TY - JOUR
T1 - Mothers' and Fathers' Mental State Talk
T2 - Ethnicity, Partner Talk, and Sensitivity
AU - The Family Life Project Key Investigators
AU - Reynolds, Elizabeth
AU - Garrett-Peters, Patricia
AU - Bratsch-Hines, Mary
AU - Vernon-Feagans, Lynne
AU - Vernon Feagans, Lynne
AU - Cox, Martha
AU - Blair, Clancy
AU - Burchinal, Peg
AU - Burton, Linda
AU - Crnic, Keith
AU - Crouter, Ann
AU - Garrett-Peters, Patricia
AU - Greenberg, Mark
AU - Lanza, Stephanie
AU - Mills-Koonce, Roger
AU - Werner, Emily
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 National Council on Family Relations
PY - 2020/10/1
Y1 - 2020/10/1
N2 - Objective: The current study examined the contributions of cultural and economic contexts and family, child, and parent characteristics to explain variation within and between mothers' and fathers' mental state talk (i.e., cognition, desire, modulation of assertion, and other mental state talk) to their 6-month-old infants. Background: Growing evidence supports the importance of mental state talk for children, yet few studies have examined factors that might contribute to this type of verbal input. Method: In a sample of 582 African American and European American mothers and 582 African American and European American fathers living in low-wealth rural areas, we explored the extent to which cultural context (ethnicity), economic context (income), family characteristics (partners' use of mental state talk), child characteristics (gender, attention, distress to novelty), and parent characteristics (parental sensitivity) contribute to mothers' and fathers' use of mental state talk in a series of multilevel models. Results: Results suggest that parental sensitivity was positively associated with mental state talk for both mothers and fathers, and child attention was positively associated with mental state talk for mothers with significant but small effect sizes. Fathers' mental state talk contributed positively to mothers' mental state talk, but this was true only for African American families. Conclusion: Our identified main effects and significant interaction enhance our understanding of factors that contribute to mothers' and fathers' mental state talk with their preverbal infants.
AB - Objective: The current study examined the contributions of cultural and economic contexts and family, child, and parent characteristics to explain variation within and between mothers' and fathers' mental state talk (i.e., cognition, desire, modulation of assertion, and other mental state talk) to their 6-month-old infants. Background: Growing evidence supports the importance of mental state talk for children, yet few studies have examined factors that might contribute to this type of verbal input. Method: In a sample of 582 African American and European American mothers and 582 African American and European American fathers living in low-wealth rural areas, we explored the extent to which cultural context (ethnicity), economic context (income), family characteristics (partners' use of mental state talk), child characteristics (gender, attention, distress to novelty), and parent characteristics (parental sensitivity) contribute to mothers' and fathers' use of mental state talk in a series of multilevel models. Results: Results suggest that parental sensitivity was positively associated with mental state talk for both mothers and fathers, and child attention was positively associated with mental state talk for mothers with significant but small effect sizes. Fathers' mental state talk contributed positively to mothers' mental state talk, but this was true only for African American families. Conclusion: Our identified main effects and significant interaction enhance our understanding of factors that contribute to mothers' and fathers' mental state talk with their preverbal infants.
KW - communication
KW - family processes
KW - fathers
KW - mothers
KW - parenting
KW - parent–child relationships
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U2 - 10.1111/jomf.12675
DO - 10.1111/jomf.12675
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85082660234
SN - 0022-2445
VL - 82
SP - 1696
EP - 1716
JO - Journal of Marriage and Family
JF - Journal of Marriage and Family
IS - 5
ER -