Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_3996
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
xii, 192 p. : ill.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = vita)
Includes vita
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Hillary Mi-Sung Kim
Abstract (type = abstract)
The concept of maternal sensitivity has shifted over time to include a focus on engagement with the child at a mental level in addition to physical and emotional care. This study investigates this idea, using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. Maternal verbalization was captured using the Reading Aloud Profile–Together coding during mother-child book reading. Findings using latent class analyses showed that mothers could be classified into two distinct classes having different verbalization styles. Identified maternal verbal sensitivity was marked by bringing her child‘s world into communication and by facilitating the child to engage in communication, asking both close- and open-ended questions; whereas, less sensitivity at the verbal level was marked by focusing on the book rather than the child‘s experiences. The predictive validity of maternal verbal sensitivity was supported as it was positively associated with the child‘s social competence as rated by mothers, while at the same time being negatively associated with the child‘s externalizing behaviors as rated by both mothers and early care/education providers. This study fills a gap in the literature concerning correlates of maternal verbal interactive styles. Its findings suggest that maternal verbal sensitivity is a behavior not depending on contextual factors. Its findings also support Ainsworth‘s conceptualization of maternal sensitivity—a capacity to tailor responses to the child‘s individuality. Importantly, the overall findings showed the moderating role of maternal verbal sensitivity on the relation between mother/child background characteristics and the child‘s socio-emotional functioning, suggesting the effectiveness of interventions utilizing mother-child dyadic book-reading contexts. Furthermore, the findings imply that preschoolers have come to refine or re-organize the internal working models of the social worlds in the context of mother-child communication, which supports theoretical notions posited by attachment researchers. Finally, the findings underscore the methodological advantages of a person-level approach in investigating a new construct which is exploratory in nature and empirically driven. This study looked at the constellation of verbalizations at the person-level, thereby yielding the information about the complexity of them.
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.