Development and prediction of children's sociability from 1 to 2½ years

Interactions of 60 children with their mothers and female strangers were observed in natural and semistructured situations at 12, 18, 24, and 30 mo. Their behavior was analyzed to reveal a "sociability" cluster of smiling, vocalizing, and playing. When mother and stranger behaved similarly, children's sociability to both adults was similar in components, stability, development, and relation to independently assessed aspects of the social environment, with the following exceptions: Sociability to mother was not consistently related to physical contact with her, whereas sociability and physical contact with the stranger were consistently correlated. Sociability to mother developed earlier than sociability to stranger. Sociability to the mother was more related to maternal behavior than was sociability to the stranger, whereas sociability to the stranger was more related to nonparental care. Sociability to both mother and stranger was related to the child's cognitive abilities but not to contact with objects or to the mother's intelligence or socioeconomic status. (49 ref)