Rural Nso and German Middle-Class Mothers' Interaction With Their 3-and 6-Month-Old Infants: A Longitudinal Cross-Cultural Analysis

Lamm B, Gudi H, Faßbender I, et al. Rural Nso and German Middle-Class Mothers' Interaction With Their 3-and 6-Month-Old Infants: A Longitudinal Cross-Cultural Analysis. Journal of Family Psychology. 2015;29(4):649-655.This study aims to analyze culture-specific development of maternal interactional behavior longitudinally. Rural Cameroonian Nso mothers (n = 72) and German middle-class mothers (n = 106) were observed in free-play interactions with their 3- and 6-month-old infants. Results reveal the expected shift from a social to a nonsocial focus only in the German middle-class mothers' play interactions but not the rural Nso mothers' play. Nso mothers continue their proximal interactional style with a focus on body contact and body stimulation, whereas German middle-class mothers prefer a distal style of interaction with increasing object-centeredness. These cultural differences are in line with broader cultural models and become more accentuated as the infants grow older