THE ROOTS OF COMPETENCE - MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTION AMONG LOW-INCOME, URBAN, AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES

This study examined developmental competence and mother-child interact ion during feeding and play among 110 low income, urban African Americ an infants and toddlers, and their mothers. Convergent validity was ex amined by comparing two parental factors (nurturance and control) and two child factors (interactive communication and affective regulation) from feeding and play observations with data from observations in the home, performance on standardized developmental assessments, and pare ntal questionnaires. The extension of factors derived from observation s of mothers and children during feeding and play into analyses based on ecological theory relating parental nurturance and control to child ren's competence provided construct validity for the observational pro cedure, and contributed to our understanding of mother-child relations hips and the development of competence among low income, African Ameri can children.