CULTURAL-DIFFERENCES IN AMERICAN AND MEXICAN MOTHER-CHILD PRETEND PLAY

Toddler-age children's play with their mothers (n = 60) was videotaped in the U.S. and Mexico. Episodes were examined for pretend play, mutu al involvement in social play, joint involvement in cooperative social pretend play, and maternal play behaviors. Contextual features were o bserved, recorded, and analyzed using an activity setting model. Mothe rs were interviewed about their value of children's play behavior. Alt hough children's pretend play and mother-child mutual invovlement incr eased with age in the two cultures, American mother-child pairs accoun ted for the greater proportion of interactive social play and pretend play episodes. There were also cultural differences in behaviors that mothers used to structure play and in mothers' value of children's pla y. The findings suggest that mothers guide the development of their ch ildren's play according to their particular cultural norms, which pose s a theoretical challenge to the current notion that mothers are the p rimary facilitators of children's early pretend play.