Poster #60 - Conveying Information Indirectly: Exploring Additional Ways Parents can Discuss Mental States

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

Research has shown that parents’ discussion of mental states with their children is positively associated with many socio-cognitive skills (Taumoepeau & Ruffman; Devine & Hughes, 2018). However, this research has focused almost exclusively on the use of direct labels for mental states – word like think, happy, and want.
Recent work examining parents’ conversations with their 2.5-year-olds (Sullivan, Nguyentran, & Scott, 2021) found that parents also use a variety of indirect methods to convey mental-state information. These included words that strongly implied mental states without directly labeling them (yucky), words that described actions driven by mental states (crying), and reported speech. Use of indirect mental-state talk varied with socioeconomic status (SES): higher educated parents used a higher proportion of direct mental-state labels, whereas parents with lower levels of education used a higher proportion of indirect mental-state talk.
The present study sought to answer two questions raised by these findings. First, does the use of indirect talk vary with children’s age? Parents might use more indirect mental-state talk when children are younger because they think this talk is easier for children to understand. If so, parents may shift to using a higher proportion of direct labels for mental states as children get older and more linguistically competent. Second, we examined whether the relationship between SES and indirect mental-state held at later ages, and whether it was specific to parental education, which has frequently been linked to differences in child-directed speech, or whether it also emerged for other facets of SES such as household income.
To address these questions, this study tested a socioeconomically diverse sample of 82 parent-child dyads (child age: 3.6-5.5 years; M = 4.6 years). Parents provided information on household education and income. To assess parent talk, parent-child dyads viewed a wordless picture-book that contained images intended to evoke discussion of mental states (Taumoepeau & Ruffman, 2006). Parents were instructed to talk about the pictures like they normally would at home. Interactions were transcribed and coded for parent mental-state language. Each utterance was first coded for direct labels of mental states (cognition, emotion, and desire terms). A second coding pass then captured additional indirect methods of conveying mental states: words that implied a mental state, actions driven by mental states, and reported speech. Analyses controlled for the total amount of parent utterances during the interaction.
Preliminary analyses indicated the amount of indirect mental-state talk parents produced was not correlated with their child’s age, p = .76, and was comparable to prior work with younger children. Consistent with prior findings, the proportion of direct vs indirect mental-state talk varied with parental education, 2(1) = 7.09, p = .008; parents with lower levels of education produced a higher proportion of indirect mental-state talk. This relationship did not hold for household income, p = .71.
These findings suggest that parents produce indirect mental-state talk with children of a variety of ages, and that parents with lower levels of education, but not those with lower income, are more likely to convey mental-state information indirectly.

Authors

• James Z Sullivan, University of California - Merced
  Presenting Author

• Maritza Miramontes, University of California - Davis

• Rose M Scott, University of California - Merced