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Previous studies document associations between parents’ use of guided play strategies and children’s STEM skills. We extended existing research by exploring mediating mechanisms that may account for these links. Parents played with their preschool children (N=75; 49% girls, 51% boys; 94% White, 3% Black, 1% Biracial, 1% Asian, 1% Native American; Mage = 4.82 years), undertaking a building challenge. Videotaped play was coded for parents’ guiding STEM talk (density of math, spatial, and scientific inquiry language) and management strategy (high- vs. low-directiveness). Mediators included children’s STEM talk during play and self-regulated learning (assessed by executive function tests and examiner’s ratings of children’s task orientation). Structural equation models confirmed hypothesized mediated paths from parent STEM talk to child math (but not spatial) skills via child STEM talk, and from parent STEM talk and directiveness to child math and spatial skills via child self-regulated learning. We discuss implications for future research and intervention design.
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Conflicting perspectives mediate the relation between parents’ and preschoolers’ self‐referent mental state talk during collaboration
We examined the relations between the referent of parents and preschoolers’ mental state talk during a collaborative puzzle‐solving task (N = 146 dyads;n = 81 3‐year‐olds,n = 65 4‐year‐olds). The results showed that parents’ references to their own knowledge and beliefs (self‐referent cognitive talk), and references to their child’s knowledge and beliefs (child‐referent cognitive talk) were both related to children’s (primarily self‐referent) cognitive talk. We then tested whether any of the observed relations could be explained by the presence of conflicting perspectives within the collaborative interaction. Mediational analyses revealed that conflicting perspectives mediated the positive relation between parents’ production of self‐referent cognitive talk and child cognitive talk. By contrast, the positive relation between parents’ production of child‐referent cognitive talk and child cognitive talk did not depend on the presence of this type of conflict. These findings highlight an important mechanism through which parents’ references to their own mind might promote children’s developing mental state talk in collaborative contexts.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1652224
- PAR ID:
- 10455438
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- British Journal of Developmental Psychology
- Volume:
- 38
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0261-510X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 255-267
- Size(s):
- p. 255-267
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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