This study was designed to investigate the relation between mother`s interaction strategies and self-regulation of young children from a Vygotskian perspective. The hypotheses of this study were: 1) The self-regulation of young children will improve w...
This study was designed to investigate the relation between mother`s interaction strategies and self-regulation of young children from a Vygotskian perspective. The hypotheses of this study were: 1) The self-regulation of young children will improve with increase in age, 2) the use of mothers` interaction strategies will increase as child`s age decreases, 3) mothers` directiveness in the mother-child interaction depends on the age of child and socio-economic level, and 4) mothers` directiveness in the mother-child interaction will have negative relationship with child`s self-regulation. The subjects of this study were 60 mother-child dyads with three different age-of-child groups (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds). They were further divided into higher and lower socio-economic groups. A puzzle task was used for the measurement of self-regulation. The task consisted of two identical puzzles with one used as the model. The collected data were analyzed by x², one-way and two-way analysis of variance, and Pearson`s r. Self-regulation of the young children improved with increase in age (P < .05). The use of mothers` interaction strategy decreased as the children`s age increased (P < .05). Mothers` directiveness in the mother-child interaction was influenced by the age of child (P < .01) and by socioeconomic level (P < .05). There was a negative correlation (r=-.848) between the mothers` directiveness in the mother-child interaction and the child`s self-regulation (P < .001).