Adolescent mothers (15;4 years) were compared with older mothers (23;7 years) when talking to their one-year-old infants using precise coding of written transcripts. The 32 subjects were similar on demographic characteristics other than age: white, primiparous, and had no more than 12 years of education. Multivariate and univariate analysis of variance indicated that, compared with older mothers, the adolescent mothers spoke significantly fewer words to their infants, fewer utterances in joint attention and in object labelling, fewer utterances of positive affective speech, and more command utterances. The infants of adolescents vocalized significantly less often than the infants of older mothers. Pearson product-moment correlations indicated a positive significant relationship between mother language variables and infant variables.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adamson, I.B. & Bakeman, R. ( 1984). Mothers' communicative acts: changes during infancy . Infant Behavior and Development, 7, 467-78.
2.
Barrett, M., Harris, M. & Chasin, J. (1991). Early lexical development and maternal speech: a comparison of children's initial and subsequent uses of words. Journal of Child Language, 18, 21-40.
3.
Bates, E., Bemgni, L., Bretherton, I., Camaioni, L. & Volterra, V. (1977). From gesture to first word: on cognitive and social prerequisites. In M. Lewis & L. Rosenblum (eds), Interaction, Conversation, and the Development of Language (New York: Wiley).
4.
Bates, E., Bretherton, I., Shore, C. & McNew, S. (1983). Names, gestures, and objects: symbolization in infancy and aphasia. In K. E. Nelson (ed.), Children's Language, Vol. 4 (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum).
5.
Bayley, N. (1969). The Bayley Scales of Infant Development (New York: The Psychological Corporation ).
6.
Bee, H.L., VanEgeren, L.F., Streissguth, A.P., Nyman, B.A. & Leckie, M.S. (1969). Social class differences in maternal teaching strategies and speech patterns. Developmental Psychology, 1, 726-34.
7.
Brooks-Gunn, J. & Furstenberg, F.F. , Jr. (1986). The children of adolescent mothers: physical, academic, and psychological outcomes. Developmental Review, 6, 224-51.
8.
Bruner, J.S. (1985). Vygotsky: a historical and conceptual perspective . In J. V. Wertsch (ed.), Culture, Communication, and Cognition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
9.
Carlson, D.B., LaBarba, R.C. & Sclafani, J.D. (1986). Cognitive and motor development in infants of adolescent mothers: a longitudinal analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 1-13.
10.
Chase-Lansdale, L., Brooks-Gunn, J. & Palkoff, R.L. (1991). Research programs for adolescent mothers: missing links and future promises. Family Relations, 40, 1-8.
11.
Crockenberg, S. (1987). Support for adolescent mothers during the postnatal period: theory and research. In C.F. Boukydes (ed.), Research on Support for Parents and Infants in the Postnatal Period (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum).
12.
Cross, T. (1984). Habilitating the language-impaired child: ideas from studies of parent child interaction. Topics in Language Disorders, 4 (4), 1-14.
13.
Culp, R.E., Appelbaum, M.I., Osofsky, J.D. & Levy, J.A. (1988). Adolescent and older mothers: comparison between prenatal maternal variables and newborn interaction measures. Infant Behavior and Development, 11, 353-62.
14.
Culp, R.E., Culp, A.M., Osofsky, J.D. & Osofsky, H. (1991). Adolescent and older mothers' interaction patterns with their six-month-old infants. Journal of Adolescence, 14, 195-200.
15.
Elardo, R., Bradley, R.H. & Caldwell, B.M. (1977). A longitudinal study of the relation of infants' home environments to language development at age three. Child Development, 48, 595-603.
16.
Furstenberg, F.F., Jr., Brooks-Gunn, J. & Morgan, S.P. (1987). Adolescent Mothers in Later Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
17.
Garcia Coll, C., Vohr, B.R., Hoffman, J. & Oh, W. (1986). Maternal and environmental factors affecting developmental outcome of infants of adolescent mothers. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 7, 230-5.
18.
Hampson, J. & Nelson, K. (1993). Relation of maternal language to variation in rate and style of language acquisition. Journal of Child Language , 20, 57-63.
19.
Hardy-Brown, K., Plomin, R. & DeFries, J. (1981). Genetic and environmental influences on the rate of communicative influences in the first year of life. Developmental Psychology, 17, 704-17.
20.
Harris, M., Jones, D. & Grant, J. (1984/85). The social-interactional context of maternal speech to infants: an explanation for the event-bound nature of early word use? First Language, 5, 89-100.
21.
Hart, B. (1991). Input frequency and children's first words. First Language, 11, 289-300.
22.
Haugen, G.M. & McIntire, R.W. (1972). Comparison of vocal imitation, tactile imitation, and food as reinforces for infant vocalizations. Developmental Psychology, 2, 201-9.
23.
Heath, S.B. (1989). The learner as cultural member. In M. L. Rice & R. L. Schiefelbusch (eds), Teachability of Language (Baltimore : Brookes).
24.
Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1990). Maternal speech and the child's development of syntax: a further look. Journal of Child Language, 17, 85-99.
25.
— (1991). Mother-child conversation in different social classes and communicative settings. Child Development, 62, 782-96.
26.
Huttenlocher, J., Haight, W., Bryk, A., Seltzer, M. & Lyons, T. (1991). Early vocabulary growth: relation to language input and gender. Developmental Psychology, 27, 236-48.
27.
Levine, L., Garcia Coll, C. & Oh, W. (1985). Determinants of mother-infant interaction in adolescent mothers. Pediatrics, 75, 23-9.
28.
McDonald, L. & Pien, D. (1982). Mother conversational behaviour as a function of interactional intent. Journal of Child Language, 9, 337-58.
29.
Messer, D. (1978). The integration of mothers' referential speech with joint play. Child Development, 49, 781-7.
30.
Miller, J.F. & Chapman, R.S. (1985). Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press ).
31.
Murray, A.D., Johnson, J. & Peters, J. (1990). Fine-tuning of utterance length to preverbal infants: effects on later language development. Journal of Child Language , 17, 511-25.
32.
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38 (1-2, Serial No. 149).
33.
Ninio, A. (1992). The relation of children's single word utterances to single word utterances in the input. Journal of Child Language , 19, 87-110.
34.
O'Brien, M. & Culp, A.M. (1988). Categories of maternal speech functions to one-year-old infants. Unpublished manuscript, University of Kansas, Infant Study Center, Lawrence, Kansas.
35.
Papousek, M. (1994). From cooing to babbling to meaningful words: vocal milestones in the context of mother-infant communication. International Conference on Infant Studies, Paris, France, June 1994.
36.
Parks, P.L. & Arndt, E.K. (1990). Differences between adolescent and adult mothers of infants. Journal of Adolescent Health Care, 11, 248-53.
37.
Peterson, G.A. & Sherrod, K.B. (1982). Relationship of maternal language to language development and language delay of children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 86, 391-8.
38.
Phillips, J.R. (1973). Syntax and vocabulary of mother's speech to young children: age and sex comparison. Child Development, 44, 183-5.
39.
Poulson, C. (1983). Differential reinforcement of other-than-vocalization as a control procedure in the conditioning of infant vocalization rate. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 36, 471-89.
40.
Pratt, M.W., Kerig, P.K., Cowan, P.A. & Cowan, C.P. (1992). Family worlds: couple satisfaction, parenting style, and mothers' and fathers' speech to young children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 38, 245-62.
41.
Prorok, E.M.S. (1980). Mother-child verbal exchange: a descriptive study of young children's verbal behavior. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 9, 451-71.
42.
Pye, C., Wilcox, K.A. & Siren, K.A. (1988). Refining transcriptions: the significance of transcriber 'errors'. Journal of Child Language, 15, 17-37.
43.
Rice, M. (1989). Children language acquisition. American Psychologist, 2, 149-55.
44.
Schachter, F.F. (1979). Everyday Talk to Toddlers: Early Intervention (New York: Academic Press).
45.
Sherrod, K.B., Friedman, S., Crawley, S., Drake, D. & Devieux, J. (1977). Maternal language to prelinguistic infants: syntactic aspects. Child Development, 48, 1662-5.
46.
Snow, C.E. (1984). Parent-child interaction and the development of communicative ability. In R. L. Schiefelbusch & J. Pickar (eds), The Acquisition of Communicative Competence (Baltimore : University Park Press).
47.
Snow, C.E., Dubber, C. & DeBlauw, A. (1982). Routines in mother-infant interaction. In L. Feagans and D. C. Farran (eds) The Language of Children Reared in Poverty (New York: Academic Press).
48.
Snyder, L. (1978). Communicative and cognitive abilities and disabilities in the sensorimotor period. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 24, 161-80.
49.
Sugarman, S. (1984). The development of preverbal communication: its contribution and limits in promoting the development of language. In R. L. Schiefelbusch & J. Pickar (eds), The Acquisition of Communication Competence (Baltimore: University Park Press).
50.
Tomasello, M. & Todd, J. (1983). Joint attention and lexical acquisition style . First Language, 4, 197-212.
51.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
52.
Wertsch, J. V. (ed.) (1985). Culture, Communication, and Cognition (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press).
53.
Wulbert, M., Inglis, S., Kriegsman, E. & Mills, B. (1975). Language delay and associated mother-child interaction . Developmental Psychology, 11, 61-70.
