Responsiveness of mothers during play with the child

Abstract

Responsive care is the central domain of the Nurturing Care framework (WHO, 2018), because it permeates all other domains, i.e. different contexts and interactions. Responsiveness is the basis for recognising and responding to the child's signals - in relation to the child's health, nutrition, protection, developing trust and quality relationships with others, emotional well-being and learning opportunities. Results obtained in experimental studies indicate that a higher level of responsiveness achieves effects in terms of greater autonomy in problem solving, better speech-language development, cognitive skills and socioemotional skills. The aim of this research was to examine self-assessment of mothers' responsive involvement in child care. Furthermore, we investigated the correlation between mothers' responsiveness and certain socio-demographic variables. In the research, which is part of a larger study, 1084 mothers of children aged 0 to 36 months from several municipalities in Serbia participated. To examine responsiveness, the Survey questions on responsive interaction (F. Aboud, 2021) was used, which measures the responsiveness of parents in one of 3 different situations: play, reading or bathing. The scale has 14 items for each situation within 2 dimensions: cooperation and interference in activities with the child (Cronbach alpha on our sample is .70). The vast majority of mothers reported being responsive during playtime with their child. On average, the overall measure of responsiveness on a scale up to 5 was found to be 3.25, indicating relatively high selfassessment by parents regarding their responsiveness during play with their child. Additionally, the item-level analysis revealed that, for most parents, playing with their child does not cause significant stress. Also, mothers answer the child's questions during play (about 80%) and positively comment on the child's behavior during play (over 90%). However, between 25 and 30% of mothers are instructive and directive, more than responsive, while playing with their child. For them, playing with the child is a source of stress because they have too many other obligations or the child does not cooperate in the play. In other words, they disrupt the child's spontaneous play by insisting that the child answer a question they ask, determine which toy the child will play with, direct the child how to play, in most cases or occasionally have to show the child how to play. There is a relationship between responsiveness and mothers' education, so more educated mothers are also more responsive, while no relationship with the family's economic status has been established. Analysis of the responses of mothers from vulnerable groups (Roma subsample) shows a significantly lower responsiveness of mothers during play with the child.