Since Mary Ainsworth's formulation of the Sensitivity-Insensitivity to Infant Signals and Communications observational scale, new instruments have been developed to observe parental sensitivity. In this paper, we provide an overview of eight commonly used observational instruments to measure parental sensitivity. Their similarities and differences in comparison to the original Ainsworth sensitivity construct and its applications will be discussed. Consistent with the search criteria, each of the instruments clearly includes the key elements of Ainsworth's definition of sensitivity. Notable deviations from the original scale are the use of composite scales rather than a single global scale and the related inclusion of new elements, and specifically the inclusion of positive affect as an indicator of sensitivity. Further, most of the instruments have a wider scope than Ainsworth's sensitivity scale in terms of target age groups and the assessment of sensitivity in fathers. We discuss the interpretation of the sensitivity construct depending on variations in how the construct is defined in different observational instruments, and advances in the application of the construct.

When bilingual children enter formal reading education, host language proficiency becomes increasingly important. This study investigated the relation between socioeconomic status (SES), maternal language use, reading input, and vocabulary in a sample of 111 six-year-old children of first- and second-generation Turkish immigrant parents in the Netherlands. Mothers reported on their language use with the child, frequency of reading by both parents, and availability of children's books in the ethnic and the host language. Children's Dutch and Turkish vocabulary were tested during a home visit. SES was related to maternal language use and to host language reading input. Reading input mediated the relation between SES and host language vocabulary and between maternal language use and host language vocabulary, whereas only maternal language use was related to ethnic language vocabulary. During transition to formal reading education, one should be aware that children from low-SES families receive less host language reading input.

In this article, we test the hypothesis that beliefs about the ideal mother are convergent across cultures and that these beliefs overlap considerably with attachment theory's notion of the sensitive mother. In a sample including 26 cultural groups from 15 countries around the globe, 751 mothers sorted the Maternal Behavior Q-Set to reflect their ideas about the ideal mother. The results show strong convergence between maternal beliefs about the ideal mother and attachment theory's description of the sensitive mother across groups. Cultural group membership significantly predicted variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores, but this effect was substantially accounted for by group variations in socio-demographic factors. Mothers living in rural versus urban areas, with a low family income, and with more children, were less likely to describe the ideal mother as highly sensitive. Cultural group membership did remain a significant predictor of variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores above and beyond socio-demographic predictors. The findings are discussed in terms of the universal and culture-specific aspects of the sensitivity construct.

According to the family stress model (Conger & Donnellan, 2007), low socioeconomic status (SES) predicts less-than-optimal parenting through family stress. Minority families generally come from lower SES backgrounds than majority families, and may experience additional stressors associated with their minority status, such as acculturation stress. The primary goal of this study was to test a minority family stress model with a general family stress pathway, as well as a pathway specific to ethnic minority families. The sample consisted of 107 Turkish-Dutch mothers and their 5- to 6-year-old children, and positive parenting was observed during a 7-min problem-solving task. In addition, mothers reported their daily hassles, psychological distress, and acculturation stress. The relation between SES and positive parenting was partially mediated by both general maternal psychological stress and maternal acculturation stress. Our study contributes to the argument that stressors specific to minority status should be considered in addition to more general demographic and family stressors in understanding parenting behavior in ethnic minority families.

The linguistic interdependence hypothesis states that the development of skills in a second language (L2) partly depends on the skill level in the first language (L1). It has been suggested that the theory lacked attention for differential interdependence. In this study we test what we call the hypothesis of context‐dependent linguistic interdependence. In order to do so, we examined child language use and socioeconomic status as two moderators in the relation between L1 vocabulary and L2 vocabulary growth in a sample of 104 5‐ and 6‐year‐old bilingual children with a Turkish background in the Netherlands. Relative child language use moderated the relation between L1 vocabulary and L2 vocabulary growth. Positive transfer was only present for children who used L1 more than L2. Socioeconomic status (SES) predicted growth in Dutch vocabulary but was not a moderator of linguistic interdependence, indicating that linguistic interdependence effects are similar across SES groups. The findings suggest the linguistic interdependence hypothesis is context‐dependent and only valid under circumstances of more L1 use.