Poster #27 - The socialization of children’s knowledge through mothers’ and fathers’ questions

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Parent-child conversations provide an important context for children’s knowledge development (e.g. Callanan et al., 2012; Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2003. A key socializing feature of these conversations are the questions that parents ask their children (Yu, Bonawitz, & Shafto, 2017). Previous literature has identified several question types evident in parent-child interactions defined by the knowledge status of the questioner (i.e. parent) and the respondent (i.e. child) (Athanasiadou, 1991; Yu et al., 2017). However, most research on parent-child conversations focuses only on mothers (Rowe et al., 2004; Smetana, 2015). Examining mothers and fathers is important because mothers and fathers may play different roles within their child’s development. Mothers are typically seen as sensitive caregivers and fathers as challenging authority figures, and these differences are evident in their child-directed speech (Chanu & Marcos, 1994; Rowe et al., 2004). Synthesizing these two lines of research, the current study directly compared types of questions asked by mothers and fathers in parent-child conversations. Based on the above research, we hypothesized that fathers would ask more questions granting power to the questioner, while mothers would ask more questions granting power to the child.

We report preliminary results from our first round of data collection, consisting of 17 parent-child conversations (12 mothers, 5 fathers; M child age= 12.3 years). Conversations were generated in response to hypothetical vignettes and prompts across knowledge contexts (e.g. physical, moral, spiritual). Within these conversations, parents asked 948 questions. We were able to group 812 of these questions into one of four categories: Child-centered questions that prioritize the child’s knowledge, (209 questions), Leading/Pedagogical questions that prioritize the parent’s knowledge (232 questions), and Rhetorical questions that equally prioritize both the parent’s and child’s knowledge (209 questions; Yu, et al., 2017). A final set of questions were not related to knowledge but instead to the pragmatics of the conversation (161 questions, called Pragmatic).

A chi-square test of independence on the proportion of questions asked revealed a significant relationship between parent gender and question type Χ2 (3, N = 812) = 30.17 p < .001. Mothers used more Child-centered questions than fathers (29.8% vs. 17.4%) and fathers used more Leading/Pedagogical questions than mothers, (39.6% vs. 23.3%). Mothers and fathers used Rhetorical and Pragmatic questions at similar rates.

These findings suggest that mothers and fathers rely on different types of questions in conversations with their children. Mothers tend to use more questions that emphasize the knowledge of the child, thereby encouraging the child’s own ideas and perhaps contributing to children’s development of “voice” (cf. Fivush et al., 2014). Fathers tend to use more questions that emphasize their own knowledge level, thereby challenging the child to rise to a different and perhaps more advanced way of thinking (cf. Blatt & Kohlberg, 1975). What do these differences implicitly convey to children about the status of knowledge and its gendered distribution? These findings provide a platform for discussing such issues and warrant further investigation into the unique and overlapping ways that mothers’ and fathers’ questions socialize children’s development of knowledge.

Authors

• Katrina Drury, Middlebury College
  Presenting Author

• Lily Massaro, Middlebury College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Audrey Williams, Middlebury College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Allison DiBianca Fasoli, middlebury college
  Non-Presenting Author