Abstract

SCHRODER, Lisa; KELLER, Heidi  and  KLEIS, Astrid. Parent-child conversations in three urban middle-class contexts: Mothers and fathers reminisce with their daughters and sons in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Germany. Actual. psicol. [online]. 2013, vol.27, n.115, pp. 49-73. ISSN 0258-6444.

The present study investigated culture- and gender-differences in mother- and father-child reminiscing with 3-year old daughters and sons in urban middle-class families from Costa Rica, Mexico, and Germany. Families of the three contexts were overall similarly elaborative and children contributed a similar amount of memory elaborations. However, context specific use of different elaborative elements related to specific elaborative styles. Compared to the Latin American families, conversations in German families were least socially oriented. Across contexts, parents talked more about social aspects with daughters than with sons. Costa Rican mothers and fathers were equally elaborative, whereas German and Mexican mothers were more elaborative than fathers. We found similarities but also specificities in parent-child conversations about the past across these contexts with similar educational backgrounds.

Keywords : Parent-child conversations; reminiscing; autobiographical memory; gender; culture; elaborations.

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