Gender Comparisons in Mother-Child Emotion Talk: A Meta-Analysis

Parent- and Adolescent-Driven Effects in Emotion-Related Communication and Longitudinal Relationships with Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents

Communication on emotions is an important aspect of parent-adolescent communication, yet its process and effects remain less examined in families of adolescents. This study examined the bidirectional association between parental responses to adolescents' emotions and adolescents' emotional communication behaviors, and further examined their longitudinal predictive effects on adolescent depressive symptoms. The potential moderating role of adolescent gender was also examined. A total of 503 adolescents (Mage = 13.45, SD = 0.50; 44.73% females) participated in this study, with 438 adolescents completing the three-wave longitudinal survey. Adolescents' emotional communication behaviors, parental responses to emotions, and depressive symptoms were reported. The bidirectional relationship was examined using cross-lagged panel models, while the parent- and adolescent-driven effects of emotional communication on adolescent depressive symptoms and the moderation effect of adolescent gender were examined using multi-group structural equation modeling. The findings revealed gender-specific patterns in parent-adolescent communication on emotions. Significant parent- and adolescent-driven effects of positive communication behaviors on adolescent depressive symptoms were found. However, only negative communication behaviors initiated by parents predicted adolescent depressive symptoms, with this effect mediated by adolescents' negative communication behaviors. This study deepened the understanding of characteristics and effects of parent-child emotional communication during adolescence, which has implications for interventions aiming at improving parent-adolescent relationship and adolescents' mental health.

Language use in depressed and non-depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring

BACKGROUND

Approximately 10% of mothers experience depression each year, which increases risk for depression in offspring. Currently no research has analysed the linguistic features of depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring during dyadic interactions. We examined the extent to which linguistic features of mothers' and adolescents' speech during dyadic interactional tasks could discriminate depressed from non-depressed mothers.

METHODS

Computer-assisted linguistic analysis (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count; LIWC) was applied to transcripts of low-income mother-adolescent dyads (N = 151) performing a lab-based problem-solving interaction task. One-way multivariate analyses were conducted to determine linguistic features hypothesized to be related to maternal depressive status that significantly differed in frequency between depressed and non-depressed mothers and higher and lower risk offspring. Logistic regression analyses were performed to classify between dyads belonging to the two groups.

RESULTS

The results showed that linguistic features in mothers' and their adolescent offsprings' speech during problem-solving interactions discriminated between maternal depression status. Many, but not all effects, were consistent with those identified in previous research using primarily written text, highlighting the validity and reliability of language behaviour associated with depressive symptomatology across lab-based and natural environmental contexts.

LIMITATIONS

Our analyses do not enable to ascertain how mothers' language behaviour may have influenced their offspring's communication patterns. We also cannot say how or whether these findings generalize to other contexts or populations.

CONCLUSION

The findings extend the existing literature on linguistic features of depression by indicating that mothers' depression is associated with linguistic behaviour during mother-adolescent interaction.

Maternal depressive symptoms and child language development: Exploring potential pathways through observed and self-reported mother-child verbal interactions

Maternal depressive symptoms (MDS) in the postnatal period may impact children's later development through poorer quality parent-child interactions. The current study tested a specific pathway from MDS (child age 9 months) to child receptive vocabulary (4 ½ years) through both self-reported and observed parent-child verbal interactions (at both 2 and 4 ½ years). Participants (n = 4,432) were part of a large, diverse, contemporary pre-birth national cohort study: Growing Up in New Zealand. Results indicated a direct association between greater MDS at 9 months and poorer receptive vocabulary at age 4 ½ years. There was support for an indirect pathway through self-reported parent-child verbal interactions at 2 years and through observed parent-child verbal interactions at 4 ½ years. A moderated mediation effect was also found: the indirect effect of MDS on child vocabulary through observed verbal interaction was supported for families living in areas of greater socioeconomic deprivation. Overall, findings support the potential role of parent-child verbal interactions as a mechanism for the influence of MDS on later child language development. This pathway may be particularly important for families experiencing socioeconomic adversity, suggesting that effective and appropriate supportive parenting interventions be preferentially targeted to reduce inequities in child language outcomes.

Earliest versus other autobiographical memories of school-age children

Earliest memories have been the topic of scientific research for over a century and seen use as tools of clinical assessment. Still, it remains unclear whether they are in some way distinct or revealing about the person reporting them. This preregistered study examined whether children’s self-reported earliest memories differ from other memories, and how their features link with mood and gender. Urban 9–13-year-old children in Finland (N = 166) reported on their earliest memory and another old autobiographical memory, and mood. Memories were coded for specificity, thematic content, social orientation, and emotional content. No differences between earliest and other memories were noted in specificity, trauma- and accident-related content, or emotional content. However, earliest memories had more play- and less visit-related content and were less likely to be social. Negative mood did not generally correlate with features of memories. Girls reported more social earliest and other memories, and more positive earliest memories. The findings are compared to research in other cultural environments. Overall, they do not support a privileged position for the earliest memory as an object of scientific research or clinical assessment.

Gender differences in emotional reminiscing in a Scandinavian sample

Emotional reminiscing is a context where children learn culture-specific ways of understanding past emotional experiences through parentally scaffolded conversations, and learn how to connect these disparate experiences into their developing autobiographical memory. The goal of the present investigation was to explore possible gender differences in emotional reminiscing in an egalitarian cultural context (Denmark). Mothers and fathers from families (N = 88) reminisced about a happy and a sad past event with their 4.5-year-old children. Parents' and children's contributions were coded for emotion words, emotion attributions, and explanations. The emotional content did not differ as a function of parent or child gender. However, Danish children talked more about emotions overall with their mothers compared to their fathers. The results are discussed in light of the socio-cultural practices.

Maternal Reflective Functioning and Attachment Security in Girls and Boys: A Closer Look into the Middle Childhood

Child attachment undergoes major changes during middle childhood. Maternal reflective functioning (RF) is hypothesized to be an important correlate of a child's attachment security during this period; however, the child's gender role in this association has not been examined yet. In the present study, we used 64 mother-child (6-11 years old) dyads from a community sample to analyze the association between maternal RF and child attachment security and whether this link is moderated by gender. Maternal RF was assessed on the Parent Development Interview Revised (PDI-R2) and child attachment classifications were examined by the Child Attachment Interview (CAI). Results revealed the positive and statistically significant association between maternal RF and child attachment security in the whole sample. Further evaluations of this link in the groups of girls and boys separately indicated its significance for girls only. Finally, moderation analysis demonstrated the relation between child attachment security and maternal RF to be moderated by gender. These findings provide a new knowledge on gender role in attachment security in relation to maternal RF as well as suggest possible differentiation in the correlates on the pathway of secure attachment between girls and boys during middle childhood.

The Effects of Gendered Parenting on Child Development Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Gender role development occurs in the earliest months and years of a child's life. Parental attitudes, behaviours and modelling are likely to play a significant role in this process; however, to date no review has been conducted to consolidate knowledge of the effects of differential parenting on child development. This systematic review aimed to investigate the evidence for differential parenting behaviours based on child gender that affect child development, across six areas (vocalisation, socialisation, play, toys, dress and décor). Searches were conducted for English article using four databases: psycINFO, CINAHL, Sociological Abstract, and SCOPUS. The inclusion criteria were biological or adoptive parents, of a typically developing child aged below five, using any parenting behaviour or strategies that differed by child gender. 45 studies were included in this systematic review (14 vocalisation, 21 socialisation, 7 play, 3 toys). A variety of gender-differentiated parenting behaviours and child outcomes were examined. The review found evidence that parents do respond differently to their children. Parents vocalised differently, used different socialising strategies, played differently and provided different toys to their sons and daughters. This differential parenting was associated with some differences in child development across child gender, including differences in child vocalisation, displays of affect, pain responses, compliance, toy play and aggression. However, the overall quality of the evidence, the lack of longitudinal studies and the heterogeneous nature of the outcomes examined suggest the need for a systematic approach to examining the nature and effects of differential parenting on children's development.

Teachers as co-regulators of children's emotions: A descriptive study of teacher-child emotion dialogues in special education

BACKGROUND

The study examined how teachers and children with emotional and behavioral disturbances engage in dialogues about children's emotional experiences. Dialogues about emotions are an important strategy for teachers to co-regulate children's emotions but have remained understudied.

AIMS

This study aimed to explore whether the Autobiographical Emotional Events Dialogue (AEED) can help to assess the quality of teacher-child emotion dialogues about past emotional events and examined associations with child behavior and teacher-child relationship quality.

METHOD

The sample included 85 children and 70 teachers from special education schools serving children with emotional and behavioral disturbances. Teacher-child dialogues were videotaped and coded using the 16 rating scales of the AEED coding system (Koren-Karie, Oppenheim, Carasso, & Haimovich, 2003).

RESULTS

The scales (except child boundary dissolution) could be reliably assessed. A Principal Component Analysis yielded 4 factors: Adequate task completion (coherent dialogues and positive child task behavior), Negativity (hostility and teacher boundary dissolution), Teacher Guidance (involvement, structuring, and acceptance), and Resolution (positive closure of negative stories). Child age, verbal intelligence, prosocial behavior, and higher teacher-child relationship scores (higher closeness, lower conflict) were positively associated with the quality of the dialogues but behavior problems were not.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

The study provides first insight in teachers' scaffolding of dialogues with children about negative emotional events in special education serving children with emotional and behavioral disturbances.

Gender and parental involvement in parent-child reminiscing in a Scandinavian sample

Despite the extensive bulk of literature on maternal reminiscing style, only a handful of reminiscing studies have investigated gender differences in parental reminiscing style, with none of these studies having explored the possible relationship between parental involvement level and parental reminiscing style. The current study investigated gender differences in parental reminiscing style across positive and negative event types in an egalitarian Scandinavian context while exploring the potential relationship between parental reminiscing style and parental involvement level. Mothers and fathers from N = 88 families reminisced about shared happy and sad events, respectively, with their 4-year-old children. Overall, parental involvement level was not related to parental reminiscing style. However, mothers' elaborations and positive evaluations were associated with their level of involvement level in the sad event conversations. Although mothers and fathers did not differ in their reminiscing style overall, gender differences appeared in the consistency of parental reminiscing style across event types.

Narrative characteristics of autobiographical memory predict expectations of narrator gender

Gender differences in autobiographical memory have been documented in various domains. The current study attempts to sharpen an understanding of extant gender differences in autobiographical memory by considering listener expectations, contributing to a sociocultural model. Across three studies (a pilot and two separate data collections) a narrative database was created. Narratives were coded for variables that have been shown to differ by gender, including emotion, connectedness to others, factual and interpretive elaboration, and thematic coherence. Participants read narratives and assessed if the narrator was male or female, indicating their confidence. In the pilot study and study 1, narrative features consistently predicted participant's assessments of narrator gender in two separate methods using the same narratives. In study 2, new narratives were used, showing replicability of the method and avoiding potential confounds of naturally occurring differences in study 1 and pilot data. More emotion words predicted higher likelihood of assessing a female narrator. Results support the use of such a methodology as an innovative way to examine gender-based listener expectations in autobiographical memory. They can be used for further theorising about the source of gender differences in this domain of memory that represents a combination of cognitive and social processes.