Decontextualized Language in Chinese and American Caregiver-Child Interactions: Similarities, Differences, and Implications for Children’s Narratives

• In Event: Children’s decontextualized talk in ethnically and socioeconomically diverse communities in the U.S., China and Norway

Abstract

Decontextualized language (DL) refers to talk that is abstract or removed from the here and now, such as joint reminiscing, future narratives, and explanations (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001). DL, especially joint reminiscing, plays an important role in early socialization (Heath, 1982). For example, Chinese parents frequently use reminiscing to teach children social norms, whereas in European American families, reminiscing typically provides entertainment and affirmation (Miller et al., 1997). However, studies comparing DL across cultures focuses on joint reminiscing, and little is known about cultural patterns of future narratives and explanations, two important and prevalent types of DL. Further, in both cultures, parent-child DL relates to children’s language development, such as narrative skills (Demir et al., 2005) and recall of personal experiences (e.g., going to the park; Leyva et al., 2008). Less clear is whether and how Chinese parents’ DL use, including but not limited to joint reminiscing, relates to children’s ability to narrate non-personal stories (e.g., stories about cartoon characters).

This study investigates cross-cultural similarities and differences in American and Chinese families’ DL use and relations between parents’ DL and children’s narrative skills. Participants were 36 American families (34 were European American) and 40 Chinese families. Caregivers were primarily middle-class and had four-year-olds. The dyads had a snack together as they normally would. The eight-minute snack times were recorded, transcribed, and coded for DL. Children completed a narrative production task. They watched a one-minute unfamiliar, wordless cartoon (Maus, 2017) and retold the story. Each narrative was scored based on its structural and episodic richness (Peterson & McCabe, 1994).

Families’ DL use varied considerably within each culture (Table 1). Chinese and American dyads’ talk included a similar proportion of DL, p > .05. Although certain types of DL did not differ across cultures, ps > .05, Chinese dyads used a larger proportion of future narratives and a smaller proportion of explanations (out of all DL) compared to American dyads, ps < .05 (Figure 1). Further coding indicated that compared to American parents, Chinese caregivers more frequently embedded lessons about social norms in future narratives and provided more explanations where they construed the world as socially regulated, ps < .05. Chinese parents who used more DL had children who produced richer narratives, controlling for covariates such as parent education and total talk, β = 0.44, p = .04. Ongoing analyses are examining these relations in the US sample.

This study reveals cross-cultural similarities and differences in Chinese and American families’ DL. The amount and content of future narratives and explanations differed across cultures, likely reflecting culturally constructed socialization goals. Moreover, this study is the first to show positive associations between Chinese parents’ DL and children’s production of non-personal narratives. This finding extends our knowledge about how input shapes children’s narrative skills, because preschoolers’ non-personal narratives indicate the important ability to construct conventional narrative structures (e.g., goals-means-outcomes). Further, this study highlights the need to examine the joint contributions of various types of DL beyond joint reminiscing when considering the developmental implications of DL.

Authors

• Ran Wei, Harvard Medical School
  Presenting Author

• Kathryn Anne Leech, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Meredith L. Rowe, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author