| Abstract
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This dissertation consisted of three studies investigating the nature of maternal mediation of writing among kindergarten and first grade children and their mothers across the two prominent Chinese societies of Hong Kong and Beijing and further examined the associations of maternal mediation of writing with cognitive /metalinguistic abilities and literacy skills in Chinese cross-culturally. In Study 1, two scales of literate mediation and print mediation based on mother-child writing interactions were created and refined. These scales, developed following work on Hebrew by Aram and Levin (2001; 2004), were modified and tested among 67 Hong Kong mother-child dyads from three grade levels—second year kindergarten, third year kindergarten, and first grade. The results showed that mothers’ use of lower-level memorization strategies tended to be negatively associated with their children’s reading skills, whereas mothers’ higher level analytic scaffolding strategies were positively correlated with reading skills, even with age, grade level, nonverbal reasoning, and maternal education statistically controlled. In Study 2, I further refined these scales and created an additional measure of commentary mediation, reflecting, in part, socio-emotional-regulation aspects of the writing interaction process. Across both Hong Kong and Beijing, these three measures of literate mediation, print mediation, and commentary mediation, were examined in relation to cognitive/metalinguistic awareness skills and Chinese reading and writing skills in three groups of children and their mothers. These groups included 63 Hong Kong third year kindergartners, 43 Beijing third year kindergartners, and 49 Beijing first graders. Results of Study 2 showed that mothers of kindergarten children tended to use lower level mediation strategies, such as stroke and component segmentation, and allowed less autonomy during the joint writing process. In contrast, mothers of first graders tended to use higher level mediation strategies, such as character level mediation, and allowed more autonomy, during this process. Results of the commentary mediation analyses demonstrated that Hong Kong mothers offered more negative than positive responses compared to Beijing mothers, particularly for kindergartners. In addition, the literate mediation and print mediation scale scores were significantly correlated with Chinese reading and writing in both Hong Kong and Beijing K3 children, but not in Beijing first graders. Scores on the literate mediation scale explained 11% to 25% unique variance in literacy skills in Beijing K3 children and reading skills in Hong Kong K3 children, even with maternal education, nonverbal reasoning, visual skills and metalinguistic awareness statistically controlled. In Hong Kong K3 children, children’s orthographic awareness partially mediated the relation between literate mediation and Chinese word reading. Of all commentary mediation measures included, only the process mediation measure, focused on specific comments toward children’s effort or strategies, was found to be uniquely associated with Chinese word reading and writing in Hong Kong K3 children and significantly related to Chinese word reading in Beijing K3 children with children’s age, nonverbal reasoning and maternal education statistically controlled. Study 3 extended and tested the maternal mediation measure to Pinyin writing in Beijing K3 children. Maternal Pinyin mediation was uniquely associated with Chinese word reading even apart from children’s general cognitive skills, maternal education, and phonological awareness. The present research was among the first attempts to analyze the nature of maternal mediation of writing in Chinese and its association with literacy skills. The findings highlight the importance of maternal mediation of writing in preschool children’s independent literacy development in Chinese across Hong Kong and Beijing.
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