Gender and Voice in Emotional Reminiscing

Abstract

Using sociocultural and feminist theories as frames, I argue that parentally guided reminiscing about past emotional experiences is a critical site for the socialization of children's developing emotional voice. Moreover, this process is gendered. Research on parent-child reminiscing about the emotional past indicates that mothers are more elaborative and emotionally expressive than fathers, and, overall, both mothers and fathers are more elaborative and emotionally expressive when reminiscing about the emotional past with their preschool daughters as compared to sons. These early gender differences are reflected in children's and adolescents' personal narratives about emotional experiences, with girls telling more elaborated and emotionally expressive narratives than boys across development. Importantly, these gender differences are specific to personal narratives; both boys and girls narrate stories about their parents' childhood experiences in ways consistent with the parents' gender, not their own. Both parental reminiscing style and adolescents' personal and intergenerational narratives are related to emotional well-being, although there are some suggestions that these relations are gendered as well. The overall patterns suggest that children are developing an emotional voice that reflects their understanding of their emotional lives.