Early face-to-face interactions of British and American working- and middle-class mother-infant dyads.

Face-to-face interactions were compared for mother-infant dyads from working- and middle-class groups living in the United States and England. The dyads engaged in equivalent amounts of proximal interaction but varying amounts of distal interaction. Distal interaction behaviors occurred less frequently in working-class dyads. While there were no differences between the British and American dyads on total time spent in distal interaction, the British dyads engaged in more toy-related games and American dyads exhibited more socially oriented interactions and games. The findings highlight the importance of cultural context in investigating early interactions.