Poster #99 - Questions of Turkish Mothers and Preschoolers from Middle-class and Low-income Backgrounds during Storybook Reading

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Research with children growing up in Western cultures shows that children use questions as a tool for acquiring information from more knowledgeable others such as parents and teachers (Callanan & Oakes, 1993; Chouinard, 2007; Tizard & Hughes, 1984). There are also few studies pointing out variations in children’s question-asking behavior across different socioeconomic contexts (e.g. Tizard & Hughes, 1984; Kurkul & Corriveau, 2017). These studies indicate that children growing up in middle-class families are more likely to ask information-seeking questions than children growing up in low-income families. These differences are often attributed to differences in mother’s conversational style and question-asking behavior with the observation that in their daily conversations mothers in middle-class families ask more questions than mothers in low-income families who instead use more prohibitions and discouraging words (Hart & Risley, 1992). There is also evidence showing that children who ask more questions have mothers who ask more questions as well (Tizard & Hughes, 1984). However, the research in this area is limited and there are no studies that explore the relationship between mothers’ question-asking behavior and children’s questions in different sociocultural contexts.
The current study focuses on this issue by examining the frequency and types of questions asked by Turkish mothers and preschoolers from middle-class and low-income backgrounds during a semi-structured storybook reading activity at home. Based on findings from previous research, we expected that mothers and children from middle-class backgrounds would ask more information-seeking questions, and there would be a positive association between the frequency of questions asked by mothers and children. A total of 71 mother-child dyads (36 middle-class; 22 3-year-olds, 25 4-year-olds, and 24 5-year-olds) participated in the study. Wacky Wednesday, a wordless picture book depicting extraordinary events such as a shoe on the ceiling of the boy’s bedroom, a tree in the toilet, and a mouse chasing a cat was used for the book reading activity. This book provided mothers and children from middle-class and low-income backgrounds with equally surprising and question-provoking situations.
The findings showed that both mothers and children asked more fact-seeking questions than explanation-seeking questions during storybook reading, F (1,63) = 67.13, p < .001 for mothers and F (2,126) = 31.264, p < .001 for children. Contrary to our expectations, there was no difference in the frequency and the types of mothers’ and children’s questions across age and SES groups. However, there was a strong positive association between mothers’ information-seeking questions and children’s information-seeking questions (fact-seeking, r(70) = .53, p<.01; explanation-seeking, r(70) = .29, p<.05). These findings supported the hypothesis that mothers’ question-asking behavior may serve as a model for children to ask questions during adult-child conversations.

Authors

• Burcu Unlutabak, Johns Hopkins University
  Presenting Author

• Ageliki Nicolopoulou, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ayhan Aksu-Koc, Bogazici University
  Non-Presenting Author