Role of Gender and Birth Status in Mothers-as-Teachers during the Infancy Period.

This study examines the role of gender and birth status in the teaching styles of 19 mothers. The infants studied included 3 female and 4 male full-terms and 4 female and 8 male preterms. Each mother-infant dyad was videotaped during three teaching situations: book reading, an unstructured task, and a structured task. Behavior was coded according to a revised version of the Farran Parent-Caregiver Involvement Scale. In addition, psychosocial and cognitive development and mother-child synchrony measures were taken at 5, 13, and 20 months. Analysis of misclassification findings suggests that misclassified preterm males tend to be more similar to full-term males and females than to other preterms. This situation indicates that mothers may organize their teaching styles with their premature male toddlers, mostly by gender. Mothers of full-term males were more directive than mothers of any other group. On every interactive dimension, males received more and better involvement than females. Quality of interaction seemed to be less influenced by developmental level than by gender. (RJC)