Fun and frustrations: Low-income Chilean parents reminiscing with their children about past emotional experiences

Nolivos, Virginia; Leyva, Diana

doi:10.15517/ap.v27i115.9278

Authors

Virginia Nolivos Harvard University Author
Diana Leyva Davidson College, Psychology Department Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15517/ap.v27i115.9278

Keywords:

Latino, reminiscing, narratives, emotion, preschool

Abstract

One way in which parents support the development of children’s socioemotional abilities is through reminiscing about emotional experiences. This study: a) investigated how low-income Chilean families through reminiscing label, explain, and reason about emotionally positive and negative experiences; and b) documented the emotional narrative themes that families discuss. Sixty-two parents and their preschoolers were videotaped reminiscing about a time when the child was happy and a time when the child was unhappy. Half of the children were girls. Narratives were transcribed and coded for a variety of emotion-content categories. Results showed that conversations about negative experiences were richer in emotional content (emotional states, facial expressions, emotional evaluations, emotion causes, emotion consequences, and mind-emotion connections) than positive conversations. Dyads more often discussed outing themes when reminiscing about positive experiences and peer confl ict themes when reminiscing about negative experiences. This work can inform interventions targeting low-income families in Latin America.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Virginia Nolivos, Harvard University

Virginia Nolivos' research focus is on the role of parent-child interactions in early childhood, specifically the socioemotional development and school readiness skills of low-income Spanish-speaking populations nationally and internationally. She earned a Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University. Prior to attending Harvard, she taught undergraduate students in the U.S. and Ecuador.
Diana Leyva, Davidson College, Psychology Department

Diana Leyva is a Post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on parenting and literacy in early childhood. She is the Project Director of Un Buen Comienzo, an experimental study of teacher professional development in early childhood education in Chile. She earned a Ph.D in developmental psychology from Clark University and has taught at Harvard University, Williams College and Mount Holyoke College.

References

Ackil, J. K., Van Abbema, D. L., & Bauer, P. J. (2003). After the storm: Enduring differences in motherchild recollections of traumatic and nontraumatic events. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 84, 286-309. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-0965(03)00027-4

Baker-Ward, L. E., Eaton, K. L., & Banks, J. B. (2005). Young soccer players’ reports of a tournament win or loss: Different emotions, different narratives. Journal of Cognition and Development, 6, 507-527. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327647jcd0604_4

Bartsch, K., & Wellman, H. (1995). Children talk about the mind. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195080056.001.0001

Bauer, P., J., Stark, E. N., Lukowski, A. F., Rademacher, J., Van Abbema, D. L., & Ackil, J. K. (2005). Working together to make sense of the past: Mothers’ and children’s use of internal states language in conversations about traumatic and nontraumatic events. Journal of Cognition and Development, 6, 463-488. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327647jcd0604_2

Bierman, K.L., Domitrovich, C.E., Nix, R.L., Gest, S.D., Welsh, J.A., Greenberg, M.T., Blair, C., Nelson, K. & Gill, S. (2008). Promoting academic and social-emotional school readiness: The Head Start REDI Program. Child Development, 79, 1802 – 1817. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01227.x

Bigelow, A. (1999). Infants’ sensitivity to imperfect contingency in social interaction. In P. Rochat (Ed.), Early social cognition: Understanding others in the fi rst months of life (pp. 137–154). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Bretherton, I., Fritz, J., Zahn-Waxler, C. & Ridgeway, D. (1986). Learning to talk about emotions: A functionalist perspective. Child Development, 57, 529-548. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1130334

Brown, J. R. (1995). What happened? Emotional experience and children’s early talk about the past. Unpublished manuscript.

Brown, Donelan-McCall, & Dunn, (1996). Why talk about mental states? The signifi cance of children’s conversations with friends, siblings, and mothers. Child Development 67, 836-849. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1131864

Brown, J. R. & Dunn, J. (1996). Continuities in emotion understanding from three to six years. Child Development, 67, 789-802. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1131861

Burch, M. M., Austin, J., & Bauer, P. J. (2004). Understanding the emotional past: Relations between parent and child contributions in negative and non-negative events. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 89, 276–297. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2004.07.006

Caspe, M., & Melzi, G. (2008). Cultural variations in mother—child narrative discourse style. In A. McCabe, A. Bailey, & G. Melzi (Eds.), Spanishlanguage narration and literacy: Culture, cognition, and emotion. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815669.004

Cristofaro, T. N. & Tamis-Lemonda, C. S. (2008). Lessons in mother-child and father-child personal narratives in Latino families. In A. McCabe, A. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815669.006

Bailey, & G. Melzi (Eds.), Spanish-language narration and literacy: Culture, cognition, and emotion (pp. 5489). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Delgado-Gaitán, C. (1994). Consejos: The power of cultural narratives. Anthropology and Education, 25, 298–316. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.1994.25.3.04x0146p

Denham, S. (1998). Emotional development in young children. New York: Guilford Press.

Denham, S., Bouril, B., & Belouad, F. (1994). Preschoolers’ affect and cognition about challenging peer situations. Child Study Journal, 24, 1-21.

Denham, S., Cook, M., & Zoller, D. (1992). ‘Baby looks very sad’: Implications of conversations about feelings between mother and preschooler. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10, 301315. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1992.tb00579.x

Denham, S., Zoller, D., & Couchoud, E. A. (1992). Socialization of preschoolers’ emotion understanding. Developmental Psychology, 30, 928– 936.

Denham, S., Zoller, D., & Couchoud, E. (1994). Preschoolers’ causal understanding of emotion and its socialization. Developmental Psychology, 30, 928-936. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.30.6.928

Dunn, J., Bretherton, I., & Munn, P. (1987). Conversations about feelings between mothers and their young children. Developmental Psychology, 23, 132–139. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.23.1.132

Dunn, J., & Brown, J. R. (1993). Early conversations about causality: Content, pragmatics, and developmental change. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 11, 107–123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1993.tb00591.x

Dunn, J., Brown, J., & Beardsall, I. (1991). Family talk about feeling states and children’s later understanding of others’ emotions. Developmental Psychology, 27, 448-455. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.27.3.448

Dunn, J., Brown, J., Slomkowski, C., Tesla, C., & Youngblade, L. (1991). Young children’s understanding of other people’s feelings and beliefs: Individual differences and their antecedents. Child Development, 62, 1352–1366. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1130811

Eisenberg, A. R. (1985). Learning to describe past experiences in conversation. Discourse Processes, 8, 177-204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01638538509544613

Eisenberg, A. R. (1999). Emotion talk among Mexican American and Anglo American mothers and children from two social classes. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 45, 267-284.

Fernández, C., & Melzi, G. (2008). Evaluation in Spanish-speaking mother-child narratives: The social and sense-making function of internalstate references. In A. McCabe, A. Bailey, & G. Melzi (Eds.), Spanish-language narration and literacy: Culture, cognition, and emotion (pp. 92-118). New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815669.007

Fivush, R. (1991). The social construction of personal narratives. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 37, 59–81.

Fivush, R. (2001). Owning experience: Developing subjective perspective in autobiographical narratives In C. Moore & K. Lemmon (Eds.), The self in time: Developmental perspectives (pp. 3552). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Fivush, R., & Baker-Ward, C. (2005). The search for meaning: Developmental perspectives on internal state language in autobiographical memory. Journal of Cognition and Development, 6, 455-462. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327647jcd0604_1

Fivush, R., Bohanek, J.G., Marin, K., & Sales, J.M. (2008). Emotional memory and memory for emotions. In O. Luminet, A. Curci and M. Conway (Eds.), Flashbulb memories: New issues and new perspectives.

Fivush, R., & Haden, C. (2005). Parent-child reminiscign and the construction of a subjective self. In B. D. Homer & C. S. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), The development of social congition and communications (pp. 315-335). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Fivush, R., Marin, K., McWilliams, K., & Bohanek, J.G., (2009). Family reminiscing style: Parent gender and emotional focus in relation to child well-being. Journal of Cognition and Development, 10, 210-235. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15248370903155866

Fivush, R., & Nelson, K. (2006). Mother-child talk about the past locates the self in time. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, 235-251. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1348/026151005X57747

Fivush, R. & Sales, J. (2006). Coping, attachment, and mother-child narratives of stressful events. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52, 125-150. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.2006.0003

Fivush, R., Sales, J., & Bohanek, J. (2008). Meaning making in mother’s and children’s narratives of emotional events. Memory, 16, 579-594. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210802150681

Fivush, R. & Wang, Q. (2005). Emotion talk in mother-child conversations about shared past: The effects of culture, gender, and event valence. Journal of Cognition and Development, 6, 489-506. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327647jcd0604_3

Fox, N. A. (Ed.). (1994). The development of emotion regulation: Biological and behavioral considerations. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3, Serial No. 240). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1166143

Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2, 300–319. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.300

Frijda, N. H., & Mesquita, B. (1998). The analysis of emotions: Dimensions of variation. In M. F. Mascolo & S. Griffi n (Eds.), What develops in emotional development? (pp. 273–292). New York: Plenum Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1939-7_11

Guajardo, N. R., & Watson, A. C., (2002). Narrative discourse and theory of mind development. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 163, 305-325. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221320209598686

Halgunseth, L. C., Ispa, J. M., & Rudy, D. (2006). Parental control in Latino families: An integrated review of the literature. Child Development, 77, 1282-1297. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00934.x

Harris, P. L. (1989). Children and emotion: The development of psychological understanding. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell.

Hart, B., & Risely, T. B. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Paul. H. Brookes Publishing Company.

Harwood, R., Leyendecker, B., Carlson, V., Asencio, M., & Miller, A. (2002) Parenting among Latino families in the U.S. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of Parenting, 4 (pp. 20-46). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Hudson, J. (1991). Learning to reminisce: A case study. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 1, 295– 324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.1.4.03lea

Hudson, J., Gebelt, J., & Haviland, J. (1992). Emotion and narrative structure in young children’s personal accounts. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 2, 129–150. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.2.2.03emo

Hughes, C, & Dunn, J. (1997). Pretend you didn’t know: Young children’s talk about mental states in the context of pretend play. Cognitive Development, 12, 477-499. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(97)90019-8

Hughes, C. & Dunn, J. (1998). Understanding mind and emotion: Longitudinal associations with mental-state talk between young friends. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1026-1037. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.34.5.1026

King, K. A., & Gallagher, C. (2008). Love, diminutives, and gender socialization in Andean mother-child narrative conversations. In A. McCabe, A. Bailey, & G. Melzi (Eds.), Spanishlanguage narration and literacy: Culture, cognition, and emotion (pp. 119-141). New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815669.008

Kopp, C. (1989). Regulation of distress and negative emotions: A developmental view. Developmental Psychology, 25, 343-354. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.25.3.343

Laible, D. (2004). Mother-child discourse in two contexts: Factors that predict differences in the quality and emotional content of the discourse and the consequences of those differences for socioemotional development. Developmental Psychology, 40, 979-992. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.6.979

Laible, D., & Panfi le, T. (2009). Mother-child reminiscing in the context of secure attachment relationships; lessons in understanding and coping with negative emotion. In J. Quas, & R. Fivush (Eds.), Emotion and memory in development: Biological, cognitive, and social considerations. Oxford series in affective science (pp. 166-195). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326932.003.0007

Laible, D., & Thompson, R. (2000). Mother-child discourse, attachment security, shared positive affect, and early conscience development. Child Development, 71, 1424-1440. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00237

Lagattuta, K. H., & Wellman, H. M. (2001). Thinking about the past: Early knowledge about links between past experience, thinking, and emotion. Child Development, 72, 82–102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00267

Lagattuta, K.H. & Wellman, H.M. (2002). Differences in early parent–child conversations about negative versus positive emotions: Implications for the development of psychological understanding. Developmental Psychology, 38, 564-580. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037//0012-1649.38.4.564

Lazarus R. S., (1991). Progress on a cognitivemotivational-relational theory of emotion. American Psychologist, 46, 819-834. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.46.8.819

Leyva, D., Berrocal, M. & Nolivos, V. (2012). Parent-Child Emotional Narratives and Children’s Social Problem-Solving Skills. Journal of Cognition and Development. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2012.725188 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2012.725188

Leyva, D., Reese, E., Grolnick, W., & Price, C. (2008). Elaboration and autonomy support in lowincome mothers’ reminiscing: Links to children’s autobiographical narratives. Journal of Cognition and Development, 9, 363-389. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15248370802678158

MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES project (3rd ed.): Vol. I. Tools for analyzing talk transcription format and programs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Marin, K.A., Bohanek, J.G. & Fivush, R. (2008). Positive effects of talking about the negative: Family narratives of negative experiences and preadolescents’ perceived competence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 18, 573-593. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2008.00572.x

Melzi, G. (2000). Cultural variations in the construction of personal narratives: Central American and European American mothers’ elicitation styles. Discourse Processes, 30, 153-177. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326950DP3002_04

Melzi, G., & Caspe, M. (2005). Cultural variations in mother’s story telling styles. Narrative. I n q u i r y, 15, 101–125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.15.1.06mel

Melzi, G., & Fernández, C. (2004). Talking about past emotions: Conversations between Peruvian mothers and their preschool children. Sex Roles, 50, 641-657. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000027567.55262.10

Melzi, G., Schick, A. R., & Kennedy, J. L. (2011). Narrative elaboration and participation: Two dimension of maternal elicitation style. Child Development, 82, 1282-1296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01600.x

Ministerio de Educación (2011). Informe Final: Alfabetización en establecimientos chilenos subvencionados.

Facultad de Educación. Pontifi cia Universidad Católica de Chile. Retrieved from: http://w3app.mineduc.cl/mineduc/ded/documentos/Alfabetizacion%20-20Informe%20final.pdf

Mullen, M. K., & Yi,S. (1995). The cultural context of talk about the past: Implications for the development of autobiographical memory. Cognitive Development, 10, 407–419. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0885-2014(95)90004-7

Oatley, K., & Jenkins, J. M. (1996). Understanding emotions. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Peterson, C., & Biggs, M. (2001). “I was really, really, really mad!” Children’s use of evaluative devices in narratives about emotional events. Sex Roles, 45, 801-825. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015692403932

Peterson, C. & McCabe, A. (1983). Developmental psycholinguistics. Three ways of looking at a child’s narrative. New York, NY: Plenum Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0608-6

Reese, E., Leyva, D., Sparks, A., & Grolnick, W. (2010). Maternal elaborative reminiscing increases low-income children’s narratives skills relative to dialogic reading. Early Education and Development, 21, 318-342. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2010.481552

Reese, E., & Newcombe, R. (2007). Training mothers in elaborative reminiscing enhances children’s autobiographical memory and narrative. Child Development, 78, 1153-1170. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01058.x

Repacholi, B. M., & Gopnik, A. (1997). Early reasoning about desires: Evidence from 14- and 18-month-olds. Developmental Psychology, 33, 12–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.33.1.12

Russell, J. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1161– 1178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077714

Russell, J. A., & Ridgeway, D. (1983). Dimensions underlying children’s emotion concepts. Developmental Psychology, 19, 795–804. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.19.6.795

Saarni, C. (1990). Emotional competence: How emotions and relationships become integrated. In R. A. Thompson (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 36. Socioemotional development (pp. 115–182). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Saarni, C. (1999). The development of emotional competence. New York: Guilford Press.

Sales, J., & Fivush, R. (2005). Social and emotional functions of mother-child conversations about stressful events. Social Cognition, 23, 70-90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.23.1.70.59196

Sales, J., Fivush, R. & Peterson (2003). Parental reminiscing about positive and negative events. Journal of Cognition and Development, 4, 185-209. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327647JCD0402_03

Schady, N., Behrman, J., Araujo, M. C., Azuero, R., Bernal, R., Bravo, D., Lopez-Boo, F., Macours, K., Marshall, D., Paxson, C., & Vakis, R. (2013, under review). Wealth gradients in early childhood cognitive development in fi ve Latin American countries. Journal of Human Resources. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-6779

Schieffelin, B. & Eisenberg, A (1984). Cultural variations in children’s conversation. In R Schiefelbusch & J. Pickar (Eds.), The acquisition of communicative competence (pp. 377-420). Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.

Serrano, S., León, M., & Rengifo, F. (2012). Historia de la educacion en Chile (1810-2010). Santiago, Editorial Aguilar.

Silva, M. J., & McCabe, A. (1996). Vignettes of the continuous and family ties: Some Latino American traditions. In A. McCabe (Ed.), Chameleon readers: Teaching children to appreciate all kinds of good stories (pp.116-136). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Sparks, A. & Leyva, D. (2013). Child Language Acquisition. Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies. Ed. Ilan Stavans. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199913701-0012

Stein, N. L., & Levine, L. (1989). The causal organization of emotional knowledge: A developmental study. Cognition & Emotion, 3, 343–378. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699938908412712

Suárez-Orozco, M. M., & Paéz, M. M. (2002). Latinos: Remaking America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Valdés, G. (1996). Con respeto: Bridging the distances between culturally diverse families and schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

Van Bergen, P., Salmon, K., Dadds, M. R., & Allen, J. (2009). The effects of mother training in emotionrich, elaborative reminiscing on children’s shared recall and emotion knowledge. Journal of Cognition and Development, 10, 162-187. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15248370903155825

Vygotsky, L. S. (1929/1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wang, Q. (2001). “Did you have fun?” American and Chinese mother-child conversations about shared emotional experiences. Cognitive Development, 16, 693-715. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(01)00055-7

Wang, Q., Doan, S.N., & Song, Q. (2010). Talking about internal states in mother-child reminiscing infl uences children’s self-representations: A crosscultural study. Cognitive Development, 25, 380-393. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2010.08.007

Wang, Q. & Fivush, R. (2005). Mother-child conversations of emotionally salient events: Exploring the functions of emotional reminiscing in European-American and Chinese families. Social Development, 14, 473-495. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2005.00312.x

Wang, Q., Leichtman, M. & Davies, K. (2000). Sharing memories and telling stories: American and Chinese mothers and their 3-year-olds. Memory, 8, 150-177. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/096582100387588

Wishard Guerra, A. (2008). The intersection of language and culture among Mexican-Heritage children 3 to 7 years old. In A. McCabe, A. Bailey, & G. Melzi (Eds.), Spanish-language narration and literacy: Culture, cognition, and emotion (pp. 146-174). New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815669.010