Publication Type: Individual Poster
Abstract: To what extent is acquisition of communication culturally influenced? Most studies on early interaction have been carried out with mother-infant dyads from Anglo-American samples. Children’s social experiences, however, differ from one cultural community to another, including the variety of childrearing practices and languages spoken in the world. In Finland, all children (98-99%) are cared for at home during their first year of life, while day care outside the home becomes common beyond infancy since there are two bread-winners in most families. Equality between genders and mutual responsibility for child care are highly valued in modern Finnish families.

With the present longitudinal study we examine the following issue: Are there differences between Finnish families (n=24) with respect to how parents communicate with their child during the second half of the first year? We observed the parents’ play interactions with the infant at 7 and 11 months. Three patterns of communication characterized both mother-infant and father-infant dyads. It was common that both partners shared the same focus of attention (either on the self, the partner, or a toy) during play interactions. Such shared moments appeared as Symmetrical if the partners influenced the actions of the other in a active and continuous manner or as Asymmetrical if the infant passively followed the parent’s actions. Unilateral communication was also typical at both ages: the child attended to toys and explored them, while the parent followed and/or tried to initiate joint play with the child. Few differences emerged between the parents: the mother-infant dyads displayed less unengaged moments at 7 months and more mutual engagements at 11 months compared to the father-infant dyads.

On the basis of the infants’ communication with both parents, we found three types of families. In the Exploration group (n=12), the infant’s active engagements with the mother at 7 months were related with high levels of exploration during play with both parents at both ages. In the Observation group (n=7), the infant’s passive engagements with both parents was associated with low levels of exploration during play especially with the father but active engagement with the father four months later. Finally, in the Social Exploration group (n=5), the infant displayed high levels of active engagements and low levels of exploration with the mother at both ages but high levels of exploration with the father. The profiles of the families will be presented and discussed from a cultural point of view.