Poster #111 - Decontextualized Language in American and Chinese Caregiver-Child Interactions

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Language, Communication

Integrative Statement

Decontextualized language (DL) refers to talk removed from the here and now, including recounting past events, envisioning future events, providing explanations, and pretense (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001; Snow, 1983). Caregivers’ use of DL with toddlers and preschoolers is positively associated with children’s later language development in American families (Demir et al., 2005; Rowe, 2012). These conversations also play an important role in early socialization (Heath, 1982). The limited work comparing caregiver-child DL across cultures focuses on narratives about past events. Miller and colleagues (1997), for example, found that Taiwanese parents used narratives to convey moral and social norms to children, whereas European American parents told personal stories to provide entertainment and affirmation. However, little is known about cross-cultural similarities and differences in other types of DL, such as talk about future events.
The current study compares American and Chinese caregivers’ and children’s use of DL and examines whether caregiver-child DL differs across cultures, and if so, how. Participants were 36 American families from the Northeast US and 40 Chinese families in North China. All caregivers had four-year-old children, were primarily middle-class, and were their children’s primary caregivers. Parent-child dyads were asked to have a snack together as they normally would. The eight-minute snack time interactions were recorded, transcribed, and coded for DL by trained research assistants.
Parents’ and children’s use of DL varied within each culture (see Table 1 for descriptive statistics). The findings also indicated cross-cultural similarities and differences in DL. Chinese dyads’ total talk comprised a larger proportion of DL than their American counterparts, p < .01. Although the proportion of certain types of DL (e.g., past narratives and explanations) did not differ cross-culturally, ps > .05, there were clear cross-cultural differences in future talk. Specifically, a larger proportion of Chinese caregivers’ and children’s DL was about future events compared to that of their American counterparts, ps < .01. Further coding of future talk indicated that Chinese and American caregivers tend to use future talk for different functions. While American caregivers predominantly elaborated on future events (“What shall we do when we go to the park this afternoon?”), a Fisher’s exact test showed that Chinese caregivers were more likely to use future talk to prepare children for upcoming social interactions and events to ensure children behave in a socially desirable manner (e.g. “Would you thank grandma for giving you that present when you see her tomorrow?), p < .05. Similarly, Chinese children were more likely to respond to caregivers’ preparatory future talk than their American peers, p < .05.
This study systematically examines the cross-cultural similarities and differences in American and Chinese caregivers’ and children’s use of DL. Although there are many similarities in the nature of decontextualized talk across cultures, an important difference found in our data is that American and Chinese families differed in the amount of future talk as well as the functions their future talk serves. We argue that the divergent styles of future narratives reflect unique socialization goals in each culture.

Authors

• Ran Wei, Harvard University
  Presenting Author

• Kathryn Leech, Harvard University Graduate School of Education
  Non-Presenting Author

• Meredith Rowe, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author