Caregiver Autonomy Support and Conversation Context Predict Children’s Memory Performance

• In Event: Learning Through Parent-Child Conversations in Diverse Contexts

Abstract

Caregivers vary their use of autonomy support during dyadic conversations about the past, with supportive caregivers allowing their child to lead the conversation. In accordance with self-determination theory, autonomy support should improve children’s recall by making them more engaged and confident in their recollection. However, findings are mixed, perhaps due to a limited focus on conversations about fun, shared experiences, which limit a caregiver’s ability to encourage child autonomy and expertise. As children become more independent and linguistically sophisticated during the preschool years, deviations may emerge in the use and utility of autonomy support during caregiver-child conversations about unshared experiences (i.e., events experienced only by the child). The present study examined how caregiver autonomy support, conversation context, and child age interact to predict preschooler’s disclosure of accurate information when discussing an unshared event with their caregiver and a neutral, unfamiliar experimenter.

Caregiver-child dyads (N = 111) discussed a staged lab activity completed by the child (Mage = 53.47 months) without their caregiver present. Prior to data collection, dyads were randomly assigned to a Fact or Fun context condition. Dyads in the Fact condition were told the activity focused on a transgression and caregivers were instructed to gather factual information during the interview. In contrast, dyads in the Fun condition were told the activity focused on a game and caregivers were instructed to have fun during the interview. Children also discussed the event with an unfamiliar experimenter. Caregivers’ autonomy support during the interview was calculated on a three-point scale (1 = controlling, 3 = autonomy supportive), along with the total number of correct details said by the child during the caregiver and experimenter interviews, respectively.

We hypothesized that caregivers in the Fact condition, and those with younger children, would be less autonomy supportive during the interview (H1), that caregiver autonomy support and being in the Fact condition would predict children’s correct details during the caregiver interview (H2) and experimenter interview (H3), and that these effects would be less pronounced in older children (H4).

As hypothesized, caregivers in the Fact condition (M = 2.20) were less autonomy-supportive than caregivers in the Fun condition (M = 2.31), p = .013. However, child age was not related to caregiver autonomy support. Unexpectedly, children in the Fun condition only provided fewer correct details during the caregiver-child interview if their caregiver was more autonomy supportive, b = -.41, p = .003 (Figure 1). Children in both conditions provided fewer correct details during the experimenter-child interview if their caregiver was more autonomy supportive, p = .003 (Figure 2). Finally, while older children provided more correct details during both interviews, ps < .01, age did not interact with autonomy support or condition.

These results demonstrate that the link between autonomy support and preschooler’s concurrent and independent disclosure of memory information varies by conversation context. This work contributes to our broader understanding of caregiver-child conversations and children’s mnemonic performance and may help caregivers and practitioners facilitate children’s disclosure of vital information about events experienced without the caregiver present.

Authors

• Emily Slonecker, Cabrini University
  Presenting Author

• J. Zoe Klemfuss, University of California - Irvine