Explanatory Emotion Talk in Mexican Immigrant and Mexican American Families

Cervantes, Christi A.

doi:10.1177/0739986302024002003

Cited by 58 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This value also promotes a strong commitment to family members' connectedness and well-being (Cervantes, 2002;Zayas & Solari, 1994), as well as emphasizes the importance of being respectful and placing the welfare of the family above one's own welfare (Marin & Marin, 1991;Ruiz, Roosa, & Gonzales, 2002). Similarly, simpatía is characterized by maintaining harmony in relationships (Triandis, Marin, Lisansky, & Betancourt, 1984).…”

Section: −11mentioning

confidence: 95%

Family Emotional Climate and Sibling Relationship Quality: Influences on Behavioral Problems and Adaptation in Preschool-Aged Children

2006

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We examined the impact of family emotional climate and sibling relationship quality on behavioral problems and adaptation in preschool-aged children. Participants were 63 mothers with a preschool-aged child enrolled in a Southern Arizona Head Start Program. Siblings were identified as children closest in age to target child. Mothers of predominantly Mexican descent (95%) participated in home interviews during the Fall and Spring of the year children entered center-based programs. Sibling relationship quality (warmth, agonism/competition) was proposed to predict children's adjustment (behavioral problems and adaptation) longitudinally. Results indicate that after controlling for child characteristics (temperament, child gender, birth order) and after accounting for family characteristics (family emotional expressiveness, child exposure to interparental conflict, and parental agreement on childrearing), sibling warmth made a significant and unique contribution to child adjustment as reported by mothers and teachers six months later. Findings are consistent with existing research indicating that sibling relationships impact children's adjustment and shape young children's lives in meaningful and marked ways. Moreover, these associations were found with an understudied sample of young children of predominantly Mexican descent in low-income families, and thus make an important contribution to knowledge in the field.Keywords Sibling relationship quality . Family emotional expressiveness . Child exposure to interparental conflict . Parental agreement on childrearing . Child adjustment Sibling relationships are critical for understanding children's social and emotional development. Because siblings spend a considerable portion of their time together and the intensity and variety of emotions experienced in those interactions are profound, it is likely that the quality of those interactions plays a central role in shaping the course of each of their lives.

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Section: −11mentioning

confidence: 95%

Family Emotional Climate and Sibling Relationship Quality: Influences on Behavioral Problems and Adaptation in Preschool-Aged Children

2006

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“…Research studies provide empirical support for ethnic variation in maternal emotion discourse (e.g., Cervantes, 2002;Eisenberg, 1999;Wang, 2001;. Although these studies contribute to the growing body of literature on emotion socialization among minority populations, few have included African American mothers.…”

Section: Social Context: Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status (Ses)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, these studies suggest that parents speak more frequently about emotions with their daughters than with their sons. Still other studies have reported no gender differences in maternal emotion talk (Brock, 1993;Cervantes, 2002;Dunn, Brown, Slomkowski, & Tesla, 1991;. In a meta-analysis of gender socialization studies covering infancy to five years, Lytton and Romney (1991) concluded that the differential treatment of girls and boys decreases with child age.…”

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confidence: 99%

Early Environmental Correlates of Maternal Emotion Talk

Garrett‐Peters

Mills‐Koonce²,

Adkins³

et al. 2008

Parenting

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Objective-The primary goal of this study was to examine contextual, child, and maternal factors that are associated with mothers' early emotion talk in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample.Design-Emotion talk (positive and negative labels) was coded for 1111 mothers while engaged with their 7-month-olds in viewing an emotion-faces picture book. Infant attention during the interaction was also coded. Mothers' parenting style (positive engagement and negative intrusiveness) was coded during a dyadic free-play interaction. Demographic information was obtained, as well as maternal ratings of child temperament and mother's knowledge of infant development.Results-Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that social context and maternal qualities are significant predictors of mothers' early positive and negative emotion talk. In particular, mothers who were African American, had higher income, and who showed more positive engagement when interacting with their infants demonstrated increased rates of positive and negative emotion talk with their infants. For negative emotion talk, social context variables moderated other predictors. Specifically, infant attention was positively associated with negative emotion talk only for African American mothers, and knowledge of infant development was positively associated with negative emotion talk only for non-African American mothers. The positive association between maternal URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15295190802058900Publisher's Disclaimer: Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptParent Sci Pract. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2009 November 26. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript positive engagement and negative emotion talk was greater for lower-income families than for higher-income families.Conclusions-Mothers' emotion language with infants is not sensitive to child factors but is associated with social contextual factors and characteristics of the mothers themselves. INTRODUCTIONResearchers in the area of socioemotional development have long emphasized the parents' critical role in the socialization of emotions in their children. As socializing agents, parents influence children's conceptions of emoti...

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“…For instance, mother-child conversations 5 about emotion vary with immigration status, with Mexican-American mothers using more emotion labels to describe behavior than Mexican immigrant mothers (Cervantes, 2002). Other factors are often found to be linked tightly to the amount of formal schooling mothers have attained.…”

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confidence: 99%

Parents' science talk to their children in Mexican-descent families residing in the USA

Tenenbaum

Callanan

2008

International Journal of Behavioral Development

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Everyday parent-child conversations may support children's scientific understanding. The types and frequency of parent-child science talk may vary with the cultural and schooling background of the participants, and yet most research in the United States focuses on highly schooled EuroAmerican families. This study investigated 40 Mexican-descent parents' science talk with their children (mean age = 5;7 years, range = 2 years; 10 months to 8;6 years). Parents were divided between a higher schooling group who had completed secondary school, and a basic schooling group who had fewer than 12 years of formal schooling. Parents and children were videotaped engaging with science exhibits at a children's museum and at home. Conversations were coded in terms of parents' explanatory talk. In both contexts, Mexican-descent parents engaged children in explanatory science talk. At the museum, parents in the higher schooling group used more causal explanations, scientific principles explanations, and encouraging predictions types of explanations than did parents in the basic schooling group. In contrast, the only difference at home was that parents in the higher schooling group used more encouraging predictions talk than parents in the basic schooling group. Parents who had been to museums used more explanations than parents who had never visited a museum. The results suggest that while explanatory speech differed somewhat in two groups of Mexican-descent parents varying in formal schooling, all of these children from Mexican descent families experienced some conversations that were relevant for their developing science literacy. (Beals, 2001;Crowley, Callanan, Jipson, Galco, Topping, & Shrager, 2001;Crowley & Jacobs, 2002;Ochs, Taylor, Rudolph, & Smith, 1992;Snow & Kurland, 1996). For example, when young European-American children ask "why" questions about the world around them, parents often respond in ways that may help children delineate science domains and begin to understand causal information about science (Callanan & Oakes, 1992). Explanatory talk about science topics has been found in parent-child conversations in museums, homes, and naturalistic lab activities. Thus, everyday conversations that arise during mundane activities may offer some guidance to children as they develop and revise intuitive theories about the world around them ).If these family conversations are important for children's early science understanding, then it would follow that children's understanding of science may vary depending on their experiences. Research on parent-child interactions in families from different cultural backgrounds suggests that explanatory conversations about science may not be typical occurrences for all children (Heath, 1986;Rogoff, 2003;Tizard & Hughes, 1984). Other research indicates cultural variations in parents' encouragement of their children's questions. For example, Goody (1978) argued that children's questions are not valued equally in all cultures. 4The present study focuses on explanatory talk in Mexic...

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Explanatory Emotion Talk in Mexican Immigrant and Mexican American Families

Cited by 58 publications

References 39 publications

Family Emotional Climate and Sibling Relationship Quality: Influences on Behavioral Problems and Adaptation in Preschool-Aged Children

Family Emotional Climate and Sibling Relationship Quality: Influences on Behavioral Problems and Adaptation in Preschool-Aged Children

Early Environmental Correlates of Maternal Emotion Talk

Parents' science talk to their children in Mexican-descent families residing in the USA

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