Maternal Behavior Differences Across the United States and Turkey

Autonomy granting instead of controlling a child’s behavior is an essential feature of parenting already at a young age in order to foster intrinsic motivation and to reduce child anxiety (Grolnick et al., 2002, Moeller et al., 2017). Autonomy granting refers to the degree to which parents encourage the child’s independent choice and problem solving (Deci et al., 2000). The emphasis of autonomy granting may vary across contexts and cultures. We compare Turkish and US mothers’ autonomy granting to their toddlers during two tasks that differed in the level of structure required. US mothers representing the family model of independence may grant autonomy highly in unstructured compared to structured tasks whereas Turkish mothers representing the family model of psychological interdependence may show a similar medium level of autnomy granting in both contexts. A total of 110 mother-toddler dyads (64 Turkish; 46 US) were observed in a structured (solving a puzzle) and an unstructured task (coloring paper). The coding system was derived from Erikson, Sroufe, and Egeland (1985). Two Turkish and two US coders provided reliable codes after training. Preliminary results showed that the hypotheses were partly confirmed: US mothers granted their children significantly more autonomy than the Turkish mothers in the unstructured task (coloring) but no cultural difference occurred for the structured task (puzzle). Mothers in both cultural groups were consistent in their autonomy support across both tasks. These findings are discussed in a developmental cultural framework.