RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATERNAL SOCIAL CODE ORIENTATION, MATERNAL INTERPERSONAL APPEALS, CHILDREN'S SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE TAKING, SEX, AND CHILDREN'S COMMUNICATION
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between maternal language orientation in regulative and interpersonal contexts, children's social perspective taking, sex, and children's communication. The relationship between children's social perspective taking level and family size, and children's social perspective taking level and maternal educational level were also investigated. The participants were 78 mothers and their fourth or fifth grade children who were residents of a suburban middle to upper middle class community. A maternal interview was conducted to assess maternal language orientation in regulatory and interpersonal contexts. Children were administered a form of Hale and Delta's (1976) social perspective taking task for use with children. Communication was assessed from interaction between peer dyads in potentially conflictive situations. Children's communication was measured by the use of 23 communication variables related to the request for action. The study also reported discourse patterns and strategies that were identified from post hoc analyses. The findings from Spearman rank correlations between maternal language orientation scores and the children's communication scores indicated a relationship between maternal person-oriented speech and the children's use of communication variables that were less explicit and allowed more autonomy to the listener, and a relationship between maternal position-oriented speech and the children's use of eplicit directives. No significant relationships were found between the social perspective taking level of the children and either family size or maternal educational level. A significant relationship was found at the.01 level between social perspective taking level and the variables of imperatives, need/want statements, and hints, and at the.05 level between social perspective taking level and personal subjective reasoning. The variable of sex was not significant at the.05 level. A significant interaction at the.01 level was reported between social perspective taking level and the use of participatory imperatives by high social perspective taking boys. Similarities and differences between groups and sexes in the use of communication patterns for initiating and resolving interactions were found to be situationally specific.
Subject Area
Communication
Recommended Citation
COHEN, ANITA KLEIN, "RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATERNAL SOCIAL CODE ORIENTATION, MATERNAL INTERPERSONAL APPEALS, CHILDREN'S SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE TAKING, SEX, AND CHILDREN'S COMMUNICATION" (1987). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8725670.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8725670
