No! Don’t! Stop!” Mothers words for impending danger. Parenting: Science and Practice

Objectives. In 2 studies, we aimed to describe the content of mothers ’ verbal warnings to their young children and to investigate whether mothers modify their warnings based on the type of dangerous situation and children’s age. Study 1. Mothers of 12-, 18-, and 24-month-olds reported in a telephone inter-view the words and phrases they would use to prevent their children from fall-ing, touching dangerous objects, ingesting poisonous substances, and running away. The words “no, ” “don’t, ” and “stop ” were the most frequent warnings across ages. Mothers also used warnings to elicit their children’s attention, reg-ulate children’s location, modify children’s actions, and to highlight the proper-ties and consequences of specific dangers. The content, diversity and complex-ity of mothers ’ warnings varied with children’s age and the type of dangerous situation. Study 2. We observed mothers in the laboratory as they warned their 12- and 18-month-old children not to walk down 50 ° slopes. As in Study 1, mothers primarily relied on the words “no, ” “don’t, ” and “stop, ” but again used warnings to elicit attention, regulate location, modify actions, and de-scribe the danger. Mothers used more complex and diverse warnings with older versus younger children. Conclusions. Although simple warnings, such as “no, ” “don’t, ” and “stop ” hold privileged status at all ages, mothers express a rich array of warnings that are attuned to children’s age and the dangers of the situation