SHARING ATTENTION TO TOYS - ADOLESCENT MOTHER-TODDLER DYADS

This study examined whether there were differences in the joint attent ion behaviours of adolescent mothers and toddlers and adult mothers an d toddlers. The timing of mothers' attention-directing behaviours (i.e . maintaining, introducing and redirecting) as well as the specific be haviours (i.e. showing, offering and demonstrating toy) they used to d irect their toddlers' attention to toys were observed. The observers a lso coded the specific joint attention behaviours that the toddlers us ed. The findings showed that the adolescent mothers redirected their t oddlers' attention away from a toy they were interested in to a differ ent toy more often and used fewer introducing behaviours than the adul t mothers. Toddler age was also inversely related to mothers' redirect ing behaviour. The results also indicated that the adolescent mothers demonstrated toys and interfered with their toddlers' ongoing play beh aviour more frequently than the adult mothers. Toddler age was also in versely related to the frequency with which both groups of mothers dem onstrated toys and positively related to the frequency with which moth ers showed toys. The toddlers born to the adolescent mothers showed fe wer social initiations and a higher frequency of non-verbal responses than the toddlers born to the adult mothers. Toddler age was negativel y related to the frequency of non-verbal responses.