Does mother know best? Mothers and fathers interacting with preschool sons and daughters.

Abstract

The interactional teaching patterns of 36 fathers and mothers with their 6-yearold sons and daughters were studied. Parents were asked to play with their child using a jigsaw puzzle and to teach the child to remember 24 picture cards that could be divided into conceptual categories. It was found that parents' fnstruc-A tional behaviors did not differ as a function or their own sex but rather on tljs ' basis of their cmto s sex Barents attempted to teach their sons more general "problem-solving strategies and were both more directive and more approving or disapproving of their sons than of their daughters. Parents interacted with their daughters in a more cooperative, concrete, and specific fashion, and daughters were given more feedback about their performance. In addition, the teaching interaction was found to be effective in helping the child remember more items than they recalled without training. Several explanations for these sex of child effects were proposed.

The Teacher's Role in Facilitating Memory and Study Strategy Development in the Elementary School Classroom

“…However, the infrequent use of strategy suggestions and the very limited effort made by most teachers to instruct children in metacognition suggest less than maximally effective cognitive instruction in these elementary school classes. Recent reports ofthe ways in which parents attempt to facilitate children's cognitive development (Carr, Kurtz, Schneider, Turner, & Borkowski, 1989;Frankel & Rollins, 1983) indicate that we need to look at a variety of sources for information about factors affecting the development of memory skills. Work on the relative contributions of family members and teachers to the child's study behaviors and metacognitive concepts is needed, as well as comparative work on the effects of schooling in various student populations and cultures.…”

Gender Differences in Mother-toddler and Father-toddler Verbal Initiations and Responses during a Caregiving and Play Context

“…In fact, evidence suggests that caregiving may be a context that constrains the expression of gender-typed parenting behavior in that it requires parents to perform certain tasks in relation to their child's needs. For instance, despite spending less time in caregiving, fathers in the U.S. have been found to engage in similar types and quality of interaction with infant and preschool age children in caregiving settings compared to mothers (Feldman 2003;Frankel and Rollins 1983;Bonny et al 1999). Likewise, in a meta analysis of research on gender differences in smiling, LaFrance et al (2003) found that women and men who were in caregiving roles (e.g., doctors, therapists) were more similar in smiling behavior than men and women in noncaregiving roles, or in teaching and interviewing roles.…”

“…Specifically, gender typed discourse, or communication, follows a pattern where assertive and controlling verbalizations occur more often among males, whereas affiliative and cooperative verbalizations occur more often among females (Leaper and Gleason 1996;Leaper et al 1998). However, questions concerning the incidence of gender typed patterns of collaborative and controlling interactions between parents and children are raised by discrepancies in the literature, with some studies suggesting that American parents engage in behaviors which promote independence and self-assertion in sons and behavior that encourages cooperation and relationality with daughters during the preschool years (Cherry and Lewis 1976;Dunn et al 1987;Frankel and Rollins 1983), whereas other studies find no difference in parents use of assertive behavior with sons and daughters during early childhood (Crockenberg and Litman 1990;Gralinski and Kopp 1993). It may be that the context in which parent-child interaction was observed accounts for the discrepancies between studies, however, the extent to which parent and child behaviors are dependent upon particular contexts is not clear.…”

Parents' speech to toddlers: the effect of play context

“…Weitzman, Birns & Friend (1985) found mothers in a storytelling task to talk more, ask more questions, do more verbal teaching, and use more action verbs with sons than with daughters. Considerable interest has been shown recently in fathers' speech to their young children, which has generally been found to be quite similar to mothers' in its structural, stylistic and prosodic features (Golinkoff & Ames 1979, Hummel 1982, Frankel & Rollins 1983, Warren-Leubecker & Bohannon 1984, Kruper & Uzgiris 1985. Considerable interest has been shown recently in fathers' speech to their young children, which has generally been found to be quite similar to mothers' in its structural, stylistic and prosodic features (Golinkoff & Ames 1979, Hummel 1982, Frankel & Rollins 1983, Warren-Leubecker & Bohannon 1984, Kruper & Uzgiris 1985.…”