2006 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 109-121
This study explored social contextual correlates of mothers' involvement with their children through naturalistic observations in an outdoor setting. Two-hundred-twenty-five mothers with two children and 97 mothers with one child were unobtrusively observed while interacting with their children while crossing at a crosswalk without pedestrian lights. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed in terms of the patterns and sequential trends of the mother's involvement with her children. The mother's involvement was categorized into 5 patterns: holding in her arms, carrying in a stroller, holding hands, being in contact with some other part of the body, and non-involvement. The patterns of the mothers' involvement with their children were recorded at 5 distinct phases: (1) from 5 meters to 1 meter before the crosswalk, (2) within 1 meter of the crosswalk, (3) from one side to the center of the crosswalk, (4) from the center to the far side of the crosswalk, and (5) from finishing crossing to 5 meters afterwards. The age-stage (0-1 yr，2-3 yr，4-5 yr，6-9 yr) of the children was also estimated. During as well as before crossing the crosswalk, two-child mothers interacted with their older children in some fashion less often than one-child mothers interacted with their similar-aged children in all of the 4 age-stages.Most of the two child mothers (80 %) who did not interact with their older children at phase 1，but who started interacting with them at phase 2，stopped interacting with them either at phase 3 or 4, while more than half of the one-child mothers continued to interact with them until they reached the far side of the crosswalk. Qualitative data analyses revealed that the presence of younger children reduced the mothers' involvement with their older children. Nevertheless, two-child mothers more frequently glanced at their older children or verbally warned them when the mothers did not interact with them on the crosswalk. This study suggests that multidimensional observations including outdoor settings can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of parent-child relationships. The process during which a mother withdraws from taking care of her children and the development of her child's self-reliance are also discussed in relation to the present findings.
