Maternal drug abuse and mother-child interaction at age eighteen months.
Item
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Title
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Maternal drug abuse and mother-child interaction at age eighteen months.
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Identifier
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AAI9000732
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identifier
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9000732
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Creator
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Schile, Teresa Christine.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Arietta Slade
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Date
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1989
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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This study examined the relationship between maternal drug abuse and patterns of interactional synchrony in an inner-city, minority, low income population. Dyads consisting of mothers who abused drugs and their eighteen month old children were compared with dyads of non-drug-abusing mothers and children. Dyads were matched for income level and ethnicity. Mother-child interaction in a free play situation was videotaped, segmented into turns, and coded for synchrony, using a slightly modified version of Rocissano and Yatchmink's (1984) scale. Synchrony measured the management of joint attention in the dyad. Synchronous turns were those which maintained the topic of the partner's previous turn, while asynchronous turns changed topic. Turns were also defined as directing or nondirecting.;Post-hoc comparisons were also done between the non-drug-abusing group and a group of middle-income, non-drug-abusing dyads to assess the effect of income level on mother-child interaction.;Results showed that drug abusing dyads had an elevated rate of interacting, but no difference in terms of proportions of synchronous responses. Both mothers and children in the drug and non-drug groups responded to partner asynchrony with increased asynchrony. Drug group mothers also responded with increased synchrony to child synchrony. Drug group children were more directing than non-drug group children.;Comparisons of non-drug middle- and low-income groups showed that low-income dyads were less synchronous than middle-income dyads. Low-income mothers were also more directing than middle-income mothers. In addition, middle-income mothers were less asynchronous in response to child asynchrony than low-income mothers.;These results were interpreted within the context of a model of maternal functioning based on psychological, social and material resources. Results were interpreted as consistent with literature describing drug abusers as immature and egocentric, with difficulties in caring for others. The findings also supported the idea that several aspects of maternal resources are important in determining interactional style. Finally, implications of different patterns of mother-child interaction for child development were discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
