Poster #53 - Conversational Balance in Mother-Child Discussions about Sibling Conflicts: The Roles of Culture and Maternal Education

• In Event: Poster Session 08

Abstract

Parent-child conversations about difficult situations such as sibling conflict may serve as windows into beliefs concerning the relative roles of children and adults in decision-making and standard-setting. Yet, little is known about culture-based variation in the balance between parent and child voices during these conversations. Previous research suggests there may be distinct patterns of parent-child conversational balance across African American (AA), European American (EA), and Mexican American (MA) families. For example, research demonstrates that AA mothers try to elicit information from their children during conversations (Cristafaro & Tamis-LeMonda, 2011), whereas EA children tend to mirror the elaboration patterns of their parents (Reese et al., 1993). Additionally, research indicates that MA mothers tend to prompt only minimal child contributions to their conversations (Melzi & Caspe, 2005). Further, it appears that MA mothers speak less when they speak Spanish as compared to when they speak English (Shanks, 2019). Still, some evidence suggests that these patterns may be explained by differences in maternal education (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2012).

Thus, the present study explores the roles of culture and maternal education in the conversational length and balance of mother-child discussions about sibling conflicts.

The sample included 70 AA, 82 EA, and 86 MA mother-child dyads who participated in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project fifth-grade follow-up home visit and who elected to discuss children’s conflicts with their siblings during a conflict-resolution task. For some analyses, MA dyads were further subdivided by language preference (43 Spanish-speaking, MS; 43 English Speaking, ME). Variables of interest included the number of turns dedicated to discussing sibling conflict and the number of words per turn of both mothers and children during the discussion of sibling conflict.

Mothers’ and children’s words per turn were positively associated among AA dyads (r = .61, p < .001), not associated among EA dyads (r = -.03, p > .05), and negatively associated among MA dyads (r = -.23, p <.05). Tables 1 and 2 depict group differences across normally and non-normally distributed variables. Kruskal Wallis tests revealed EA, AA, and ME mothers reported more years of education than MS dyads. Additionally, EA and ME groups took more turns when discussing sibling conflict than MS dyads. However, these post-hoc comparisons disappeared after controlling for maternal education. Finally, ANOVA tests revealed no group differences in mothers’ words per turn but did uncover differences in children’s words per turn such that AA children uttered a higher number of words than MS children. These effects held when controlling for maternal education. Taken together, the present findings suggest there may distinct conversational patterns within cultures. Yet, maternal education continues to be an important explanatory factor for differences seen across cultures in mother-child discourse. The discussion will focus on the implications of culture and maternal education as critical influences on the balance of children’s and adults’ voices in family communication.

Authors

• Joy Roos, University of Missouri - Columbia
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer Bohanek, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Jean M Ispa, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Sahitya Maiya, University of New Hampshire