Ethnic differences in how mothers describe their children

A study was performed to examine how mothers in three US ethnic groups differ in how they describe their children, in terms of their maternal mind mindedness and the values reflecting individualistic or collectivistic culture. The main hypothesis was that White mothers would display stronger orientations of individualism in the way they responded to the questionnaire questions and how they described their children. The second hypothesis was that African American and Hispanic mothers would display stronger orientations of collectivism in their answers to the questionnaire and interview. In addition to evaluating whether these mothers would display stronger orientations of individualism or collectivism, there was also an interest in expanding the base of testing of maternal mind mindedness to other ethnic groups. Seventy two mother-child dyads participated in the study. Mothers\u27 responses to an interview and a questionnaire were used to examine the two dimensions of maternal mind mindedness, and individualism versus collectivism. Results indicate that there were not any significant ethnic differences in the responses to the questionnaire or the interview in relation to maternal mind mindedness and individualism or collectivism