Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and interpret caregiver-infant interaction in a Borneo community through an observational study of 23 Melanau children aged 15 months in Miri, Sarawak, East Malaysia. This thesis is particularly relevant to the question of universality in the patterns and processes of early caregiver-child interaction. Theories of mother-infant interaction constructed in North America and Western Europe tend to assume that a single universal pattern of optimal caregiver-child interaction exists for all children across different cultural contexts. Studies conducted in diverse contexts, on the other hand, have revealed that many of the patterns in early parent-child interaction that characterize a responsive caregiver in America and Western Europe art not replicated in other cultures.

This thesis seeks ta examine how culture (in terms of cultural scripts, expectations and priorities for childrearing and development) shapes the patterns of infant care and mother-infant interaction in the Melanau context. The thesis research is guided by three research questions: (i) What types of behaviors do Melanau caregivers and 15 months-old infants engage in when they interact with one another? (ii) What proportion of caregiver response to infant cues are speech, compared to caretaking and other forms of nonverbal interaction? and (iii) What are the contents of caregiver speech to 15 months-old infant?

Two forms of home visits were conducted in the study: (i) spot observations, conducted biweekly on 39 infants aged 3 to 21 months, documented the social-ecological environment and types of activities infants and caregivers were typically engaged in; and (ii) two-hour narrative observations of caregiver-child interactions at 15 months which contained audiotaped verbal exchanges between caregivers and infants and field notes on their activities and nonverbal behaviors. To gain insight into the meanings of their behaviors with their infants, mothers were interviewed several times during the study.

The results revealed that (i) Melanau caregivers displayed more looking at and physical proximity and less holding, caretaking, feeding and object-mediated interaction to fifteen-month-olds; (ii) infants were more involved in object interaction than gross motor movement, eating, crying, looking at, sitting on and gesturing to caregivers; (iii) infants' vocalization, look at, approach and touch elicited look from caregivers while infant cry elicited talk from mothers, aunts and grandparents and holding from fathers; and (iv) speech from Melanau caregivers to fifteen-month-olds contained a higher rate of positive command and prohibition and minimal amount of praise.

Melanau childrearing strategies are driven by a pediatric model, which focuses on infant health, safety and discipline. Caregivers keep a watchful eye on infants' explorations. Caregivers respond to infants' interest in their surroundings, curiosity and visual and verbal interactions with positive commands and prohibition. Besides infant health and safety, caregiver attention is focussed on two developmental goals: (i) bringing up children who will show respect and obedience and fit in the hierarchical position in the society; and (ii) raising children who will perform well in school and grow up into productive members of the working world.