Mother-Child Interaction and Socio-Economic Status in Nigerians

Research documents relationships between socio-economic status and child outcomes. It indicates linguistic and academic disadvantages for children from lower socio-economic (LS) backgrounds when compared with MS middle class children. Child performance appears to be modified by mother’s education and environmental factors. This article examines social class differences in the interaction of LS and MS mother-child dyads and their linguistic performances. Its purpose is to determine whether class differences are evident in language used by Nigerians. Participants were thirty-six Nigerian mother-child pairs, matched for age and sex of child and language spoken at home. There were 10 girls and 8 boys. There mean age was 43 months. Each dyad’s interaction over a standard set of toys was video recorded. Data analysis was qualitative and non-parametric. The results adduced a significantly higher MLU from MS than LS children. MS mothers’ afforded their children more autonomy than did LS mothers’. MS mothers used interrogatives to encourage elaborated responses from children. Modeling was employed as a teaching strategy by MS mothers. LS mothers limited themselves to labeling objects. Interrogatives were utilized rhetorically. Children’s responses were reinforced significantly less by LS than MS mothers. These results are limited by sample size. Significant however, are differences described in the interaction patterns of Nigerian MS and LS mothers.’ Discussed were the effects of illiteracy in mothers on children. It was suggested that this may be bridged by pre-kindergarten education for LS children. Further research is indicated on academic achievement in Nigerian children from MS and LS backgrounds. __________________________________________________________________________________________