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Cross-cultural comparison of maternal mind-mindedness among Australian and Chinese mothers
Abstract
Evidence suggests that parental mind-mindedness is important for children’s social-emotional development; however, almost all research exploring mind-mindedness has been conducted with families from Western backgrounds. The current study explored cross-cultural differences in mind-mindedness based on observed real-time interactions between urban Australian ( N = 50, M age = 30.34 years, SD = 3.14) and urban mainland Chinese ( N = 50, M age = 29.18 years, SD = 4.14) mothers and their toddlers (Australian: M age = 18.98 months, SD = 0.87; Chinese: M age = 18.50 months, SD = 2.25). Controlling for education, the Australian mothers used a higher proportion of appropriate mind-related comments and were less likely to use non-attuned mind-related comments than their Chinese counterparts, adjusting for total number of comments. Transcript analysis showed that the Australian mothers used more mental state terms referring to desires and preferences than Chinese mothers. Findings are discussed in relation to cultural influences in child-rearing goals, beliefs, and values and the need for cross-cultural validation of the mind-mindedness construct.
... Fujita & Hughes (2020) reported that, compared with British mothers, Japanese mothers were less mind-minded in their descriptions of their young children, and referred more to their own expectations rather than their children's characteristics. Dai et al. (2019) conducted the only cross-cultural study of mind-mindedness using the observational measure during infancy. They reported that mainland Chinese mothers made fewer mind-related comments compared to Australian mothers, with Chinese mothers scoring less highly for appropriate comments and more highly for non-attuned comments than their Australian counterparts. ...
... Korean parenting style differs not only from that typically seen in individualistic cultures, but also from typical Chinese and Japanese parenting practices. Chinese parenting values emphasize "training" (i.e., guanjiao), via which parents structure their children's behavior according to collectivistic values (e.g., Chao, 1994), which may explain the findings that Chinese mothers are less likely than their Western counterparts to describe their children with reference to their mental characteristics (Hughes et al., 2018), and more likely to intervene in their infants' activities and state that they want to engage in activities that the parent is suggesting (Dai et al., 2019). Typical Japanese parenting is based on the concept of mimamoru (watching over from a distance) (Holloway, 2017), which may explain why these parents tended to describe their children in terms of their own expectations rather than their children's characteristics (Fujita & Hughes, 2020). ...
... Contrary to our hypothesis, no differences in either index of mindmindedness were observed across the two cultures. These findings contrast with those in the extant literature indi-cating that mothers from other Asian cultures are less mind-minded than their Western counterparts (Dai et al., 2019;Fujita & Hughes, 2020;Hughes et al., 2018). As discussed in Section 1, oneness is unique to Korean parenting, and the lower levels of mind-mindedness observed in Chinese and Japanese mothers compared with their British and Australian counterparts may therefore not provide strong grounds for expecting similar differences between Korean and Western mothers. ...
Differences in mind‐mindedness and parental reflective functioning (PRF) were investigated in mothers and their 6‐month‐old infants from South Korea ( N = 66, 32 girls) and the United Kingdom ( N = 63, 26 girls). Mind‐mindedness was assessed in terms of appropriate and non‐attuned mind‐related comments during infant–mother interaction; PRF was assessed using a questionnaire. British mothers commented more on infant desires and preferences, whereas Korean mothers commented more on cognitions and emotions, but there were no cultural differences in overall levels of mind‐mindedness. For PRF, Korean mothers reported more certainty about their infants’ mental states compared with their British counterparts, but there were no cultural differences in mothers’ reported interest in their infants’ mental states. Greater reported certainty about infants’ mental states was positively related to self‐reported parenting quality in both cultural groups, but this association was not seen for parenting quality as assessed observationally. Mind‐mindedness and PRF were unrelated in both Korean and British mothers. Results are discussed in terms of the Korean concept of mother–infant oneness and the multi‐dimensional nature of parental mentalization.
... Comparative studies have consistently shown that differences in MS talk arise across countries, with comparisons particularly plentiful for Westerners versus Chinese. For instance, when children were 19 months, Australian mothers used a similar amount of cognition and emotion language compared to Chinese mothers but more desire language [10], indicating that more talk amongst Australian mothers might be age-appropriate, with desire talk at this age more highly linked to subsequent ToM than other types of MS talk [11]. Likewise, European-American mothers referred more to emotions and thoughts with their 3-and 4-year-olds in English, whereas Chinese immigrant mothers living in America, who mainly or exclusively spoke Chinese, referred more to behavior while telling stories [1,12,13]. ...
... Researchers have used a range of methods to measure MS talk including a wordless picture book about a bear [1,12], mothers' reminiscing about previous experiences with children [13], mother story completion when given an initial story context [15], maternal descriptions of their own child [5,14], free play with mothers commenting on the child's mental states [10], and descriptions of people in photos [16,30]. This last task presents an opportunity to examine an interesting possibility, that mothers might have a bias to ascribe more mental states to ingroup members than outgroup members [31,32]. ...
... In line with previous findings [3,5,[10][11][12]51], we found a higher amount of MS talk in Western mothers relative to Chinese mothers, with Western mothers producing more talk about cognitions, emotions, and modulations of assertions, but a similar amount of desire talk. Interestingly, the same pattern was found in the variety of talk, with Western mothers producing a greater variety of cognitive, emotion, and modulation of assertion talk, but a similar variety of desire talk compared to Chinese mothers. ...
Western mothers use more mental state talk with children than do Chinese mothers (e.g., “think”, “like”, “happy”). The present study aimed to examine whether Western mothers not only produced a greater amount of mental state talk, but also used a wider range of mental state terms (i.e., greater lexical variety) compared to Chinese mothers. We compared maternal mental state talk in 271 mother-child dyads from New Zealand, Australia and China, and coded both quantity (i.e., frequency) and quality (i.e., type, variety, valence) of mothers’ mental state talk to their 2.5- to 5-year-olds. Western mothers produced more talk about cognitions and emotions, as well as modulations of assertions, but a similar amount of desire talk, compared to Chinese mothers, with the same patterns found in the variety of talk. Western mothers produced an overall higher amount of mental state talk and a greater variety of mental state terms, but crucially, still produced more MS talk after controlling for the variety. Neither the amount nor the variety of maternal MS talk was correlated with children’s theory of mind. These findings shed light on the diverse ways that mothers construe and describe mental states in different cultures, and highlight the importance of examining different aspects of maternal mental state talk and their impact on children’s theory of mind in future longitudinal studies.
... The frequency of particular types of mental-state talk appears to vary according to the age of the child being spoken to. Dai, McMahon and Lim (2020) compared the mental-state talk used by 50 Australian and 50 mainland Chinese parents as they played with their 18-month-old infants. Similar to findings in infant ECEC settings (Farkas et al. 2017), both cohorts used desire terms most frequently, followed by cognitive and then emotion terms. ...
... Important differences in mental-state talk were also detected. Like family-based studies (Doan and Wang 2010;Dai, McMahon, and Lim 2020), we found that Chinese educators used significantly less mental-state talk than Australian educators. With the exception of emotion terms, the Australian cohort used all mental-state talk types significantly more frequently than their Chinese counterparts. ...
... With the above cautions in mind, our findings provide a first glimpse of how children are socialised into an understanding of the mind in culturally specific ways by their early childhood educators in Australia and China. Our findings, as well as those showing cultural differences in home contexts (Cheng et al. 2020;Dai et al. 2020;Doan and Wang 2010), caution against a universal approach to understanding how adults talk to infants about the mind. Findings also have implications for understanding different cultural developmental trajectories in children's understandings of the mind, such as why English-speaking children develop an understanding of subjective beliefs earlier than knowledge and ignorance, whereas the opposite developmental pattern is evident in Chinese children (Wellman et al. 2006). ...
This study compares the mental-state talk of infant educators in Australia and China in order to determine the nuanced differences in the ways that they use this talk with the infants in their room. Participants are 44 native English-speaking Australian educators from centres in Sydney, Australia and 30 native Chinese-speaking infant educators recruited from centres in and around Hangzhou, China. Twenty-minute samples of each educators’ naturally occurring play interactions with infants during play were coded to determine the frequency of their desire, emotion, perception, cognition and modulation of assertion talk. Each mental-state term was also coded according to the referent of that mental-state. We examined the extent to which Australian and Chinese educators’ use mental-state talk and how the referents of such talk differed by mental-state talk type and culture. Australian educators used significantly more mental-state talk than their Chinese counterparts. Different patterns of referent use across cultural cohorts and mental-state talk types were identified. Findings have implications for the socialization of very young children into culturally specific ways of talking and thinking about the mind.
... To date, most research on MM during the child's first 2 years has been carried out in the Western world, and especially in English-speaking contexts and in French-speaking Canada (Dai et al., 2019;. A small-scale study investigated paternal MM in the United Kingdom and in Denmark and found no differences in MM between countries (Tharner et al., 2016). ...
... Little is known about the cross-cultural validity of MM as a construct. To our knowledge, only three studies have been conducted to date in non-Western countries (Dai et al., 2019;Hughes et al., 2017;Wang et al., 2017), and only Dai et al. (2019) have investigated MM below 2 years of age. Dai et al. (2019) investigated MM among Chinese and Australian mothers of 18-month-olds during free-play. ...
... Little is known about the cross-cultural validity of MM as a construct. To our knowledge, only three studies have been conducted to date in non-Western countries (Dai et al., 2019;Hughes et al., 2017;Wang et al., 2017), and only Dai et al. (2019) have investigated MM below 2 years of age. Dai et al. (2019) investigated MM among Chinese and Australian mothers of 18-month-olds during free-play. ...
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.
... As theoretical formulations link mind-mindedness to the promotion of autonomy and self-expression (independent qualities) in children (15), mind-mindedness might be seen as less relevant and therefore displayed less by parents from cultural settings that value interdependent qualities (e.g., obedience, respect for elders) more than independent qualities. This has been supported in a few cross-cultural studies: three found that Chinese mothers of eighteen months-three years old children are less mind-minded than US, UK and Australian mothers during a story-telling task, when they are asked to talk about their children, and during an observed play interaction (16)(17)(18). Moreover, a study comparing Japanese and British mothers when talking about their 3-6 years old children found that Japanese women made a significantly lower proportion of mind-related comments compared to British women (19). ...
... Third, rating from transcripts also introduced the limitation that coding depended on content of utterances rather than tone, and did not account for mothers' non-verbal behaviors. In the case of mind-mindedness it was not possible to judge the appropriateness of the mothers' comments for their infants' behaviors; therefore, the group differences found in the use of mind-mindedness should be considered with caution, even though they seem to confirm the other few existing findings from cross-cultural studies conducted in Asia which found a lower prevalence in Asian samples compared to Wester ones (16)(17)(18)(19). Fourth, both samples had high representations of low socio-economic families, so the findings may not generalize to more affluent contexts in either country. ...
Introduction
Most studies on parenting and its role in child development are conducted in Western countries, but it cannot be assumed that characteristics of parental practices are similar in non-Western settings. Research characterizing cultural differences in parenting is required to inform the focus of studies designed to test differential outcomes from such practices in children over time and across cultures. The present cross-cultural study examined differences in maternal speech during mother–child interactions, and, specifically, in the use of mind-mindedness, instruction and control, and the expression of warmth (i.e., positive comments).
Methods
We observed 100 dyads (50 from the UK and 50 from India) during mother-infant play interactions at 7 months. Maternal speech was transcribed and translated prior to independent coding, and this was coded using established measures together with a newly developed measure of “Instructions”.
Results
Substantially large differences between UK and Indian mothers were observed. Compared with UK mothers, Indian mothers made fewer mind-minded comments about their infants, and they issued more instructions and made more controlling and positive comments. Findings from this study might reflect cultural differences in how parental style might be expressed according to cultural priorities and values.
Conclusions
The implications of these very large differences in parenting across cultures for child development remain to be investigated and are discussed in the present paper.
... This means that it is not certain that the concept and its detailed coding procedure fits other cultures or languages. The only non-Western study I am aware of that has investigated MM in families with a child below 2 years of age is Dai et al. (2019). They focused on dyadic free-play between Chinese and Australian mothers and their 18-monthold. ...
... Namely, the age of the child, the use of laboratory-based free-play sessions, and the adaptation of MM to a Swedish context. Specifically, we noted comparable findings as Dai et al. (2019) found in Mandarin. These authors found that parents uttered sentences that did not explicitly contain a mind-related word, and therefore were not coded as MM, but were understood as MM (e.g., understood as "want" despite lacking the word "want"). ...
... Second, we found unexpected positive associations between maternal AMRC and NAMRC measures across many ages, contradicting what has been reported among samples belonging to different cultural backgrounds (e.g., Meins et al., 2012;; but see, for contradictory findings, Arnott & Meins, 2007). We suggest that these two findings should be taken together and might highlight a peculiar pattern of MM expression in Italy, which is expected given that MM undergoes cultural variations (Dai et al., 2020;Hughes et al., 2018;Wang et al., 2010). In addition, at a more general level, although sensitive parental behavior, to which MM is related, and parentinfant contingent talk, are culturally universal, evidence suggests Note. ...
... Second, although the sample was drawn from a normal population and included a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, all the data were collected from White, first-language Italian-speaking families who lived in the central area of Italy, making the sample considerably homogeneous in terms of ethnicity and therefore limiting the generalizability of the findings. This limitation is quite common in research on parental mind-mindedness , although there are a few exceptions (e.g., Dai et al., 2020;Hughes et al., 2018). Therefore, it would be useful for future studies to perform an in-depth investigation of mind-mindedness among groups of parents that differ in culture. ...
Mind-mindedness (MM) refers to caregivers’ proclivity to treat a child as having an active and autonomous mental life. It has been shown to be a powerful predictor of many developmental outcomes and to mitigate the impact of risk conditions. However, longitudinal studies on MM reporting changes over time and individual differences among mothers have been scant and quite inconclusive, mainly due to the investigation of changes between only two time points. The current study analyzes MM’s developmental trajectories across four time points (3, 6, 9, and 12 months of infants’ age) along with the moderating effects of four variables (maternal sensitivity, age, education, and family income). The sample included healthy mother–infant dyads (N = 93, 46 female infants), belonging to monolingual Italian predominantly middle-class families, with 15% (n = 14) classified as low income (below the relative poverty threshold). The dyads were videotaped during semistructured play interactions and transcripts were coded for appropriate mind-related comments (AMRCs) and nonattuned mind-related comments (NAMRCs). Mothers’ AMRCs, compared to NAMRCs, showed more temporal stability. Both AMRCs and NAMRCs showed a linear decrease with individual differences across dyads decreasing over time, and dyads becoming increasingly similar one with the other. Low income moderated the normative trend of appropriate mind-related comments. These findings suggest that MM, while depending largely on an individual trait at earlier ages, when infants’ mental states are less intelligible, adapts to the increase of infants’ sociocommunicative repertoire over time. They also highlight the importance of ecological constraints on the quality of caregiving.
... Specifically, the aim of the present investigation was to investigate whether: (a) observationally measured appropriate MM at 10 months was associated with child internalizing (emotional problems and peer problems) and externalizing (conduct problems and hyperactivity) difficulties at 51 months; (b) maternal PD at 36 months was related to child internalizing and externalizing problems at 51 months; (c) whether maternal PD moderated any relationship between early MM and later child behavioral problems; and (d) the nature of any descriptive differences in the valence (positive or negative/neutral) of appropriate and nonattuned MM comments considered at low, moderate, and high levels of maternal PD. In addition, extant research shows differences in MM as a function of parental SES and education Meins et al., 2013) and culture (Dai et al., 2020;Hughes et al., 2018;Wang et al., 2017), and associations of temperament with child conduct (Gagné et al., 2018). Therefore, family factors (maternal socioeconomic classification [SEC], ethnic group, and verbosity) and child temperament were controlled for. ...
... In addition, more contemporary MM research (Easterbrooks et al., 2017) has also favored the use of frequency MM scores. Other sociodemographic covariates were also included based on prior research (Dai et al., 2020;Gagné et al., 2018;Meins et al., 2013) and the results of the preliminary analyses in the present study. ...
Mind-mindedness (MM) is a caregiver’s tendency to appreciate their infant’s internal mental states. This longitudinal study investigated whether maternal MM (10 months) was linked with children’s later behavioral problems (51 months) and the moderating role of maternal parenting distress (PD; 36 months) in a sample of 91 mother–infant dyads. Appropriate MM comments were coded from video-recorded, semi-structured play interactions between mothers and their infants; PD was obtained from maternal completion of the PD subscale of the Parenting Stress Index – Short Form (PSI-SF); and child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were gathered from maternal report on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Moderated regression analyses revealed higher early appropriate MM was associated with significantly fewer internalizing emotional problems at 51 months among mothers with lower PD at 36 months, and higher early appropriate MM was associated with lower conduct problems at 51 months in mothers with higher PD at 36 months. Findings demonstrated the importance of considering nuanced contexts such as at-risk mothers and differential presentations of child difficulties in the analysis of the relationship between MM and child behavioral difficulties and the development of MM interventions.
... The remaining instruments have been used in one of the included studies, respectively: the original sensitivity scale by Ainsworth et al. (1974), the Child-Adult Relationship Experimental Index (CARE-Index; Crittenden, 2006), the Parent/ Caregiver Involvement Scale (PCIS; Farran et al., 1986), the Disconnected and Extremely Insensitive Parenting (DIP) scale (Out et al., 2009), and the Maternal Anxiety during the Childbearing Years (MACY) Infant-Parent Coding System (MIPCS; Huth-Bocks et al., 2014). The original sensitivity scale by Ainsworth was used in one study together with the MBQS-Mini. ...
... Further, the cultural background needs to be considered. The difference between two behavioral measures in association with PRF (Dawson et al., 2018) is in line with empirical findings of cultural differences regarding parental mentalization and parent as well as child factors in the assessment of attachmentrelated behaviors (Dai et al., 2019;Voges et al., 2019). Particularly in collectivistic cultures, the significant meaning of others' minds and appropriate behavior according to social expectation in parenting context have shown to be different than in individualistic cultures (Aival-Naveh et al., 2019;Lee et al., 2020;Fujita and Hughes, 2021). ...
Background
Parental reflective functioning (PRF) refers to parents’ mental capacity to understand their own and their children’s behaviors in terms of envisioned mental states. As part of a broader concept of parental mentalization, PRF has been identified as one of the central predictors for sensitive parenting. However, the unique contribution of PRF to the quality of various parenting behaviors has not yet been addressed systematically. Thus, the present article provides a systematic overview of current research on the associations between PRF or its sub-dimensions and observed parenting behaviors in infancy and early childhood, while considering the influence of contextual factors.
Methods
The review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Systematic searches were carried out in five electronic databases. The eligibility and methodological quality of the identified studies were assessed using pre-defined criteria and a standardized checklist.
Results
Sixteen studies with moderate to high quality on a total of 15 parenting behaviors were included, the majority of which examined positive parenting behaviors, while negative parenting behaviors were rarely investigated. Most of the associations indicated a positive effect of PRF on parenting behavior, with mostly small-sized effects. The strength and direction of the associations varied depending on the dimensionality of PRF, observation settings, sample types, socioeconomic factors, and cultural background. Moreover, five assessment instruments for PRF and 10 observation instruments for parenting behaviors were identified.
Conclusion
In summary, PRF has shown a positive association with parenting quality. However, its complex interaction with further contextual factors emphasizes the need for differentiation of PRF dimensions and the consideration of the observation settings, assessment time points, psychosocial risks, and sample types in observational as well as intervention studies. Further high-quality studies with multivariate analyses and diverse study settings are required.
... Specifically, European American mothers made more mental-state comments than immigrant Chinese mothers in the United States in a storytelling task (Doan & Wang, 2010), and made more autonomy-related (including mental-state) comments than mainland Chinese mothers in mother-infant interactions (Keller et al., 2007). Also, as discussed above, Western parents showed more mind-mindedness towards their children than Chinese parents in both mother-child interactions (Dai et al., 2019) and parents' speech samples about their children . These contrasts seem to resonate with general findings of cultural differences in observational studies of mother-child reminiscing: European American mothers are more elaborative and child-centred, facilitating children's participation, while Japanese, Chinese, and Korean mothers are less elaborative but more didactic and mother-centred (Minami & McCabe, 1995;Mullen & Yi, 1995;Wang, 2001Wang, , 2007Wang, Leichtman, & Davies, 2000;Wang & Fivush, 2005; see Wang, 2011 for a summary). ...
... In contrast, British mothers showed more child-centredness and mind-mindedness than their Japanese counterparts even after the total amount of talk and maternal education were accounted for. These findings accord with cross-cultural comparisons of mother-child reminiscing and parental mind-mindedness between the West and East Asia: compared with their East Asian counterparts, mothers from Western cultures tend to make more comments overall (e.g., Minami & McCabe, 1995;Mullen & Yi, 1995), are more child-focused (e.g., Wang, 2001;Wang & Fivush, 2005;Wang et al., 2000), and are more mind-minded (Dai et al., 2019;Doan & Wang, 2010;Hughes et al., 2018). ...
To elucidate cultural contrasts in children’s family environments, we conducted in‐depth, direct comparisons of mind‐mindedness and self‐other distinction from maternal speech. The study included 5‐minute speech samples of 225 mothers from Japan (N = 111) and the UK (N = 114) talking about their 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children (including 11 sibling pairs, n = 236). Compared with Japanese mothers, British mothers spoke significantly more, gave a significantly higher proportion of child‐focused and mind‐related comments, and also showed a stronger self–other distinction. In addition, within each country, there was a positive relation between mothers’ references to children in the singular (as opposed to plural) form and their mind‐mindedness. Together, the current findings highlight cultural variations in maternal mind‐mindedness, explicit–implicit communication style, and self–other distinction, and also suggest further exploration of relations among them.
... For example, research has shown that Western mothers more frequently communicate verbal mindmindedness-explicitly recognising and talking about their infant's thoughts, feelings, and desires-compared to mothers from non-Western societies [82,83] , who may express mind-mindedness through non-verbal means, such as responsive physical movement or mirroring [81] . Given these differences in parenting approaches, infants likely develop varying expectations of social interactions, which they bring into professional settings. ...
This paper examines two virtual child simulators, BabyX and the virtual reality (VR) Baby Training Tool, which serve as immersive and interactive platforms for child-centered research and training. These technologies help overcome key ethical and practical constraints, enabling the controlled study of caregiver-infant interactions and the cultivation of professional relational skills with young children. We analyze the design, functionalities, and current applications of these tools, as well as their potential future developments, highlighting their capacity to advance empirical research and enhance training methodologies in child-focused disciplines.
... A substantial amount of cultural comparative research on MSL has primarily focused on family context (e.g., Hughes & Dunn, 1998;Ruffman et al., 2002;Taumoepeau & Ruffman, 2006). To shed light on cultural differences in children's family language environments, Dai et al. (2020) compared the use of MSL by 50 Australian and 50 mainland Chinese parents during play with their 18-month-old toddlers. Transcript analysis revealed that Australian mothers used a higher proportion of MSL, particularly in terms related to desire. ...
Mental state language (MSL) is a language used to describe individual internal states including one’s desire, emotion, perception and cognition. This study compared Chinese and Japanese preschool educators’ use of MSL in interactions with preschool children. Based on ecological systems of educator-child interactions, it analyzed 12 Chinese and 12 Japanese native preschool educators’ use of MSL in interactions with children considering the contextual factors (e.g. educator-child ratio and activity settings). The corpus analysis involved 8453 clauses from spontaneous 30-mintute spontaneous interactions during free play. The findings reveled that Japanese educators used a significantly higher proportion MSL compared to the Chinese educators. Among the four types of MSL, the Chinese educators uttered Cognition with higher frequency and more diverse cognitive terms, while the Japanese cohort used more Desire and Emotion with abundant emotional expressions. Child age is identified as a significant factor influencing educators’ use of MSL. The study discussed how Japanese and Chinese preschool educators provide distinct language experiences for children in different cultural-linguistic contexts, which has implications for worldwide preschool education in multicultural contexts.
... Others have documented differences in caregiver social cognitions based on country of origin. For example, studies have found that after accounting for verbosity, caregivers from cultures that value interdependence (e.g., Chinese mothers compared to mothers from the US, the UK, or Australia; Japanese compared to British mothers) display fewer comments about their children's internal mental states when interviewed about their child (Doan & Wang, 2010;Fujita & Hughes, 2021;Hughes et al., 2018) and when interacting with their child (Dai et al., 2020). These results suggest that there are cultural variations in the amount and content of caregiver social cognitions about their children. ...
The interdisciplinary field of developmental psychopathology has made great strides by including context into theoretical and empirical approaches to studying risk and resilience. Perhaps no context is more important to the developing child than their relationships with their caregivers (typically a child’s parents), as caregivers are a key source of stimulation and nurturance to young children. Coupled with the high degree of brain plasticity in the earliest years of life, these caregiving relationships have an immense influence on shaping behavioral outcomes relevant to developmental psychopathology. In this article, we discuss three areas within caregiving relationships: (1) caregiver–child interactions in everyday, naturalistic settings; (2) caregivers’ social cognitions about their child; and (3) caregivers’ broader social and cultural context. For each area, we provide an overview of its significance to the field, identify existing knowledge gaps, and offer potential approaches for bridging these gaps to foster growth in the field. Lastly, given that one value of a scientific discipline is its ability to produce research useful in guiding real-world decisions related to policy and practice, we encourage developmental psychopathology to consider that a focus on caregiving, a modifiable target, supports this mission.
... There is long-standing research highlighting how parenting practices and views on parenting vary in parents from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds (e.g., Choi et al., 2013;Ispa et al., 2004), and research is beginning to address cultural and ethnic differences in parental mentalization. For example, Dai et al. (2019) investigated mind-mindedness in Australian and Chinese mothers and reported that Australian mothers made more appropriate mind-related comments and fewer non-attuned comments than their Chinese counterparts. Research on South Korean mothers has shown that they report high levels of certainty about their infants' internal states (Lee et al., 2021). ...
The efficacy of a smartphone app intervention (BabyMind©) in facilitating mind‐mindedness was investigated in a randomized controlled trial, assigning mothers and their 6‐month‐olds ( N = 152; 72 girls, 146 White) to intervention or active control conditions. Mothers who had received the BabyMind© app intervention scored higher for appropriate ( d = .61, 95% CI .28, .94) and lower for non‐attuned ( d = −.55, 95% CI −.92, −.18) mind‐related comments at follow‐up (age 12 months), compared with their control group counterparts. Adjusting for missing data did not alter this pattern of findings. Mothers' baseline parental reflective functioning did not moderate these relations. Results are discussed in terms of the benefits of early intervention and exploring the efficacy of the app in more diverse populations.
... To our best knowledge, however, no studies have examined specifically how cognitive mindmindedness predicts inhibitory control in toddlerhood among non-Western children. Some recent cross-cultural studies have found that compared to British (Hughes, Devine, & Wang, 2018) or Australian mothers (Dai, McMahon, & Lim, 2020), Chinese mothers with toddlers have lower levels of mind-mindedness. Moreover, the strengths of the associations between cognitive mind-mindedness and theory of mind (a construct closely related to inhibitory control) are different between young children from Western (New Zealand) and non-Western (Iran) cultures (Taumoepeau et al., 2019). ...
... To date, most mealtime talk research is undertaken in Western cultures and little has been done in Chinese families, especially the families in Mainland China. It is widely acknowledged that the manners of Chinese adult-child interactions differ substantially from those of Western cultures (Dai et al 2020;Doan and Wang 2010). In addition, much of the existing research predominantly focuses on adult language use in mealtime talk, with children's language use at the table dinner being largely ignored. ...
This study examined the distribution of language expansion in parent–child (preschool aged) mealtime conversations in 30 Chinese middle-class families. The conversations were categorised into four types: contextualised & conflicted, contextualised & non-conflicted, decontextualised & conflicted, and decontextualised & non-conflicted. The language expansions were analysed using the systemic functional linguistic theory related to cohesive patterns in language expansion: elaborations, extensions, and enhancements. While the parents dominated the conversations generally, the children were active contributors, initiating over one-quarter of the conversations. Initiation had an impact on the distribution of the conversational types: the proportions of contextualised & non-conflicted conversations was significantly higher in child-initiated conversations. The contextualised & conflicted conversations accounted for a higher proportion in parent-initiated conversations. It was the conversational type rather than initiation, which had an effect on the distribution of language expansion patterns. The least occurring decontextualised & conflicted conversations generated the most extensions. The frequently appeared contextualised & non-conflicted conversations, however, produced the fewest expanded messages. The implications from the findings for promoting high-quality mealtime conversations conducive to children’s language learning are discussed.
... Further, demographic information is important to consider as differences can exist in the mentalizing capacities between cultures (Aival-Naveh et al., 2019; Dai et al., 2020) and ethnicities (Sleed et al., 2020). These contextual differences extend to related constructs as well, such as in attachment (Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg, 1988) and perceived effective parenting strategies (Bornstein et al., 2011). ...
Parental Mentalization (PM) refers to parents’ capacity to understand internal experiences of their children. It is linked with the development of children, as deficiencies in PM can lead to adverse life outcomes. PM measures assess the quality of parental mentalizing capacities, which may then inform intervention and research. However, current measures are limited by complexity of use and sensitivity to assessing the multiple features of mentalizing. Hence, understanding the essential elements required in PM measures is needed to capture PM in ways which are ecologically valid while also being practical to administer in routine practice. This current study aimed to provide a qualitative understanding of how PM may be best captured. Specifically, it aimed to identify essential elements necessary in the development of accurate PM measures for use in clinical and research settings. The study reports data from semi-structured interviews with five leading experts in PM. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three themes were identified: “Capturing the breadth and depth of multiple dimensions,” “Capturing natural interactions between parent and child,” and “Parent profiling.” This study highlights the essential elements which should be considered when choosing or developing PM measures. Clinical implications and further research for measure development are discussed.
Maternal mind‐mindedness, which examines mothers' representational capacity to treat their children as individuals with their own minds, has traditionally been operationalized by coding mothers' mental state comments to or about their children. Mind‐mindedness has been studied predominantly in Western cultures, where it predicts children's social‐cognitive developments. However, in many non‐Western cultures, mothers do not readily talk about their children's mental states; they may use nonverbal behaviors to manifest their mind‐mindedness. Nonverbal behaviors may also be the way mind‐mindedness is conveyed to young infants. Theorists have been puzzled by the fact that mind‐mindedness in mothers' speech prior to when infants understand language predicts infants' later social‐cognitive developments. In this article, I call for mind‐mindedness measures to include nonverbal behaviors. Such measures may reveal behaviors involved in communicating mind‐mindedness to infants and provide an avenue to equitable investigations of mind‐mindedness in diverse cultures, thus advancing the theory and scope of the field.
Differences in mind-mindedness and Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF) were investigated in mothers and their 6-month-old infants from South Korea (N=66, 32 girls) and the United Kingdom (N=63, 26 girls). Mind-mindedness was assessed in terms of appropriate and non-attuned mind-related comments during infant–mother interaction; PRF was assessed using a questionnaire. British mothers commented more on infant desires and preferences, whereas Korean mothers commented more on cognitions and emotions, but there were no cultural differences in overall levels of mind-mindedness. For PRF, Korean mothers reported more certainty about their infants’ mental states compared with their British counterparts, but there were no cultural differences in mothers’ reported interest in their infants’ mental states. Greater reported certainty about infants’ mental states was positively related to self-reported parenting quality in both cultural groups, but this association was not seen for parenting quality as assessed observationally. Mind-mindedness and PRF were unrelated in both Korean and British mothers. Results are discussed in terms of the Korean concept of mother–-infant oneness and the multi-dimensional nature of parental mentalization.
International public health strategies indicate a need for equitable resources for wellness in younger children and their caregivers. Reflective functioning, a proxy for emotional regulation abilities, is a key area in this domain. As an emerging area, reflective functioning has not been mapped comprehensively and requires systematic investigation. This review examines “what qualitative and quantitative evidence is there for the value of reflective functioning assessment and intervention studies in caregiver–child dyads?”
This scoping review focused on data published to September 2021, focusing on caregivers of children ≤36 months of age (including Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, ERIC, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase). Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines were followed.
From 5162 initial articles, 608 papers were screened for full text yielding a final 181 papers. Only 69 studies included multiple ethnicities. Seven of the 69 studies included at least 1 Indigenous person. No studies were conducted in low- to middle-income countries, and no studies reported data on gender identity.
This review comprises a novel and comprehensive mapping of the reflective functioning literature in terms of both assessment and intervention studies. The present mapping of the reflective functioning literature indicates the importance of health disparities in caregiver–child dyads (these include gaps and needs for future research). In relation to gaps, studies of adverse childhood experience, consideration of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and global mental health are underrepresented. Future research is needed to provide information on the relevance of gender identity and low- to middle-income countries in relation to the impact on reflective functioning in this context.
Mental State Language (MSL) is language that refers to individuals’ inner states, including terms relating to emotion, desire-&-preference, perception and cognition. This study explores the nature of eight Chinese educators’ MSL in their interactions with infants during structured and free play. In total, 3169 language messages (one message includes a subject and a verb) were analyzed and it was revealed that MSL messages make up 7.7% of the educators’ language. In conversational interactions, educators’ MSL appeared more frequently in structured than in free play. The desire-&-preference terms were used most frequently and tended to trigger short conversational interactions (3–4 turns). Combining the analysis of communicative functions (question, statement, command, offer), MSL of cognition and perception presented in question facilitated long conversational interactions (5 turns or above). These findings inform educators about how to use MSL effectively. It raises the consideration of balancing structured and free play in nursery routines that could vary in different cultures.
This study examined the distribution of language expansion in parent–child (preschool aged) mealtime conversations in 30 Chinese middle-class families. The conversations were categorised into four types: contextualised & conflicted, contextualised & non-conflicted, decontextualised & conflicted, and decontextualised & non-conflicted. The language expansions were analysed using the systemic functional linguistic theory related to cohesive patterns in language expansion: elaborations, extensions, and enhancements. While the parents dominated the conversations generally, the children were active contributors, initiating over one-quarter of the conversations. Initiation had an impact on the distribution of the conversational types: the proportions of contextualised & non-conflicted conversations was significantly higher in child-initiated conversations. The contextualised & conflicted conversations accounted for a higher proportion in parent-initiated conversations. It was the conversational type rather than initiation, which had an effect on the distribution of language expansion patterns. The least occurring decontextualised & conflicted conversations generated the most extensions. The frequently appeared contextualised & non-conflicted conversations, however, produced the fewest expanded messages. The implications from the findings for promoting high-quality mealtime conversations conducive to children’s language learning are discussed.
Parental mentalization captures the parent’s abilities to represent his/her child as a psychological agent and the parent’s proclivity to understand and interpret child’s behavior in terms of mental states. Under this label, the literature emphasizes three different constructs: mind-mindedness, parental reflective functioning and insightfulness. Presently, there is no integrative review addressing all three constructs comprehensively through a comparative analysis. Furthermore, there is some confusion as to where the concepts overlap and differ, how they are distinctively operationalized and which measures are used to tap into each one of them. To address this issue, this article aims to synthesize the literature in a critical manner, reviewing mind-mindedness, parental reflective functioning and insightfulness. This study identifies key theoretical and methodological aspects of parental mentalization constructs (e.g., definition and conceptualization, measurements, parental and child correlates, strengths and weaknesses). Moreover, the constructs are compared based on their similarities and differences regarding definition, conceptualization and measurements. Finally, the paper offers some directions for further research. This review informs research in the field by providing an integrative and comprehensive understanding of parental mentalization.
Children's theory of mind appears to develop from a focus on desire to a focus on belief. However, it is not clear (a) whether this pattern is universal and (b) whether it could also be explained by linguistic and sociocultural factors. This study examined mental state language in 10 Mandarin-speaking (21–27 months) and 8 Cantonese-speaking (18–44 months) toddlers. The results suggest a pattern of theory-of-mind development similar to that in English, with early use of desire terms followed by other mental state references. However, the Chinese-speaking children used desire terms much earlier, and the use of terms for thinking was very infrequent, even for Mandarin-speaking adults. This finding suggests a consistency in the overall sequence, but variation in the timing of beginning and end points, in children's theory-of-mind development across cultures.
This article considers claims of Mesman et al. (2017) that sensitive responsiveness as defined by Ainsworth, while not uniformly expressed across cultural contexts, is universal. Evidence presented demonstrates that none of the components of sensitive responsiveness (i.e., which partner takes the lead, whose point of view is primary , and the turn-taking structure of interactions) or warmth are universal. Mesman and colleagues' proposal that sensitive responsiveness is "providing for infant needs" is critiqued. Constructs concerning caregiver quality must be embedded within a nexus of cultural logic, including caregiving practices, based on ecologically valid childrearing values and beliefs. Sensitive responsiveness, as defined by Mesman and attachment theorists, is not universal. Attachment theory and cultural or cross-cultural psychology are not built on common ground.
Major developments in attachment research over the past 2 decades have introduced parental mentalization as a predictor of infant–parent attachment security. Parental mentalization is the degree to which parents show frequent, coherent, or appropriate appreciation of their infants’ internal states. The present study examined the triangular relations between parental mentalization, parental sensitivity, and attachment security. A total of 20 effect sizes (N = 974) on the relation between parental mentalization and attachment, 82 effect sizes (N = 6,664) on the relation between sensitivity and attachment, and 24 effect sizes (N = 2,029) on the relation between mentalization and sensitivity were subjected to multilevel meta-analyses. The results showed a pooled correlation of r = .30 between parental mentalization and infant attachment security, and rs of .25 for the correlations between sensitivity and attachment security, and between parental mentalization and sensitivity. A meta-analytic structural equation model was performed to examine the combined effects of mentalization and sensitivity as predictors of infant attachment. Together, the predictors explained 12% of the variance in attachment security. After controlling for the effect of sensitivity, the relation between parental mentalization and attachment remained, r = .24; the relation between sensitivity and attachment remained after controlling for parental mentalization, r = .19. Sensitivity also mediated the relation between parental mentalization and attachment security, r = .07, suggesting that mentalization exerts both direct and indirect influences on attachment security. The results imply that parental mentalization should be incorporated into existing models that map the predictors of infant–parent attachment.
This study of 241 parent–child dyads from the United Kingdom (N = 120, Mage = 3.92, SD = 0.53) and Hong Kong (N = 121, Mage = 3.99, SD = 0.50) breaks new ground by adopting a cross-cultural approach to investigate children's theory of mind and parental mind-mindedness. Relative to the Hong Kong sample, U.K. children showed superior theory-of-mind performance and U.K. parents showed greater levels of mind-mindedness. Within both cultures parental mind-mindedness was correlated with theory of mind. Mind-mindedness also accounted for cultural differences in preschoolers’ theory of mind. We argue that children's family environments might shed light on how culture shapes children's theory of mind.
In this article, we test the hypothesis that beliefs about the ideal mother are convergent across cultures and that these beliefs overlap considerably with attachment theory’s notion of the sensitive mother. In a sample including 26 cultural groups from 15 countries around the globe, 751 mothers sorted the Maternal Behavior Q-Set to reflect their ideas about the ideal mother. The results show strong convergence between maternal beliefs about the ideal mother and attachment theory’s description of the sensitive mother across groups. Cultural group membership significantly predicted variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores, but this effect was substantially accounted for by group variations in socio-demographic factors. Mothers living in rural versus urban areas, with a low family income, and with more children, were less likely to describe the ideal mother as highly sensitive. Cultural group membership did remain a significant predictor of variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores above and beyond socio-demographic predictors. The findings are discussed in terms of the universal and culture-specific aspects of the sensitivity construct.
The first distribution of Chinese infant-mother (n = 61) attachment classifications categorised by trained and reliability-tested coders is reported with statistical comparisons to US norms and previous Chinese distributions. Three-way distribution was 15% insecure-avoidant, 62% secure, 13% insecure-resistant, and 4-way distribution was 13% insecure-avoidant, 58% secure, 16% insecure-resistant,13% disorganised. These findings support the hypotheses that: (1) consistent with global norms the majority of infants will show secure attachments to mother; (2) insecure-resistant attachments will be greater than insecure-avoidant attachments in this interdependent cultural setting; and (3) disorganised attachments will be comparable to Western norms. Pooled samples from previously reported Chinese samples demonstrate deviations from US norms on all categories including relatively low proportions of avoidant and disorganised classifications, especially among samples from the South. Culture-specific childrearing practices and the role of training and reliability-testing for coders are suggested as possible contributors to these differences.
This article proposes to reconceptualize attachment theory as a culture-sensitive framework. First the seminal contribution of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth are recognized in proposing a new paradigm for understanding children’s development, synthesizing the interdisciplinary knowledge of relationship formation present during the 1950s (Bowlby) and developing a fieldwork approach in combination with quasi-experimental procedures in the laboratory (Ainsworth). It is argued that students of attachment theory have expanded the framework with respect to the intergenerational transmission and the organizational nature of attachment, relations with psychopathology and clinical applications, and its psychophysiological foundation. It is further argued that attachment theorists were not responsive to developments in evolutionary sciences and cultural/anthropological approaches of parenting and child development. From an evolutionary perspective, contextual variability is crucial to meet the purpose of adaptation. It is demonstrated that the assumptions of monotropy, the conception of stranger anxiety, as well as the definition of attachment in mainstream attachment research are in line with the conception of psychological autonomy, adaptive for Western middle-class, but deviate from the cultural values of many non-Western and mainly rural ecosocial environments. In the concluding paragraph, a strategy is proposed for an empirical research program that would contribute to the cultural foundation of attachment.
We review recent developments in the study of culture and personality measurement. Three approaches are described: an etic approach that focuses on establishing measurement equivalence in imported measures of personality, an emic (indigenous) approach that studies personality in specific cultures, and a combined emic-etic approach to personality. We propose the latter approach as a way of combining the methodological rigor of the etic approach and the cultural sensitivity of the emic approach. The combined approach is illustrated by two examples: the first with origins in Chinese culture and the second in South Africa. The article ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the combined emic-etic approach for the study of culture and personality and for psychology as a science.
This study examined in a cross-cultural context mothers' discussions of mental states and external behaviors in a story-telling task with their 3-year-old children and the relations of such discussions to children's emotion situation knowledge (ESK). The participants were 71 European American and 60 Chinese immigrant mother-child pairs in the United States. Mothers and children read a storybook together at home, and children's ESK was assessed. Results showed that European American mothers made more references to thoughts and emotions during storytelling than did Chinese mothers, who commented more frequently on behaviors. Regardless of culture, mothers' use of mental states language predicted children's ESK, whereas their references to behaviors were negatively related to children's ESK. Finally, mothers' emphasis on mental states over behaviors partially mediated cultural effects on children's ESK.
Mind‐mindedness captures caregiver orientation to infant mental states expressed in mind‐related comments to infant cues, typically assessed during free play. There are two orthogonal dimensions: Appropriate comments accurately interpret the infant's experience, and non‐attuned comments are judged by observers to be inaccurate interpretations. Appropriate comments have been consistently associated with optimal caregiving behavior, but less is known about non‐attuned comments, rare during free play. Further, available evidence suggests mind‐mindedness is independent of infant temperament, but few studies have examined relations between mind‐mindedness and infant behavior during real‐time interaction. We addressed these issues using the Still‐Face Paradigm. Participants were 76 mothers and their 7‐month‐old infants. Mind‐mindedness, emotional availability, and infant negative affect were independently coded. Unexpectedly, appropriate mind‐related comments were not associated with emotional availability nor with infant negative affect. Mothers who made non‐attuned comments showed lower emotional availability, and their infants showed more extreme responses to the still‐face—either no negative affect or crying. Infants whose mothers made non‐attuned comments early showed less recovery in reunion episodes. Infant negative affect in early episodes also influenced mind‐related comments; mothers whose infants showed no negative affect made fewer appropriate comments in later episodes. Implications of assessing mind‐mindedness in stress contexts are discussed.
Mind-mindedness refers to a caregiver’s tendency to treat the young child as an individual with a mind of his or her own. It is assessed in the first year of life by the caregiver’s tendency to comment appropriately on, and not misread, the infant’s mental states (thoughts, feelings, preferences) during interaction and in older children by the caregivers’ spontaneous use of mental state words in response to an invitation to describe their child. This narrative review first describes the construct and its theoretical origins as well as the different approaches to measurement. We then critically review 20 years of empirical literature linking mind-mindedness to indices of the parent–child attachment relationship and child developmental outcomes, and exploring the properties of the construct. We conclude by identifying key theoretical and methodological questions that need to be addressed in order to advance the field as well as potential clinical applications.
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 is presented, based on the theoretical origins of the sensitive responsiveness construct combined with the ethnographic literature on caregivers and infants in different parts of the world. This integration advocates universality without uniformity, and calls for multidisciplinary collaborations to investigate the complexities and nuances of caregiver-infant interactions in different cultures. Salient issues are illustrated with observations of infants (ages 7-31?months) in Mali, the Republic of Congo, and the Philippines.
Relations between maternal mind-mindedness (appropriate and nonattuned mind-related comments), chil-dren's age-2 perspective-taking abilities, and attachment security at 44 (n = 165) and 51 (n = 128) months were investigated. Nonattuned comments predicted insecure preschool attachment, via insecure 15-month attachment security (44-month attachment) and poorer age-2 perspective-taking abilities (51-month attachment). With regard to attachment stability, higher perspective-taking abilities distinguished the stable secure groups from (a) the stable insecure groups and (b) children who changed from secure to insecure (at trend level). These effects were independent of child gender, stressful life events, and socioeconomic status (SES). The contribution of these findings to our understanding of stability and change in attachment security from infancy to the preschool years is discussed.
Chinese parents carry high expectations for their children and try their best to shape them to be an ideal child. They hope their children can be a dragon or a phoenix, the symbols of the emperor and the empress, to honor the family and the ancestors as well as enjoy splendor in the future. Hence, the cultivation of children starts early. In ancient China, pregnant women were thought to exert a strong influence on the fetus, and imperial family members promoted prenatal education based on Confucian philosophy and ethical norms to cultivate children with excellent morality and wisdom. Later in the history, supported by the Chinese medical notion that external stimuli affect internal sensation, pregnant women from ordinary families would also be committed to following moral rules, in order to protect and influence the fetus. Since the health of pregnant women plays a significant role in the development of an ideal child, family members provide additional care and protection during pregnancy. Restrictions were imposed on pregnant mothers to keep both the baby and the mother away from danger, and some of these rules became long-standing taboos. Scientific research on fetal development has enhanced the importance of nurture in developing ideal children. With the devotion to teaching their children to be the dragon or the phoenix, many Chinese parents offer great support and protection of their infants and toddlers, and as a result, they are usually viewed as authoritarian. Parents of children with disabilities or special needs started with the same ideal image of the dragon or the phoenix, though they usually grow disillusioned, but some of them still retain hope and make a great effort to raise and cultivate the child with special needs.
This paper focuses on caregiver sensitivity, its relation to mind-mindedness (caregivers' attunement to their infants' internal states), and how well both constructs predict infant attachment security. The seminal Baltimore research on sensitivity and its relation to attachment security is summarized, highlighting the conclusion that mothers in the insecure-resistant and insecure-avoidant categories could not be distinguished on the basis of sensitivity. The contrast between the complex, sophisticated construct detailed in the original studies and the broad-based nature of the sensitivity coding scale is discussed. This paper argues that we should return to Ainsworth, Bell, and Stayton's (1971, 1974) original emphasis on the caregiver's ability to perceive things from the child's point of view in defining a measure of the quality of early infant-caregiver interaction. This approach led to the development of the construct of mind-mindedness. There are two mind-mindedness indices: caregivers' tendency during infant-caregiver interaction to (a) comment appropriately on their infants' putative thoughts and feelings (appropriate mind-related comments), and (b) misread their infants' internal states (non-attuned mind-related comments). Both indices predict independent variance in infant-caregiver attachment security, and together can distinguish between the secure, avoidant, and resistant categories. The specific, multidimensional nature of mind-mindedness complements the global construct of sensitivity.
Children's socialization environments reflect cultural models of parenting. In particular, Euro-American and Chinese families have been described as following different socialization scripts. The present study assesses parenting behaviors as well as parenting ethnotheories with respect to three-month-old babies in middle-class families in Los Angeles and Beijing. Euro-American parents' behaviors towards their children, as well as their parental ethnotheories are assumed to express the cultural model of autonomy; whereas Chinese parents' socialization strategies are assumed to be shaped by the cultural model of relatedness. The results reveal that Euro-American and Chinese mothers embody different cultural models in their verbal parenting behaviors and verbalized parenting strategies. However, the differences are not consistent and there are no differences with respect to non-verbal parenting behaviors. The results are discussed as illustrating the complexity of cultural models of parenting, where cultural messages are expressed differently in different domains.
This study investigated predictors of attachment security in a play context using a sample of 71 mothers and their 6-month-old infants. We sought to rethink the concept of maternal sensitivity by focusing on mothers’ ability accurately to read the mental states governing infant behaviour. Five categories were devised to assess this ability, four of which were dependent on maternal responses to infant behaviours, such as object-directed activity. The fifth, mothers’Appropriate mind-related comments, assessed individual differences in mothers’ proclivity to comment appropriately on their infants’ mental states and processes. Higher scores in this fifth category related to a secure attachment relationship at 12 months. Maternal sensitivity and Appropriate mind-related comments were independent predictors of attachment security at 12 months, respectively accounting for 6.5% and 12.7% of its variance. We suggest that these findings are in line with current theorising on internal working models of attachment, and may help to explain security-related differences in mentalising abilities.
This study uses data from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort to examine the relationship between maternal depression, maternal sensitivity, and child attachment, specifically among Hispanic and Asian American mothers and their young children, and to explore the role of cultural variation and nativity in the associations between these variables. Data used in this study were collected from biological mothers on two occasions, when their children were approximately 9 and 24 months of age. Trained observers completed a direct assessment of child attachment security and an observational measure of maternal sensitivity, data on maternal depression was obtained via maternal report. Hierarchical logistic regression models were used to predict odds of child insecure attachment. The risk of child insecure attachment associated with chronic maternal depression was found to be much higher for Hispanic mothers than for Asians. In contrast, mothers' foreign-born status was a stronger risk factor than depression for insecure child attachment among Asian Americans. Maternal sensitivity significantly reduced the odds of Asian American children being insecurely attached by more than half. Among the full sample of mothers, which included U.S.-born non-Hispanic White mothers and U.S.-born non-Hispanic Black mothers, decreased maternal sensitivity mediated the association between chronic depression and child insecure attachment. However, this mediation was not found in stratified analyses of Hispanic and Asian mothers. Finally, mothers' nativity did not influence the extent to which maternal depression or sensitivity was associated with child attachment. These findings suggest that the associations between maternal depression, sensitivity, and child attachment are culturally specific, and that mothers' immigrant status may be a risk factor in some racial/ethnic groups but protective in others.
How children understand the mental state of pretense has recently become an active area of inquiry, with some research suggesting that young children do not understand that pretending is based on mentally representing some alternate state of affairs. Because intention is thought to be understood earlier than mental representation generally, these experiments tested whether children understand pretense intentions at an earlier age than they understand pretense mental representations. Children were told about a character's intentions and conflicting actions, and were asked about the character's pretense. Across 5 experiments, children did not demonstrate appreciation that intention is crucial to pretense. Various methodological factors that might have compromised the results were examined, but to no effect.
This study investigated the relation between mothers' utterances and theory of mind in a longitudinal study involving three time points over 1 year. Mothers were asked to describe some pictures to 82 children at all three time points. Mothers' use of mental state utterances in these descriptions at early time points was consistently correlated with later theory-of-mind understanding. This was true even when a number of potential mediators were accounted for, including children's own use of mental state language, their earlier theory-of-mind understanding, their language ability, their age, mothers' education, and other types of mother utterances. Mothers' mental state utterances seemed genuinely causal because early theory-of-mind ability was not related to later mother mental state utterances (i.e., it was not a reciprocal relation). Results also showed that children's desire talk preceded their talk about beliefs.
Education as cultivation in Chinese culture
- C S Ko
Mind-mindedness coding manual (Version 2.2). Unpublished manuscript
- E Meins
- C Fernyhough