Does a Mother's Praise Foster Her Child's Social Competence?(Paper & Abstract September 18th)

Abstract

We aimed to clarify the effects of mothers' praise-when their children were 18 months-on the trajectory of their children's social competence from 18 months to 30 months. The participants were 194 mother-child dyads whose interaction was observed when the children were 18 months and 30 months. The features of mother-child interaction were examined using the Interaction Rating Scale (IRS) as an aspect of social competence. Logistic regression analysis was performed with the trajectory of social competence from 18 months to 30 months as the dependent variable and the actual behaviors of caregivers' praise as independent variables while controlling for the children's gender and the mothers' age and educational background. It was found that the mothers' actual praise-related behavior influenced the trajectory of their children's social competence from 18 months to 30 months.