Caregiver-child reminiscing and recounting across contexts

Slonecker, Emily M.; Klemfuss, J. Zoe

doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100947

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…First, we were interested in children’s provision of accurate information about the lab activity during the caregiver–child interview. In line with previous research (e.g., Kleinknecht & Beike, 2004; Klemfuss, 2015; Nelson & Fivush, 2004; Slonecker & Klemfuss, 2020), we found that older children supplied more correct details during the caregiver–child interview compared to younger children. While we did not find a main effect of condition or autonomy support, we did find an interaction between condition and autonomy support.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Reflecting a trend in the broader reminiscing literature, the bulk of research on autonomy support and dyadic conversations in preschoolers has examined conversations about fun, shared experiences, and it is unclear how many findings generalize to other conversation contexts. As we have argued and demonstrated elsewhere (e.g., Slonecker & Klemfuss, 2020), fact-focused conversations about unshared experiences may represent a more appropriate analogue for exploring how caregivers discuss events that have implications for their child’s well-being during the preschool years (e.g., bullying, suspected abuse). Often, these events occur away from the caregiver’s supervision, and caregivers are likely highly motivated to gather information about the event in question.…”

Section: Caregiver–child Conversations and Autonomy Supportmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…A caregiver's ability to gather accurate information about an event from their child is especially important when they do not know what happened and are unable to verify their child's report. When children are the gatekeepers of information about an experience, as is the case with an unshared event, caregivers are less able to dictate the flow of the conversation, scaffold children's recall, or assess the accuracy of children's contributions (Slonecker & Klemfuss, 2020). As a result, caregivers may rely more heavily on other narrative techniques, like moderating their autonomy support, to elicit an accurate description of the event.…”

Section: Conversation Context When Discussing Unshared Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The purpose of the present study was to examine how conversation context (fact-focused or fun-focused) and children’s age influenced caregivers’ autonomy support when discussing an unshared experience with their preschool-aged child, and how caregiver autonomy support, conversation context, and child age related to children’s recall. In the present study, caregiver–child dyads were instructed to discuss a standardized laboratory activity completed by the child without their caregiver present (Slonecker & Klemfuss, 2020). Although all children completed the same activity procedurally, the description of the activity as well as the instructions given to caregivers for discussing the activity with their child varied by condition.…”

Section: Caregiver–child Conversations and Autonomy Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Yes, no, maybe so: Caregiver autonomy support, conversation context, and children’s memory performance.

Slonecker¹,

Klemfuss²

2023

Developmental Psychology

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The extant literature on the use of autonomy support during caregiver-child conversations has focused primarily on conversations about fun, shared experiences, with limited consideration of unshared experiences or attention toward the role of conversation context. The present study examined how autonomy support, conversation context, and child age interact to predict 3-to-5-year-old children's disclosure of accurate information when discussing an unshared past event with their caregiver and an experimenter. Dyads (N = 111) were recruited from two locations (Miami, Florida and Orange County, California) by research recruitment firms. Children completed a standardized activity alone and then discussed the activity with their caregiver. The context of the discussion was manipulated so that dyads focused on either accumulating facts (Fact condition) or having fun (Fun condition). Afterward, children discussed the activity with a neutral interviewer. Caregivers in the fact condition were less autonomy supportive when discussing the activity than those in the fun condition. During the caregiver-child interview, caregiver autonomy support was negatively associated with children's disclosure of correct event details for those in the fun condition only. Caregiver autonomy support was negatively associated with children's correct details during the experiment-child interview across both context conditions. While older children provided more correct details during both interviews, there were no other age-related effects. These results demonstrate that conversation context moderates the link between autonomy support and children's autobiographical memory performance. Past contradictory findings in the field are discussed in light of these results. Public Significance StatementThe present study provides unique insight into the role caregiver autonomy support plays in eliciting accurate descriptions of the past from preschool-aged children across multiple contexts. The results of this experiment emphasize the importance of considering contextual factors when researching caregiver-child conversations and children's autobiographical memory.

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