MATERNAL SENSITIVITY AND PERFORMANCE AND VERBAL INTELLIGENCE IN LATE CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE

Abstract

SummaryThe aim of this study was to investigate the association between maternal sensitivity and offspring intelligence in late childhood and adolescence. Secondary data (N=117) from the Block and Block (2006a, b) 30-year longitudinal study of Californian children, which began in the late 1960s, was used to test the hypothesis that maternal sensitivity in childhood would be predictive of late childhood and adolescent intelligence. Correlational analyses revealed that maternal sensitivity, as judged by raters viewing mother’s interactions with their children in a set of four joint structured cognitive tasks when the child was 5 years of age, was associated with verbal and performance IQ test scores when the children were ages 11 and 18. Using hierarchical regression to control for child sex, socioeconomic status, child temperament, child baseline IQ (as measured at age 4), mother’s level of education and mother’s emotional nurturance, it was found that the maternal sensitivity and child and adolescent IQ association held for verbal, but not performance IQ. Furthermore, a pattern emerged in which the association between maternal sensitivity and verbal IQ was stronger for adolescents with a lower baseline IQ. The results suggest that maternal sensitivity is associated with offspring verbal intelligence and that this association holds when numerous variables are accounted for. Additionally, this association may be stronger for children with lower IQs.