This study investigates conditional contributions of three domains of maternal activity, including interpersonal affective communication, stimulation of infant attention, and control over object centered exchanges, to infant language, play, and representational competence at 13 months. Several major data sets have been collected on maternal style, on infant competences, and on the interrelations of maternal style to infant competences. Each of these data sets is highly complex. Each of several infant language and play constructs was assessed in several ways (e.g., concrete versus symbolic play, expression versus comprehension in language), and the degree of independence/interrelatedness among these measures is to be determined in conjunction with an evaluation of the independence/interrelatedness of these measures with maternal activity.
