How Chinese mothers and grandmothers read books with toddlers and its relations with toddlers’ language

• In Event: How grandparents in China, Chile and the United States influence children’s development

Abstract

In China, grandmothers have long been engaged in caretaking of grandchildren together with their adult children (Ng & Wang, 2019). Yet, the intergenerational difference regarding child-rearing philosophies and practices has widened (Goh & Kuczyński, 2010). This study examined Chinese mothers’ and grandmothers’ book-sharing styles, goals and their relations to toddlers’ language. We examined four research questions: 1) What styles do mothers and grandmothers adopt? 2) Are there differences in styles between mothers and grandmothers? 3) Are these styles related to their book-sharing goals? 4) Are these styles related to amount and type of children’s language?

Participants were 65 mothers and 59 grandmothers of toddlers (47% girls; Mage=23.09 months, SD=3.62) who were videotaped during a book-sharing activity and interviewed regarding their goals for such activities. Video transcripts were coded using an adaptation of Melzi et al.’s (2011) coding scheme. Coding categories included narrative requests (questions), provisions (statements), conversational (e.g., confirming) and narrative related (e.g., general knowledge). Amount (i.e., total child utterances) and type of child language were coded as elicited-provision (i.e., responses prompted by the mother’s requests), unelicited-provision (i.e., spontaneous comments not prompted by the mother’s requests), conversational, requests, and related. To control for length of conversation, we used mean proportions for the score in each category. Interview transcripts were coded following Nowak and Ewans (2013), using five goals: (1) learn words, (2) teach the child to read, (3) get familiar with books, (4) enjoyment/bonding, and (5) soothe the child.

To identify book-sharing styles, we used hierarchical Ward’s linkage and k-means methods for cluster analysis. Separate analyses were run for mothers’ and grandmothers’ scores because of the nested structure of the data. The optimal solution was two clusters. One style, called follower, focused on maintaining the flow of the conversation (mothers/grandmothers: 47%/51% of utterances). The second style, called storyteller-follower, focused on providing information (mothers/grandmothers: 35%/41% of utterances) and maintaining the flow of the conversation (mothers/grandmothers: 30%/33% of utterances). Table 1 shows differences in mother and grandmother talk categories between book-sharing styles. At the sample level, mothers were more likely to adopt a follower style compared to grandmothers (z=1.77, p<.05). At the family level, there was no significant difference with regard to the book-sharing style that mother and grandmother adopted (χ2=0.326, p=.568). Mothers and grandmothers embraced similar book-sharing goals, with one exception: Mothers embraced the goal “get familiar with books” more often than grandmothers (χ2=7.198, p=.007). Mothers who adopted a follower style were more likely to embrace the goal “get familiar with books” whereas grandmothers who adopted a follower style more likely embraced the goal “teach the child” (Table 2). Significant associations between book-sharing style and amount and type of child language were only found for mother-child but not grandmother-child book-sharing. Children of mothers adopting a follower style produced more spontaneous comments (Beta=.254, p=.040), fewer narrative-related comments (Beta=-.245, p=.049), and fewer requests (Beta=-.225, p=.074). Findings highlight similarities and differences regarding how mothers and grandmothers organize book-sharing activities and how book-sharing styles shape children’s participation in such interactions.

Authors

• Antje von Suchodoletz, New York University Abu Dhabi
  Presenting Author

• Diana Leyva, University of Pittsburgh

• Lixin Ren, East China Normal University

• Yeqing Li, East China Normal University

• Zhen Zhang, East China Normal University

• Duo Yu, Qingdao Jinshengyuexin Psychological Counseling Services Co. Ltd.

• Florrie Fei-Yin Ng, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)