. In a sample...

The goal of the present study was to unravel the unique contributions of fathers, mothers, and preschoolers to conversations about gender during picture book reading, as well as examining the relationship between parents' gender messages and their stereotypes. The sample consisted of 142 families. During a home visit, triadic parent-child Gender St...

Background Parenting interventions during the first years of life on what and/or how to feed infants during complementary feeding (CF) may promote healthy eating habits. Objective An intervention promoting repeated exposure to a variety of vegetables (RVE; what) and an intervention promoting to respond sensitively to child signals during mealtime...

Parental beliefs and parenting practices in early childhood are fundamental for the development of preschoolers’ school readiness and executive functions. This study examined the role of socioeconomic status (SES), ethnicity, maternal self-competence, parental cognitive stimulation, and maternal supportive discipline as predictors of five-year-old...

Research on parental sensitivity often relies on video observation of parent–infant dyads. However, to date, no study has assessed both infants’ and parents’ interactions with the camera, and how this relates to parental sensitivity levels. This exploratory study micro‐coded camera‐related behaviors (CRB) by 4‐month olds and their mothers and fathe...

This chapter focuses on cultural influences on parenting, examining patterns across countries, but also within countries in different ethnic groups. Whereas forms vary, two broad functions of parenting practices can be consistently identified across cultural contexts: establishing a relational bond providing safety and security in infancy (commonly...

Consumption of news media can influence attitudes toward specific groups, but the influence of news media on longitudinal data collection has not yet been researched. We present a method to index media attention on a specific topic, as well as a case study on a big child sexual abuse (CSA) story and its effect on parents’ attitudes toward male chil...

This pilot study presents preliminary data on the efficacy of Strong Bonds, Strong Pikin (SBSP), a brief intervention program that aims to enhance sensitivity among mothers who care for their preschool children in a slum settlement in Freetown (Sierra Leone). SBSP adapts principles of attachment theory to intervention within a non‐Western cultural...

Children’s books can create opportunities for children to see themselves as well as others in different settings and stories, but cultural details and specificity within these stories can play an important role in the messages that children take away. Therefore, the present study aims to provide insight in the messages concerning ethnic diversity a...

The present study examined the representation of authors, illustrators, and characters of color in books for young children (6 years old and under) that (1) have won awards, (2) were purchased most often, and (3) were borrowed most often from libraries in the Netherlands from 2009 to 2018. Factors influencing the prominence of characters were explo...

Positive experiences with the introduction of solid food in infancy may lead to positive associations with feeding in both parent and infant. During this transitional period, parental feeding behavior and infant eating behavior might mutually reinforce each other. A feeding style that is found to be associated with positive child eating behavior, i...

Executive function (EF) is frequently compromised in preterm-born children. Research with normative samples has shown that maternal controlling behaviors are associated with poorer children’s EF. However, little is known about the role of fathers’ behaviors. Although mothers of preterm-born children tend to display greater controlling, overprotecti...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlates of observed overprotective behaviors of mothers and fathers of preterm-born preschoolers. Participants included 85 children born prematurely (gestational age <37 weeks) and their parents, assessed when children were 12, 24, and 42 months old. Observed overprotection was measured through th...

Background Definitions of child maltreatment vary between studies, and few are informed by research in non-Western countries. Objective We examined attitudes about child maltreatment in China and the Netherlands. Participants and setting The sample consisted of 304 participants from three groups (mothers, fathers, and teachers) and two countries...

Executive function (EF) is frequently compromised in children born prematurely and/or with low birth weight, and impairments seem to be proportional to the degree of prematurity and/or low birth weight. Research with normative samples has shown that environmental factors, such as the family’s socioeconomic status (SES), play a significant role in t...

As attachment-based interventions are widely practiced in the community, more evidence of intervention effect is necessary and there are few studies in non-Western contexts. This pilot study aimed to test the effectiveness of the attachment-based intervention, the Circle of Security Parenting (COSP) program, in an urban community in Japan. A one-gr...

KROOST-blog: Kind van de rekening Kind: Recht, Onderwijs, en Opvoeding voor de Samenleving van nu en de Toekomst (KROOST) beoogt actuele kwesties rond kinderrechten, onderwijs en opvoeding te belichten vanuit het perspectief van de samenleving en voorzien van inzichten uit de wetenschap. De blogs zijn gepubliceerd in het kader van het dertigjarig b...

This study represents the first video observation of parenting practices conducted in Yemen, where women are generally fully veiled, showing only their eyes, in the presence of strangers. A total of 62 mothers and children (aged 2–6 years) were filmed in their homes for 15 minutes during free interaction. The mothers’ veils did not hamper the codin...

In the current study, we observed 12 mothers with a 4–21-month-old infant for around 3 hours during their daily activities such as feeding, bathing, and soothing in the multiple-caregiver cultural contexts of rural Peru. Overall, sensitivity levels were high, with an average of 7.33 (out of 9), and seven of the twelve mothers scoring in the high ra...

This paper reports on a study of maternal sensitivity in 22 primiparous women and their infants from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Sociodemographic risk was assessed through an interview, and videotaped naturalistic home observations were used to assess maternal sensitivity, and its relation with warmth, verbal and physical engagement, and camera awarene...

This integrative discussion of the special issue on video observations of sensitive caregiving in different cultural communities provides a reflection on the seven empirical studies that comprise this special issue. The two main aims of this special issue are highlighted in terms of their overall conclusions: (1) video observations can be useful an...

This introduction to the special issue on video observations of sensitive caregiving in different cultural communities provides a general theoretical and methodological framework for the seven empirical studies that are at the heart of this special issue. It highlights the cross-cultural potential of the sensitivity construct, the importance of res...

Aiming to contribute to the cross-cultural understanding of the nature and meaning of the sensitivity construct, this exploratory study observed 26 mothers and their 18-60-month-old children in rural (15) and urban Iran (11) for 30 minutes of free interaction in the home context. This first study to use video observations of parenting in Iran showe...

In the context of urban slums in Makassar in Indonesia, this study aimed to test whether maternal sensitivity was associated with maternal history of childhood maltreatment, and whether this association was mediated by current partner conflict and current cumulative sociodemographic risk. A total of 98 mothers and their 2-4 year-old children were v...

There is evidence that sensitive responsiveness is manifested differently in varying cultural contexts. This exploratory study examines a sample of 50 South African mothers in the context of a socioeconomically deprived Township, and investigates differences between the Ainsworth sensitivity scale (that does not specify particular manifestations of...

The Gusii in rural Kenya represent a particularly interesting community for the study of sensitivity, as they have previously been described as not showing sensitive care. This study focuses on the observation of sensitivity in seven families with a 7-to 23-month-old infant, with extensive naturalistic video observations (ca. 2-4 hours per infant)...

The normative developmental course of inhibitory control between 2.5 and 6.5 years, and associations with maternal and paternal sensitivity and intrusiveness were tested. The sample consisted of 383 children (52.5% boys). During four annual waves, mothers and fathers reported on their children's inhibitory control using the Children's Behavior Ques...

Impairments in both executive function and parent‐child interactions are associated with child externalizing behavior, but few studies have tested the uniqueness of these associations in the first years of life. Addressing these gaps, the current study involved an international sample (N = 438; 218 boys) who, at 14 and 24 months, completed an innov...

Objective: This meta-analysis tested whether parents of preterm-born children differ from parents of full-term-born children regarding controlling parenting. Methods: Databases of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Open Access Theses and Dissertations, and Elton B. Stephens Company were searched for cross-sectional and prospective longitudinal stud...

Interethnic prejudice in children has been studied mostly in the United States, but less often in Europe, where the public discourse is increasingly negative about ethnic minorities, especially the Muslim minority. This study examined in-group favoritism (White preference) and out-group rejection of children of Middle Eastern descent (representing...

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between prematurity and the quality of interactive behaviour of 3½-year-old children. Participants were 38 full-term children (≥37 weeks gestation), 51 moderately-to-late preterm children (32-36 weeks gestation), 37 very preterm children (<32 weeks gestation), and their mothers. Quality of ch...

Analyses of the present data are reported in the article “Crossing Boundaries: A Pilot Study of Maternal Attitudes about Child Maltreatment in Nine Countries” (Mesman et al., under review). Data were collected during home visits using the Maltreatment Q-Sort (MQS). A total of 466 mothers from nine different countries gave their opinion about child...

This paper reports on a study of maternal sensitivity in 22 primiparous women and their infants from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A semi-structured interview was conducted about sociodemographic risk, as and videotaped home observations to assess maternal sensitivity, and its relation with warmth, verbal and physical engagement, and camera awareness. A...

Background: Definitions of child maltreatment vary widely between studies, and even more so between different cultural contexts. Objective: In this pilot study, we examine between-country variations in maternal notions about what constitutes child maltreatment. Participants and setting: The sample consisted of 466 mothers recruited in Chile, C...

When mothers of preterm-born children persist in perceiving their children as vulnerable even though the children’s current functioning does not justify that perception, this may lead to negative child outcomes, dysfunctional parenting and unnecessary healthcare utilization (Potharst et al., 2015; Samra, McGrath, & Wey, 2010). The present study aim...

In an experimental within-subjects research design, we studied the theoretical assumption that stress predicts negative parental attributions, which until now was mainly studied using cross-sectional study designs. During home visits to 105 families, mothers and fathers were subjected to two experimental conditions and two control conditions. In th...

Most still‐face paradigm (SFP) studies have been done in Western families with infant–mother dyads. The present study investigated the SFP pattern in 123 Dutch and 63 Chinese 4‐month‐old infants with mothers and fathers. The classic SFP effect was found for positive affect and gaze in both countries. For negative affect, Chinese infants showed a di...

Objective Individual differences in quality of father involvement in caregiving might in part be explained by fathers’ testosterone (T) levels. We examined the links between fathers’ (n = 32) salivary T levels, amount of time spent with their child (12–30 months of age), type of father-child interaction, and fathers’ sensitivity. Methods During tw...

Background: The start of complementary feeding in infancy plays an essential role in promoting healthy eating habits. Evidence shows that it is important what infants are offered during this first introduction of solid foods: e.g. starting exclusively with vegetables is more successful for vegetable acceptance than starting with fruits. How infant...

Adverse effects of early exposure to parental mood disturbance on child adjustment have been documented for both mothers and fathers, but are rarely examined in tandem. Other under-researched questions include effects of changes over time in parental well-being, similarities and contrasts between effects of parental mood disturbance on children's i...

To date, results have been inconsistent in whether mothers show higher parental sensitivity to their infant than fathers do. The context in which sensitivity is measured may play a role in these inconsistent findings, but this has not been examined yet. The aim of the current study was to test context as a source of variability in parental sensitiv...

In this study, we examined the potential interaction effect between fathers' basal testosterone levels and their ability to control their impulses in relation to their quality of parenting. Participants included 159 fathers and their preschoolers. Evening and morning salivary samples were analyzed with isotope dilution-liquid chromatography-tandem...

The present study examined maternal religiosity as an underlying cultural factor in the effect of harsh physical parenting on child behavioral problems. Data was collected via a discipline observational task, religiosity-based vignettes, and a questionnaire in a group of 62 mothers and their children in slum areas in Yemen. Moderation and mediation...

This study investigated beliefs about sensitive parenting of cross-generational caregivers from urban and rural areas of China. A total sample of 135 urban and rural mothers and grandmothers sorted the Maternal Behavior Q-Sort to indicate their view of the ideal mother. These sorts were compared with the expert sort reflecting the highly sensitive...

Child executive functions and socialization environments are crucial for the socioemotional and cogni-tive development of preschoolers. This study examined the role of socioeconomic status (SES), ethnicity, executive functions (EFs), quality of the home environment, quantity of maternal care, and quality and quantity of professional childcare as pr...

Objective: To examine the relationship between maternal cognitions related to promoting a healthy lifestyle in their child, maternal feeding practices, children's eating styles, and child weight status in children aged 4 to 6 years. Methods: Cross-sectional questionnaire data were collected in 251 Dutch mothers of preschoolers. Structural equati...

The primary goal of the current study was to replicate our previous study in which was found that negative maternal attributions mediate the association between parenting stress and harsh and abusive discipline. In addition, we investigated this association in fathers, and added observational parenting data. During two home visits mothers and fathe...

This article reviews and integrates research on gender-related biological, cognitive, and social processes that take place in or between family members, resulting in a newly developed gendered family process (GFP) model. The GFP model serves as a guiding framework for research on gender in the family context, calling for the integration of biologic...

Mothers of preterm-born children often persist in perceiving their children as vulnerable to illness or accidents, even though the children’s current functioning does not justify that perception (Potharst et al., 2015). These perceptions may lead to negative child outcomes, dysfunctional parenting and unnecessary healthcare utilization (Potharst et...

Do caregivers in non-Western communities adapt their behaviors to the needs of infants? This question reflects one of the most long-standing debates on the universality versus culture-specificity of caregiver-infant interactions in general and sensitive responsiveness to infants in particular. In this article, an integration of both points of view...

Recent scholarly insights show that nonverbal and subtle forms of sensitive responsiveness are more applicable to describing and assessing non-Western parent–infant interactions than the more extraverted Western varieties of responsiveness. This paper examines whether the original Ainsworth scale (that does not specify particular manifestations of...

This study represents the first video observation of parenting practices conducted in Yemen, where filming women is a taboo, and women are generally fully veiled, showing only their eyes, in the presence of strangers. A total of 62 mothers and children (aged 2–6 years) were filmed in their homes for 15 min during free interaction. The mothers’ veil...

This article reports on a study of maternal sensitivity in 22 primiparous women and their infants from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted, as well as videotaped naturalistic home observations of the dyads. A K-means cluster analysis was performed to examine patterns of risk in relation to maternal sensitivity. The...

In the context of urban slums in Makassar in Indonesia, this study aimed to test whether maternal sensitivity was predicted by maternal history of childhood maltreatment, and whether this association was mediated by current partner conflict and current cumulative sociodemographic risk. A total of 98 mothers and their 2–4-year-old children were vide...

In the current study, we observed 12 mothers with a 4–21-month-old infant during their daily activities for around 3 h per dyad, focusing on daily caregiving practices such as feeding, bathing, and soothing in the rural multiple-caregiver cultural contexts of the Andean and Amazonian parts of Peru. Overall, sensitivity levels were high, with an ave...

There is evidence that rural versus urban residence is a salient factor in predicting parenting practices. In what is most likely the very first video-observation study of parenting ever to come out of Iran, mothers and their 18-60-month-old children were observed for 30 min of free interaction at their homes in urban (n = 11) and rural (n = 15) Ir...

This introduction to the special issue on video observations of sensitive caregiving in different cultural communities provides a general theoretical and methodological framework for the seven empirical studies that are at the heart of this special issue. It highlights the cross-cultural potential of the sensitivity construct, the importance of res...