Parent‐child communication in families of different educational backgrounds

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to investigate the often repeated claim that both verbal and nonverbal communication styles are related to the social and educational background of the parents. The subjects were 40 Finnish first graders and their mothers or fathers. The dyads were divided into equal groups of lower and higher parental education. The videotaped situations consisted of three cooperative tasks. Comparisons were also made between the mother‐child dyads and the father‐child dyads. No difference was found between the higher and the lower educational group in nonverbal communication. The linguistic aspects of speech were approximately similar in both groups. There were, however, differences between the educational groups in regard to the planning aspects of speech, controlling and conversional turn‐taking. Only a few minor differences were found in the communication of mothers and fathers as well as in that of girls and boys.