MOTHER-CHILD COMMUNICATION SEQUENCES - PLAY ACTIVITY, CHILD GENDER, AND MARITAL-STATUS EFFECTS

Contextual-ecological models of sex-typing guided the examination of m other-child communication patterns in relation to mother's marital sta tus, child gender, and play activity. Married mothers (n = 47) and sin gle mothers (n = 30) were videotaped in their homes while playing with their preschool-age daughter or son (mean age = 45.5 months). Mother- child pairs played with both a masculine-stereotyped toy set (toy trac k with cars) and a feminine-stereotyped toy set (toy foods and plates) for 8 min each. Mothers' and children's use of controlling (assertive ), supportive (affiliative), and collaborative (both assertive and aff iliative) speech acts were coded, and speech act sequences were analyz ed. Mothers' and children's speech was influenced by child gender, the other's prior behavior, the mother's marital status, and the play act ivity. The study lends support to a multidimensional and multivariate view of sex-typing processes.