Figure 3.14 Distribution of ‘create possibilities* and its immediate sub-categories for two groups of mothers. Group 1 had infants with an age range of
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Figure 3.15 Monthly distribution of 'enhance interaction' and 'modify interaction' for the 19 mothers
we can see that the rate of ’enhance* and ’modify’ increases and decreases from one month to another in an irregular manner. The only consistent pattern is seen with ’enhance’ which declines steadily from the 15th to the 18th month. From the 16th to the 18th month the decrease in ’enhance’ is compensated for by an increase in ’modify’. However, using four sets of one-way anova, these monthly changes were not significant. Furthermore according to the t-tests, the transition from group to group was not
significant either.
With reference to the four groups, figure 3.12 shows that ’enhance’ appeared to have increased with age whereas ’modify’ did not. Two-way anova showed a significant age effect (F(3,I5) = 13.01; p< 0-005), a significant category effect (F(l,15) = 62.2; p< 0.001), and age/category interaction (F(3,15) = 5.39; p<0.01) which, as figure 3.16 shows, was brought about by differences in the rates of ’enhancing’ between group A and the other groups, whereas the frequency of ’modify’ was similar for all 4 groups. Thus, for group A the difference between ’enhance’ and
’modify’ was less pronounced than for groups B, C and D. According to one-way anova, no significant difference was found between ’enhance’ and
’modify’ in the case of group A. Furthermore, the rate of ’enhance’ was significantly different for the four groups (F(3,15) = 13.01; p< 0.005) The Newman Kuels method showed that only group A was different from the others at 0-01 level. For ’modify’ there were no significant age
differences.
These results indicate that after age 9 months mothers may change their behaviour by ’enhancing’ more than before, and that ’enhance’ is
the more typical form of support among mothers with older infants. Furthermore, since ’enhance’ showed age changes while ’modify’ did not, we infer that the significant age changes that were observed with ’create possibilities' (page 67) are a reflection of the age changes in ’enhance’ only.
Figure 3.16 Interaction between infants’ age and frequency of ’enhance’ and ’modify’
As with the other sets of data, the cross-sectional data on two groups showed that a larger proportion of CP activities consisted of ’enhance’. Furthermore, the frequency of ’enhance’ was greater for group 1 than for group 2. Two-way anova showed a significant age effect, F (1,16) = 10.83; pcO.OOS, as well as a significant category effect, F (1,16) = 32.6; p -t 0.001, but no interaction was found. To determine whether the age effect was brought about by one category or both, two t-tests were applied, comparing between groups 1 and 2 first on ‘enhance’ and then on ‘modify’. The two 'groups showed a significant difference on ‘enhance’ (t = 2.57; p -<£.0.05). However, no significant differences were found on ‘modify’. These results indicate that parental support is achieved by a major role, ‘enhance’ and a subsidiary role, ’modify’. The major role is affected by age changes while the subsidiary one is not affected. With the youngest group of infants, the rate of ’enhance’ was depressed to the level of ’modify’. Also there was a tendency by mothers of older infants to increase the rate of modifying activities, although the increase was not statistically significant. Thus, it seems that when infants are of a very young age and of an older agB, mothers adopt a more directive role when participating in their infants' play.
The findings provide some support for the hypothesis that different forms of support fulfil different developmental functions in that adopting an enhancing role could be reactive to what the infant is capable of
doing (or is doing). As infants get older they become more capable of
maintaining longer bouts of solitary play and hence the increase in maternal activities which enhance that type of play. The youngest infants in the sample were least capable of prolonged solo play and, therefore, their mothers enhanced least.
Level 3
Enhance sub-categories
From Figure 3.17 we can see that the pattern of ’provide stable base’ repeats that of ’enhance’ in figure 3.15, while that of ’support
manipulation’ remains fairly stable. This indicates that provide stable base’ is more influential to the achievement of ’enhance’ than ’support manipulation’.
Like the other categories, the present two categories did not show any significant changes from one month to another, nor was there any
significant change during the transition from one group to the other. The period of 9 to 10 months has the greatest frequency of ’support manipulation’. This is probably because at this stage the infants began
to learn to walk with their mothers’ support. However, a look at the individual profiles (figure 3.18) shows that subject 8 had the greatest frequency of support and hence the group score was affected by this exceptionally high individual score.
The four-groups data reveal that the frequency of ’provide stable base’ changes from one group to another, while that of ’support
manipualtion’ remains relatively constant. Two-way anova showed a
highly significant category effect (F(1,15) = 317.80; p<0.0001), thereby indicating the extreme predominance of ’provide stable base’ over ’support manipulation*. Furthermore, the analysis showed a high interaction between
age and categories (F(3,15) = 13.01; p$0.0005). As we can see from figure 3.19, as age progresses, the discrepancy between ’provide stable base’ and ’support manipulation’ becomes greater. This is due to the increments in *provide stable base’ which were not complemented by
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Figure 3.17 Monthly distribution of ’provide stable base’ and ’support manipulation' for the 19 mothers
A V E R A G E F R E Q U E N C Y