Maternal regulation of children's problem-solving behavior and its impact on children's performance

This study focused on a social interaction theory of the development of cognitive self-regulation. Specifically, the effect of mother-child interaction on the child's ability to problem solve was investigated. The general predictions were (1) children who interacted with their mothers throughout a problem-solving task would subsequently exhibit improved independent performance over practice-control children, who received corrective feedback from a female experimenter at the end of the task; (2) mothers would be more responsible for task activities, would more often regulate their child's task behaviors, and offer more specific verbal content when task demands on child competence increased than when they decreased. 60 3- and 5-year-olds either worked with their mothers or practiced alone and were given corrective feedback on a sorting task in which miniature pieces of furniture were placed in a doll house. As predicted, children who interacted with their mothers subsequently created more correct, adult-like groupings independently than children who received corrective feedback. Mothers displayed more task responsibility and regulation with younger children and when task demands on children of both age groups increased. Maternal verbal content became less specific when task demands decreased. Child performance was related to (1) variation in maternal regulation of the child; and (2) degree of specificity of maternal verbal content.