How Conversations with Parents May Help Children Learn to Separate the Sheep from the Goats (and the Robots)

Jipson, Jennifer L.; Labotka, Danielle; Callanan, Maureen A.; Gelman, Susan A.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77182-3_11

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…We did find that parents’ reports of having sufficient knowledge was associated with whether they ever provided explanations. This result is in line with prior work suggesting that parental attitudes and knowledge are important variables associated with parent-child interactions in a variety of domains including biology [ 8 , 43 ], social norms [ 18 , 27 ] and educational opportunities [ 26 , 44 , 45 ].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“When will it be over?” U.S. children’s questions and parents’ responses about the COVID-19 pandemic

et al. 2021

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Parent-child conversations are important for children’s cognitive development, children’s ability to cope with stressful events, and can shape children’s beliefs about the causes of illness. In the context of a global pandemic, families have faced a multitude of challenges, including changes to their routines, that they need to convey to their children. Thus, parent-child conversations about the coronavirus pandemic might convey information about the causes of illness, but also about how and why it is necessary for children to modify their behaviors to comply with new social norms and medical guidance. The main goal of this study was to examine the questions children ask about the COVID-19 pandemic and how parents answer them. This survey included responses from a national sample of 349 predominantly white parents of children between the ages of 3 and 12 recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk in United States. Parents reported that although children asked about COVID-19 and its causes (17.3%), children asked primarily about lifestyle changes that occurred as a result of the pandemic (24.0%) and safety (18.4%). Parents reported answering these questions by emphasizing that the purpose of different preventative measures was to protect the child (11.8%) or the family (42.7%) and providing reassurance (13.3%). Many parents discussed how it was their social responsibility to slow the spread of the virus (38.4%). Parents of younger children tended to shield them from information about COVID-19 (p = .038), while parents with more knowledge were more likely to provide explanations (p < .001). Our analysis shows that families not only discuss information about the virus but also information about changes to their lifestyle, preventative measures, and social norms.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“When will it be over?” U.S. children’s questions and parents’ responses about the COVID-19 pandemic

et al. 2021

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“…Children actively seek information via asking questions about various topics (Callanan & Oakes, 1992;Chouinard, 2007;Frazier et al, 2009; for a review see: Ronfard et al, 2018). For instance, diary studies by Callanan and her colleagues show that 4-and 5-year-olds ask about birth and human biology, physical principles of how things work (Callanan & Oakes, 1992), natural phenomena (Callanan et al, 2019), and technological artifacts (Jipson et al, 2018).…”

Section: Children's Questions and Parent's Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining children's questions and parents' responses about COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey

Ünlütabak

Velioğlu

2022

Curr Psychol

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COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on both adults' and children's everyday lives. Conversations about biological processes such as viruses, illness, and health have started to occur more frequently in daily interactions. Although there are many guidelines for parents about how to talk to their children about the coronavirus, only a few studies have examined what children are curious about the coronavirus and how they make sense of the changes in their everyday lives. This study addresses this need by examining children's questions and parents' responses about the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Turkish sociocultural context. Using an online survey, we asked 184 parents of 3-to 12-year-olds to report their children's questions about coronavirus and their answers to these questions. We analyzed children's questions and parents' responses using qualitative and quantitative analyses (Menendez et al., 2021). Children's questions were mainly about the nature of the virus (34%), followed by lifestyle changes (20%). Older children were more likely to ask about school/work and less likely to ask about lifestyle changes than younger children. Parents responded to children's questions by providing realistic explanations (48%) and reassurance (20%). Only 18% of children's questions were explanation-seeking "why" and "how" questions. Parents were more likely to provide explanations if children's questions were explanation-seeking. Family activities such as playing games and cooking were the most common coping strategies reported by parents (69.2%). The findings have important implications for children's learning about the coronavirus and how adults can support children's learning and help them develop coping strategies in different sociocultural contexts.

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“…Several studies point to children having the first essential skill for reason‐responsiveness: distinguishing good from bad reasons. Early observational studies suggest that starting around preschool age, children display sensitivity to the quality of reasons provided by their parents (e.g., Jipson et al, 2018; Kuczynski, 1984; Tizard & Hughes, 1984). Experimental work indicates that even 2‐year‐old children possess the capacity to distinguish strong from weak reasons presented in interpersonal discourse (Castelain et al, 2018).…”

Section: Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

How children revise their beliefs in light of reasons

et al. 2022

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We investigate how the ability to respond appropriately to reasons provided in discourse develops in young children. In Study 1 (N = 58, Germany, 26 girls), 4‐ and 5‐, but not 3‐year‐old children, differentiated good from bad reasons. In Study 2 (N = 131, Germany, 64 girls), 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children considered both the strength of evidence for their initial belief and the quality of socially provided reasons for an alternative view when deciding whether to change their minds. Study 3 (N = 80, the United States, 42 girls, preregistered) shows that 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children also consider meta‐reasons (reasons about reasons) in their belief revision. These results suggest that by age 4, children possess key critical thinking capacities for participating in public discourse.

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How Conversations with Parents May Help Children Learn to Separate the Sheep from the Goats (and the Robots)

Cited by 10 publications

References 47 publications

“When will it be over?” U.S. children’s questions and parents’ responses about the COVID-19 pandemic

“When will it be over?” U.S. children’s questions and parents’ responses about the COVID-19 pandemic

Examining children's questions and parents' responses about COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey

How children revise their beliefs in light of reasons

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