A replicable, low-burden mechanism for observing, recording, and analysing mother-child interaction in population research

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is growing evidence that specific styles of parent-child interaction benefit child development, particularly child language development. Direct observational techniques help clarify the behaviours and styles within parent-child interactions that may influence child language outcomes; however, these techniques tend to be labour-intensive and costly. We report on the development of a replicable, low-burden mechanism for observing and coding specific maternal linguistic behaviours in a population-based cohort of 2-year-olds. METHODS: The coding scheme was developed as part of a prospective, longitudinal study examining the associations between maternal responsive behaviours an..