Sweet, Dawn M.. The communicative accomplishment of mutuality during father-son play in early childhood. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3BV7GZT
DescriptionThis dissertation reports a three-study investigation of mutuality within self-directed play sessions of four African-American father-son dyads at two points in time. These three studies use multiple methods for systematically analyzing face-to-face interaction occurring within a finite space, namely a play area of a daycare center, during a fixed period of time, approximately 15 minutes. This dissertation develops a systematic approach for studying mutuality as it links to well-being as a quality of every day life and individual development. This research offers communication explanations for how relationships in the early stages of life are formed and a way of thinking about well-being across psychological, cognitive, emotional, and social domains from a communication perspective.
Study 1 uses exploratory microanalytic techniques (Mokros, 2003) to identify units of decision making during father-son play. Through its in-depth and systematic examination of decision making, Study 1 provides a vocabulary for talking about decision making from a communication perspective and ultimately provides a conceptual framework and coding system for identifying features of mutuality within father-son interaction. From insights gleaned from this first study, the research in Study 2 reports a comparative study that focuses on understanding individual differences in the amount and quality of mutuality exhibited within and across four father-son dyads at two points in time. This research concludes with Study 3, a comparative study designed to link Interaction States identified in Study 2 with Command Sequences identified by using the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS) (Eyeberg & Robinson, 1983).
This study contributes to communication theory and research because it examines the moment-to-moment child-rearing practices in families at risk and speaks to how through communicative practices, fathers and sons are able to construct and sustain moments of mutual focus on a task or each other and what this says about not only how relationships in the early stages of life are developed but also about well-being as a quality of everyday life and individual development.