Parenting and Child Development

Professor Hoi Shan Cheung

In this class activity, students learn to build a prototypical profile of a sensitive mother (one who is highly responsive to the child’s needs) using the “Q-sort” method, where they sort 90 items that describe the behaviours of parents when they interact with their children. Items are taken from the Maternal Behaviour Q-set, where each item is sorted based on how frequently it would occur for a parent who is prototypically sensitive. At the end, the class would have collectively developed a local criterion for parental sensitivity, and this set of scores are compared against the North American criterion. In the process of sorting the items, the students have ample opportunities to discuss the cultural underpinnings of each parental behaviour, and examine cultural similarities and differences. The items describing the behavior of parents are here.