Birgit Leyendecker

Mothers' socialisation goals and evaluations of desirable and undesirable everyday situations in two diverse cultural groups.

Long-term socialisation goals and evaluations of infant behaviour in a variety of everyday contexts were studied among 45 mothers who had immigrated from Central America to the United States, and 41 mothers from European American backgrounds. In accord with expectations based on broad cultural constructs, mothers from Central America emphasised long-term socialisation goals related to Proper Demeanour. In addition, when describing and evaluating everyday situations, they were likely to attribute the desirability or undesirability of these situations to the childs own appropriate and cooperative behaviour, and were likely to highlight mutual enjoyment when describing preferred play situations. In contrast, Euro-American mothers emphasised long-term socialisation goals related to Self-Maximisation, and when describing undesirable everyday situations, stressed the role of external factors not under the childs control, presumably to preserve the childs self-esteem. However, it was also found that the Central American mothers endorse selected aspects of individualism related to promoting their childrens economic and personal potential in the United States. These findings point not only to the multidimensional nature of individualism, but also to the heterogeneity of beliefs among Latino populations. The importance of studying within-group variation with regard to the individualism/sociocentrism construct is highlighted.

Sociocultural Influences on German and Turkish Immigrant Mothers’ Long-Term Socialization Goals:

The major aims of this study were (a) to investigate the differences and similarities in long-term socialization goals of German mothers and Turkish immigrant mothers living in Germany and (b) to examine socialization goals of Turkish immigrant mothers in relation to their acculturation attitudes. Participants were composed of 79 Turkish mothers who were either raised in Germany or migrated to Germany and 91 German mothers of preschoolers living in Germany. Turkish immigrant mothers were more likely to expect their children to have close relations with the family and to be well-mannered and they were less likely to value autonomy than were German mothers. Turkish mothers who were more integrated into German culture were found to value individualistic goals such as self-control more than Turkish mothers who were more separated from the German culture, yet both groups valued mutual support within the family very highly. The findings reveal that socialization goal patterns of Turkish immigrant mothers represent the pattern depicted in the psychological interdependence model proposed by Kagitcibasi (2007).

Contexts as Moderators of Observed Interactions: A study of Costa Rican Mothers and Infants from Differing Socioeconomic Backgrounds

Twenty first-born infants from low SES families and 20 first-born infants from middle SES families in Costa Rica were observed for 12 hours when they were 14 weeks old. The goals of this study were to: (1) study the impact of length of observation and context on our measures of interactional engagement; and (2) compare the interactional experiences of the infants in the two groups in various functional (e.g. feeding, object play) and social (e.g. with mother, with mother and others) contexts. Attuned and disharmonious interactions, as well as the frequency of positive affect, soothing, and vocalisation, varied considerably across the functional contexts. In addition, disharmonious interactions increased and interactional engagement decreased when mothers and infants were joined by others. Highly unstable measures of individual differences were obtained when observations were limited to 45-minute blocks, but stability increased considerably as the duration of the observations expanded. The groups did not differ with respect to amounts of time spent in various functional and social contexts, in attuned or disharmonious states, or in high levels of interactional engagement. Within some of the functional contexts, however, significant group differences in levels of attuned interactions, infant vocalisation, and maternal response vocalisation were found. Overall, functional and social contexts clearly moderated interactional experiences. SES effects on verbal and other interactional measures were limited to some contexts and may thus represent the infants’ overall experiences quite poorly. Consequently, comparisons based on a single context may be inadequate for studies of subjects from differing socioeconomic backgrounds.

Studying mother-infant interaction: The effects of context and length of observation in two subcultural groups

Abstract In most studies, mother-infant interactional attunement is observed in either one or two contexts or in brief, unstructured sessions at home. We thus do not know whether the observed levels of interactional attunement are influenced by the context, whether context influences the levels of interactional attunement differently in diverse samples, or whether the length of observation influences the stability of the interactional measures. To address these issues, we observed mother-infant interactions over a complete day in two culturally distinct samples. Twenty infants whose parents immigrated from Central America (CA) and 21 infants from middle-class Euro-American (EA) backgrounds were observed for 12 hr when they were 3 months old. We used the Strange Situation procedure when they were 13 months old to validate our measures of interactional attunement and disharmony. These preliminary analyses showed that the attunement scores predicted security of attachment as expected and were thus valid observational measures, whereas the disharmony scores predicted attachment as expected only in the Euro-American sample. There were no group differences in the amount of time spent by the mothers and infants in well-attuned states, or in different functional contexts, but the EA dyads spent more time in disharmonious states. The amounts of time spent in well-attuned and in disharmonious interactions varied substantially across contexts with notable differences between the two groups. Forty-five min blocks of observation yielded highly unstable measures of individual differences but stability increased considerably as the duration of the observations was expanded. The results indicate that apparent subcultural differences in attunement are maximized by focusing on single contexts and minimized by averaging across a variety of naturally occurring contexts.

The Ecology of Mother-Infant Interaction in Euro-American and Immigrant Central American Families Living in the United States

In an attempt to explore cultural and subcultural similarities and variations in the patterns of child care, two culturally and economically distinct groups were studied. Twenty-one 3-month-old infants had well-educated Euro-American mothers and another 17 had recently migrated Central American mothers. Observations of parent-infant interaction and behaviour were conducted at home throughout the day to ensure coverage of complete 12-hour cycles. Descriptive analyses revealed remarkable similarities and few differences in the everyday experiences of infants in these two diverse groups. Both groups of mothers spent most of their time playing with, feeding, or caring for their infants. Fathers spent little time with their infants during the day but their presence affected the amount of time spent in various contexts, with significantly less object play occurring when the fathers were present. Mother and infant vocalisations and mutual attention occurred more frequently during social interaction and caretaking than in bouts of feeding. These descriptive profiles expand our basic understanding of infants’ everyday experiences in diverse subcultural groups.

Mother-infant teaching interactions and attachment security in Euro-American and Central-American immigrant families

Abstract Forty mothers who had recently immigrated from Central America and 42 mothers from upper- middle-class Euro-American families were videotaped at home teaching their 4-, 8-, and 12- month-old infants to perform three tasks at each age. Overall, didactic maternal behavior decreased as the infants grew older, whereas task-oriented infant behavior increased with age. Frequency and duration measures of maternal and infant behavior in the teaching sessions were largely unrelated to attachment status, as assessed in the Strange Situation when the infants were 13 months old. When the timing of maternal behavior relative to infant behavior was used as a measure of maternal sensitivity, some of the expected relations were evident, however. Dyads who were later classified as disorganized had negative scores on a measure of joint attention to objects. Resistant dyads were characterized by high levels of coordination of social attention, while disorganized dyads had very low or negative coordination scores. Mutual coordination of maternal teaching was highest in dyads involving securely attached infants.

Assessment of Migrant and Minority Children

Testing children with minority status or migration background poses particular challenges for educators and researchers. More obvious are language barriers, but there may also be more complex limitations based on cultural or contextual differences. The literature on testing migrant and minority children is summarized in a brief historical perspective, focusing on the use of standardized tests. Potential biases in testing minority and migrant children are discussed, and empirical results of testing two groups of preschool age children of nonmigrant (N = 50) and migrant status (N = 35) with the ET 6–6 in Germany are presented. Results indicate significant group differences to the disadvantage of the migrant children in some scales, however, both groups scored within the normal range of one standard deviation around the test norm. The migrant group children were tested in their dominant language, and they used more time to complete the test. Interpretation of test results should use caution, particularly whe...

Tägliche Stressfaktoren und Lebenszufriedenheit türkischstämmiger Mütter in Deutschland

Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht mit dem Everyday Stressors Index (Hall, 1983), welche taglichen Stressfaktoren die Lebenssituation turkischstammiger Mutter (n = 100) von Kindergartenkindern im Vergleich zu deutschen Muttern (n = 105) mit ahnlichem Bildungshintergrund kennzeichnen. Insbesondere interessierte uns, inwieweit die Bildung der Mutter deren alltagliche Stresserfahrungen und Lebenszufriedenheit moderiert. Turkischstammige Mutter mit 10-11 Jahren Schulbildung erreichten hohere Belastungswerte als deutsche Mutter derselben Bildungsgruppe. Wir fanden keine Unterschiede in der Stressbelastung turkischstammiger und deutscher Mutter mit mehr als zwolf Jahren Schulbildung. Die Zahl der Bildungsjahre in Deutschland, die bei turkischstammigen Muttern ein Indikator fur den individuellen Zugang zu Kultur und Sprache ist, fungierte als protektiver Faktor fur die psychosoziale Belastung. Je langer die turkischstammigen Mutter eine deutsche Schule besucht hatten, desto hoher war ihre Lebensz...

Acculturation Gaps Between Turkish Immigrant Marriage Partners Resource or Source of Distress

Research on acculturation gaps has traditionally focused on parent–child dyads and the negative implications for youths’ psycho-social adaptation. The current study explored the impact of acculturation gaps in Turkish immigrant couples (N = 121) on each spouse’s acculturation stress. Wives and husbands reported their acculturation across two domains (language and identity) and dimensions (German and Turkish), and two facets of stress (homesickness and upholding traditions). Actor–partner interdependence models were used to estimate effects (Cook & Kenny, 2005). While homesickness was a burden for both partners, upholding traditions was not an immense stressor but was higher among husbands. Host culture adaptation was associated with lower levels of homesickness among wives and higher levels of stress with traditions among husbands. Heritage culture maintenance was associated with lower levels of stress with traditions among husbands. Overall, there were very few partner effects although better Turkish language abilities of wives were related to less homesickness among husbands. Acculturation gaps were either unrelated to spouses’ acculturation stress or associated with lower levels of stress. Results are discussed with respect to an interpersonal perspective on immigrants’ acculturation strategies. We promote the idea that biculturalism can be achieved within the couple.

Everyday Experiences of 18- to 36-Month-Old Children from Migrant Families: The Influence of Host Culture and Migration Experience.

We explored the everyday experiences of 18‐ to 36‐month‐old toddlers at two study sites and the influence of adaptation to the host culture on the everyday experiences of children from migrant families. First‐ and second‐generation Puerto Rican families in Connecticut, USA, first‐ and second‐generation Turkish families in Bochum, Germany, as well as families of the respective majority cultures were sampled (N = 161). We interviewed mothers to obtain detailed descriptions of a 24‐hour period of a weekday. Study results focused on the activities children engaged in and the social context. The results indicated significant differences between the two sites. Despite site differences, we found parallel processes of adaptation across both sites. Everyday experiences of children of first‐generation mothers differed in important aspects (e.g. self‐feeding) from those of children of the majority cultures. Children of second‐generation mothers were in an intermediate position on most variables, primarily linear pattern of acculturation. Overall, our data suggests that the opportunities and constraints of the physical and social environment of the receiving country as well as the migration experience influence the everyday experiences of children.