Poster #76 - Gender Socialization through Language: Differences in Parental Mental State Talk Towards Daughters and Sons

• In Event: Poster Session 08

Abstract

Background: Research has shown that parental language is a crucial medium for gender socialization (LaBounty et al., 2008; Tenenbaum, 2009). This includes parental mental state talk, which are parents’ references to mental states when conversing with their children (Taumoepeau & Ruffman, 2008). As parental mental state talk is closely related to children’s social understanding (Tompkins et al., 2018), it is important to understand how it may vary across child gender. Quantitative differences in parents’ use of terms from the three mental state categories (cognition, desire, emotion; Table 1) may inadvertently reinforce gender stereotypes given their associations with gendered attributes. Specifically, cognition and desire terms (e.g., think, want) emphasize masculine attributes such as assertiveness (Crowley et al., 2001; Feingold, 1994) while emotion terms (e.g., feel) are associated with feminine-affiliative qualities (Leaper & Friedman, 2007). While studies have established that parents of girls use more emotion terms with their child than parents of boys (e.g., Aznar & Tenenbaum, 2014), it remains unclear whether differences in parents’ use of cognition and desire terms exist. Additionally, no studies have explored differences in parental mental state talk referent in relation to child gender. Mental state referents may play a role in gender socialization as parents’ use of third-person referents scaffold children’s understanding of others’ mental states (Taumoepeau & Ruffman, 2008). Since females are stereotypically expected to display greater interpersonal sensitivity (Fischer, 1993), it is possible that parents of girls may use more third-person mental state referents to encourage attentiveness towards others’ internal states.

Objectives: This study will examine the effect of child gender on variations in parental mental state talk, in terms of the frequency of mental state talk by category and mental state referent. As gender socialization is an integral process during middle childhood, findings intend to highlight the potential implications of parental language on children’s gender understanding during this developmental period.

Preregistered Hypotheses: It is hypothesized that parents will use more cognition and desire terms with boys than girls, but more emotion terms with girls than boys. Furthermore, we expect that parents will use more third-person mental state referents with girls than boys.

Participants and Methods: 97 parent-child dyads (49 girls; Mchild age = 8.9 years) from Singapore participated in a picture-book reading task, where parents discussed a picture-book about two scientists with their children (Figure 1). All utterances were transcribed according to the Codes for the Human Analysis of Transcripts guidelines (MacWhinney, 2000). Subsequently, two coders will: (1) identify mental state terms in the transcripts, (2) classify each term into the mental state categories and (3) code for each mental state term referent. At each stage, interrater reliability will be calculated.

Preregistered Analyses: A 2 (child gender: boy, girl) by 3 (mental state category: cognition, desire, emotion) mixed ANOVA will be performed to examine whether the quantity of parental mental state talk differs by gender and category. A 2 (child gender: boy, girl) by 2 (referent: child, others) mixed ANOVA will be performed to examine whether mental state referent differs by gender.

Authors

• Sharon Shu Hui Ting, Nanyang Technological University
  Presenting Author

• Mioko Sudo, Nanyang Technological University

• Siqi Zhao, New York University

• Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University