The validity of a methodology to describe mother—toddler interaction was examined in an exploratory study. The Parent—Toddler Coding System (PTCS) and Rating Scales of Dyadic Interaction (RSDI) were designed to quantify the task-supporting and socioemotional behaviors observed in exchanges between parents and their toddlers. The PTCS and RSDI were used to describe the videotaped interactions of mothers and toddlers engaged in play and eating activities in the home. The ability of the PTCS and the RSDI to discriminate between socioemotional and task-supporting dimensions of interactions was examined through a forced choice sort procedure. The construct validity was examined through principal component analyses and through procedures to examine the convergent and discriminant validity using correlational analyses. Both the PTCS and the RSDI were found to capture the socioemotional and task-supporting aspects of interactions in a sample of four mothers and their toddlers. This methodology may be useful for examining videotaped research data of interactions between parents and toddlers when engaged in child-focused activity.
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