Parents Talk Research Articles

Building Blocks of Parent-Child Sex Communication: Body Talk During Infancy and Early Childhood

ABSTRACT The current study investigated how foundational conversations about the body and sexuality begin, how they develop longitudinally, and whether parental body talk varies as a function of characteristics of both the parent and child. Participants included 442 mothers (M age = 32.50, SD = 5.61, 93% heterosexual, 85% White) and 337 available father-figures (M age = 33.99, SD = 5.68, 98% heterosexual, 80% White), who were the parents of infants (age at Time 1 = 28.13 months, SD = 6.85, 52% male). Factor analyses suggested that parents engaged in positive, avoidant, and scolding body talk with their young children, and growth curve analyses suggested that frequency of positive body talk increased from when the child was age two to when they were age four for both mother- and father-figures. Results also suggested that the most consistent predictors of body talk included parents’ perceptions of whether their child was too young to discuss sexuality, and the child’s own questions and behaviors about their bodies and sexuality. The discussion focuses on the frequency of parental body talk and the active role of the child in the early socialization of healthy sexuality.

Reminiscing Goals and Behavior as Predictors of Child Psychological Functioning

ABSTRACT Research has shown links between parent-child emotion reminiscing and socio-emotional outcomes, yet little research has investigated why parents talk about emotions with their children and how this relates to children’s development. The purpose of this study was to explore how parents’ self-reported goals and observed behavior in emotion reminiscing predict children’s psychological functioning. Recruited from both clinical and community settings in Australia, 54 children aged 8–12-years old engaged in an emotion reminiscing conversation task with their parent. Conversations were coded on emotion and elaborative quality. Parents reported their reminiscing goals using the Caregiver Reminiscing Scale-Revised (CRS-R), and both parent and child reported on the child’s psychological functioning. After including associated covariates, six hierarchical regression models were conducted to assess for unique associations of parents’ goals and behavior with each of the child’s psychological functioning indicators. Child-reported internalizing difficulties (C-INT) were predicted by peer relationship goals, whereas parent-reported internalizing (p-INT) and externalizing difficulties (p-EXT) were uniquely predicted by behavior control goals. Emotion comprehension was uniquely predicted by memory skill goals, and cognitive errors were uniquely predicted by children’s emotion exploration during emotion reminiscing. Rumination was not uniquely predicted by reminiscing goals or behavior. This study highlights the importance of considering parents’ emotion reminiscing goals: for future longitudinal research, and in reminiscing interventions for children with mental health difficulties.

The Effect of Parent-Targeted Obesity Messaging on Parental Weight Talk Intention: A Randomized Controlled Experiment

ABSTRACT It is unknown if parent-targeted health messages about childhood obesity affect parental weight communication with children (e.g., encouraging a child to diet). This randomized, controlled, online experiment assessed the effects of exposure to different message frames on parental intentions to 1) engage in weight communication with their child and, 2) follow the health advice in the message. A diverse sample of U.S. parents (N = 452) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) a mock news article emphasizing childhood obesity (weight-framed message) with health behavior advice for parents; 2) an article with identical health behavior advice for parents, but framed within the context of improving children’s school performance (school-framed message); and 3) a no-treatment control group. Following message exposure, parents completed online surveys assessing their intention to engage in weight communication and the recommended health behaviors. Hierarchical linear regression was used to assess the relationship between experimental condition and the outcome variables. Parents in the weight-frame condition were significantly more likely to report intention to engage in weight communication with their child than parents in the control group, while there was no difference between the school-frame condition and the control group. Parents in both message conditions were equally likely to report intention to adopt the health advice, but parental weight-based self-stigma moderated the relationships. Parent-targeted health advice that features childhood obesity may encourage parents to engage in weight communication with their children. Our findings can inform the development of health messages targeting parents about children’s weight-related health.

Do parents engage in weight- and health-focused conversations with their emerging adult children and are there cross-sectional associations with weight and well-being outcomes?

BackgroundResearch indicates harmful associations between parental weight-focused conversations and markers of pediatric health and well-being. However, little is known about the prevalence and consequences of parent conversations focused on weight or health behaviors (i.e., physical activity or nutrition) with emerging adult children. MethodsData are from the 2018 follow-up survey of the population-based EAT 2010–2018 (Eating and Activity over Time) in cohort from Minneapolis—St. Paul, MN. Participants were emerging adults at follow-up with ages 18–26. Regression models adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics were conducted. ResultsOver two-thirds (68%) of mothers and 44% of fathers engaged in weight-focused conversations with their emerging adult children; 25% of both parents reported engaging in conversations focused only on health behaviors; and 8% of mothers and 26% of fathers reported not engaging in either type of conversation. Health-focused conversations by both parents were associated with lower body mass index (BMI) and disordered eating behaviors, higher intake of fruit and vegetables, and psychosocial well-being in emerging adult children. Weight-focused conversations with both parents were associated with higher BMI and disordered eating behaviors in emerging adults. There were gender moderated associations of paternal conversations about weight and health with vegetable intake, binge eating, and depressive symptoms. DiscussionThe high prevalence and negative health outcomes associated with weight-focused conversations coupled with the low prevalence and positive health outcomes associated with health-focused conversations by parents suggests the need for public health messaging and intervention development aimed at reducing parental weight talk with emerging adult children.

Parental narrative style moderates the relation between pain-related attention and memory biases in youth with chronic pain.

Negatively biased pain memories robustly predict maladaptive pain outcomes in children. Both attention bias to pain and parental narrative style have been linked with the development of these negative biases, with previous studies indicating that how parents talk to their child about the pain might buffer the influence of children's attention bias to pain on the development of such negatively biased pain memories. This study investigated the moderating role of parental narrative style in the relation between pain-related attention and memory biases in a pediatric chronic pain sample who underwent a cold pressor task. Participants were 85 youth-parent dyads who reminisced about youth's painful event. Eye-tracking technology was used to assess youth's attention bias to pain information, whereas youth's pain-related memories were elicited 1 month later through telephone interview. Results indicated that a parental narrative style using less repetitive yes-no questions, more emotion words, and less fear words buffered the influence of high levels of youth's attention bias to pain in the development of negatively biased pain memories. Opposite effects were observed for youth with low levels of attention bias to pain. Current findings corroborate earlier results on parental reminiscing in the context of pain (memories) but stress the importance of matching narrative style with child characteristics, such as child attention bias to pain, in the development of negatively biased pain memories. Future avenues for parent-child reminiscing and clinical implications for pediatric chronic pain are discussed.

“Understanding why she had to leave me”: The roles of religion and spirituality in narratives of parents grieving the loss of a child to cancer

Religion and spirituality often influence how people experience illness, death, and grief. The roles of religion and spirituality for parents who have lost a child to cancer remain underexplored. This study aimed to describe how cancer-bereaved parents talk about religion and spirituality when reflecting on their experiences. Participants whose children died of cancer one to six years prior to participation completed a one-on-one semi-structured interview. Interview transcripts underwent qualitative analysis. Content pertaining to religion and/or spirituality underwent subsequent in-depth analysis to identify themes. Of 30 interviews analyzed, 28 contained religion/spirituality content. Four themes arose: (1) life after death, (2) divine control, (3) evolution of faith after loss, and (4) religious and spiritual interactions within the medical community. The absence of supports for religious and spiritual needs represents a gap in bereavement care. Future work should clarify needs and explore potential interventions.

Background TV and infant-family interactions: Insights from home observations.

Background television has been found to negatively impact children's language development and self-regulatory skills, possibly due to decreased parent-child interactions. Most of the research on the relationship between background TV and caregiver-child interactions has been conducted in laboratory settings. In the current study, we conducted home observations and investigated whether infants engage in fewer interactions with family members in homes where background TV is more prevalent. We observed 32 infants at the ages of 8, 10, and 18months in their home environments, coding for dyadic interactions (e.g., parent talking to and/or engaging with the child), triadic interactions (e.g., parent and infant play with a toy together), and infants' individual activities. Our findings revealed that background TV was negatively associated with the time infants spent in triadic interactions, positively associated with time spent engaging in individual activities, and not significantly related to the time spent in dyadic interactions. Apart from the relationship between background TV and individual activity time at 8months, these associations remained significant even after accounting for families' socioeconomic status. These findings imply a correlation between background TV exposure and caregiver-infant-object interactions, warranting a longitudinal analysis with larger sample sizes.

Exploring whether and how Black and White parents talk with their children about race: M(ai)cro race conversations about Black Lives Matter.

Previous research on parent-led race conversations reports robust racial differences in the content of race conversations between Black and white parents. It was unknown, however, whether these racial differences shifted in the months immediately following the summer of 2020 when there was heightened public attention directed toward white parents, specifically, to talk with children about racism. In the present study, we investigated whether and how Black (n = 344) and white (n = 381) parents talked about Black Lives Matter (BLM) with their 8- to 11-year-old children. Overall, 80% of parents (n = 725) reported talking about BLM, but Black parents were significantly more likely to discuss BLM than white parents (p = .008). Further qualitative analysis of the content of parents' reports showed that Black parents were significantly more likely than white parents to provide responses about BLM that acknowledge racial inequality in society or explicitly affirm/support Black lives. White parents, in contrast, were significantly more likely to discuss BLM by focusing on equality but without acknowledging racial injustice or to provide responses that lacked clarity and/or substance. Using the m(ai)cro model of human development (Rogers, Niwa, et al., 2021), we discuss how parents' reported race conversations are shaped by the sociopolitical context and their role in disrupting (or perpetuating) systemic racism through socialization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Guided STEM Activity Kits for Parents With Preschool Children: Design, Frequency of Use, and Parent Evaluation

ABSTRACT Parents boost STEM skills by scaffolding children’s attention and discovery during play, but many need support doing so. Using human-centered design (HCD) methods, we created activity kits fostering parents’ (a) involvement in and (b) valuing of parent-child play to promote preschoolers’ STEM skills. Study 1 documents how HCD methods informed the design of guided activity kits. In initial home visits, we videorecorded six parent-child dyads playing with basic building materials. Play revealed minimal parental STEM scaffolding and talk. Collaborating with 18 families and drawing on prior research, parent interviews, videotaped play sessions, and advisory-board members’ expertise, the interdisciplinary research team designed and refined activity kit prototypes. Study 2 was a randomized field test comparing use and evaluation of final guided kits (n = 50) versus basic kits (n = 25) that contained identical building materials and challenges but omitted scaffolding guides. Both groups received kits by mail every other week for 10 weeks. Relative to parents given basic kits, parents given guided kits (a) reported significantly more sustained use of the kits across the 10 weeks, (b) felt more self-efficacy in fostering their child’s STEM learning, and (c) judged that their child had achieved greater STEM-skill learning from program use.

Supplemental Material for How Parents Talk About Weight: Qualitative Content Analysis Using a Randomized Experiment Study Design

Supplemental Material for How Parents Talk About Weight: Qualitative Content Analysis Using a Randomized Experiment Study Design

How parents talk about weight: Qualitative content analysis using a randomized experiment study design.

How parents talk about weight: Qualitative content analysis using a randomized experiment study design.

Words matter: Effect of manipulating storybook texts on parent and child math talk

Children who experience greater math talk during home math activities demonstrate higher levels of math knowledge. The current study was designed to test whether the features of storybooks affect the amount and kind of extratextual math talk parents and preschool children produce during storybook reading. Parent-child dyads (N = 50) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: implicit or explicit. The implicit condition involved a storybook with math elements embedded only in the illustrations; whereas, the explicit condition included the same set of illustrations as well as numeric and spatial words in the text. Both parents and children in the explicit condition produced more math-related utterances than those in the implicit condition. Among parents, the difference in quantity of talk was present across a range of different types of math talk. Mediation analyses showed that condition affected parent math talk via child math talk and child math talk via parent math talk. These results point to the bidirectional relation between parent and child math talk during storybook reading and the importance of the features of learning materials on that talk.

Supplemental Material for Exploring Whether and How Black and White Parents Talk With Their Children About Race: M(ai)cro Race Conversations About Black Lives Matter

Supplemental Material for Exploring Whether and How Black and White Parents Talk With Their Children About Race: M(ai)cro Race Conversations About Black Lives Matter

Parenting practices, mental health, and electronic cigarette use among U.S. young adolescents: A longitudinal panel analysis, 2013–2018

PurposeThis study examined prospective association of parenting practices related to tobacco use with adolescent e-cigarette use and the moderating role of mental health among U.S. young adolescents. MethodsWe study used multi-wave longitudinal data (2013–2018) drawn from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study. A total of 5114 young adolescents (12–14 years) who were not lost to follow-ups across four waves (Wave 1–4) comprised the study sample. Weighted logistic regression models along with generalized linear mixed modeling assessed the within-subject associations of parenting practices related to tobacco use (tobacco availability at parent/guardian's home, past-year parent talk about tobacco use, and rules about non-combustible tobacco use at home) with adolescent current e-cigarette use. ResultsPrevalence of having home rules about non-combustible tobacco use increased (74.5%–80.2%) and that of parent talk about tobacco use decreased (52.0%–33.9%) over time while tobacco availability at home did not show a specific trend. Tobacco availability at home was associated with increased odds of adolescent e-cigarette use (adjusted odd ratio[OR] = 2.25, 95% confidence interval[CI] = 1.72–2.95), and having home rules about non-combustible tobacco use was linked to decreased likelihood of e-cigarette use (adjusted OR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.55–0.92). The magnitude of negative association between having rules about non-combustible tobacco and adolescent e-cigarette use was stronger among adolescents with internalizing problems but weaker among those with externalizing problems. ConclusionsOur findings highlight the important role of home-based interventions in discouraging young adolescents from e-cigarette use. Parents/guardians should consider adolescents' mental health to provide more efficient home- and/or clinical-based e-cigarette use prevention.

Identifying parental math talk styles and relations to child talk and skills

Prior studies on parental math talk often emphasize utterance frequency, with few distinguishing between utterance types (e.g., questions, statements, and confirmations). This study identified parental math talk styles (i.e., combinations of utterance types) and examined associations with children’s math and language performance. Participants were 76 mostly middle-income, White parents and their four-year-old children. Dyads’ conversations while looking at pictures were transcribed and coded for math content and children completed math and language assessments. Cluster analyses identified three parental math talk styles: Math Discussers privileged math questions and statements over other utterances, Math Commentators privileged math statements over other utterances, and Math Elicitors privileged math questions over other utterances. Math Discussers tended to be more likely than Math Commentators to have children who spoke more about math. Parental math styles did not relate to children’s math or language skills. Findings suggest parental math talk styles are promising to understand early math support.

No concurrent correlations between parental mental state talk and toddlers' language abilities - ERRATUM.

No concurrent correlations between parental mental state talk and toddlers' language abilities - ERRATUM.

No concurrent correlations between parental mental state talk and toddlers' language abilities.

Mental State Talk (MST) is utterances describing invisible mental aspects. The first aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of Parental MST and Child MST and their concurrent association in a Swedish population, and the second aim was to relate these MST measures to the children's general language abilities. Seventy-seven dyads of parents and their 25-month-old toddlers participated. MST was assessed by videotaping the dyads during free-play sessions in a laboratory and general language abilities were based on parental reports. Forty-nine toddlers did not produce MST, while all parents used MST. Child MST was positively associated with vocabulary and grammar. Parental MST was not associated with Child MST nor the children's general language abilities. In exploratory analyses, Parental MST referred to another than the child was positively correlated with vocabulary and grammar. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and continue studying MST in different linguistic contexts.

Diversity of spatial activities and parents' spatial talk complexity predict preschoolers' gains in spatial skills.

Children's spatial activities and parental spatial talk were measured to examine their associations with variability in preschoolers' spatial skills (N = 113, Mage = 4 years, 4 months; 51% female; 80% White, 11% Black, and 9% other). Parents who reported more diversity in daily spatial activities and used longer spatial talk utterances during a spatial activity had children with greater gains in spatial skills from ages 4 to 5 (β = .17 and β = .40, respectively). Importantly, this study is the first to move beyond frequency counts of spatial input and investigate the links among the diversity of children's daily spatial activities, as well as the complexity of parents' spatial language across different contexts, and preschoolers' gains in spatial skills, an important predictor of later STEM success.

Math intervention targeting family routines increases parental math talk and math activities

Previous interventions have seldom promoted family math engagement across family routines, tailored the intervention content to each family's typical routines, or provided videos of real families doing math. This feasibility study examines the effects of Math Made for Me (MM4M), a six-week program fostering math engagement across family routines via videos tailored to each family's typical routines. Participants were 76 parents and their 4-year-old children (M = 53.26 months; 47% female) from mostly middle-income, White backgrounds. Families were randomized into MM4M or a business-as-usual control condition. Parents' math talk, home math activities, and children's math skills were assessed at pre- and post-test. MM4M had positive, moderate-to-large effects on parents' math talk (d = 0.95) and home math activities (d = 0.55) but no effects on children's math skills. Promoting math across routines and tailoring the intervention content is a promising way through which family math engagement can be increased.

Parents’ Perspectives on Climate Change Education: A Case Study From New Jersey

Purpose With climate change education becoming more prevalent in schools around the globe, it is increasingly important that we understand parental perspectives on this topic. Children cross the boundaries between home and school culture every day, and their parents’ attitudes, beliefs, and practices can influence their academic engagement in all content areas. In the 2022–2023 academic year, New Jersey (NJ) adopted climate change education standards across grade levels and subject areas. We seek to understand parental perspectives on this curriculum change. Design/Approach/Methods In October–November 2022, a survey was distributed to parents of children attending public (state) school in NJ to identify how they discuss, support, and question their children's education about climate change. A total of 83 parents responded to the survey. Findings Survey results revealed that parents talk to their children about climate change with the support of various tools and strategies. However, parents expressed concerns about teachers’ preparedness to introduce climate change topics appropriately and their own readiness to support this instruction at home. Furthermore, several respondents voiced concerns about how to approach climate change discussions in a way that is mindful of children's developmental and mental health needs. Originality/Value Little is known about the way in which parents view educational innovations affect their implementation. This study examines parents’ perspectives on a novel approach to integrating climate change instruction across subject areas and grade levels.