Mother’s Personal Intelligence and Conversation Style Predicts the
Amount of Emotion and Personality Talk with Her Child
Introduction
Importance of parent-child conversation
• Researchers have demonstrated reliable individual
differences in maternal reminiscing, so that mothers typically
possess a high or low elaborative style in conversations with
their children (e.g., Fivush, 1991; Leichtman, Pillemer, Wang,
Koreishi, & Han, 2000; Song & Wang, 2013).
• Mothers who initiate and elaborate on emotion and internal
state talk have children who in turn more frequently reference
their personal emotional state and the emotions and motives
of others (Brown & Dunn, 1991; Brownell, Svetlova,
Anderson, Nichols, & Drummond, 2002; Garner, Dunsmore,
Southam-Gerrow, 2008).
• Theorists have speculated that children’s conversations with
others, and social interactions more generally, play a critical
role in the development of their understanding of personality
(Carpendale & Lewis, 2004).
The role of Personal Intelligence in conversations
• Where do differences in the style and content of mother-
child conversations originate? Culture and family tradition
impact the nature of mother-child conversations, but might
there be individual differences between mothers that also play
a role?
• Personal Intelligence concerns the capacity to reason about
personality in oneself and others, e.g., identifying clues to
personality, forming models of personality and guiding
choices and making plans in view of personality-related
information (Mayer, Panter, & Caruso, 2012).
• Children as young as 5 possess the ability to evaluate
behavior and assign relevant personality traits to the actor
(Alvarez, Ruble, & Bolger, 2001).
• It would be interesting to understand more about Personal
Intelligence’s contribution because evidence strongly
indicates that people can be educated and thereby improve
their reasoning about personality.
Erin M. Kenney, Michelle D. Leichtman, and John D. Mayer
Department of Psychology - University of New Hampshire
Purpose Discussion
• The purpose of this study was to: a) examine individual • Mothers varied in the degree to which they engaged in
differences in mother-child conversations about people rich discussions about people with their children. Mothers
and b) explore the relationship between mothers’ who were high in elaboration also tended to be high in
Personal Intelligence and the content of these mother- evaluations and talk about emotion and personality. In
child conversations. turn, children of mothers who were higher in these
elements of speech also tended to use more elaborations,
evaluations, and talk about personality traits and
emotions.
Methods
Participants • Mothers higher in Personal Intelligence, as measured by
• 36 mother-child dyads participated Results the TOPI MINI-12, used more personality trait and
emotion talk when speaking with their children than
• 19 female and 17 male children
Coding mothers lower in Personal Intelligence.
• 1st – 3rd grade children (M = 8 years, 5 months)
• Mothers were college educated (90%),
Caucasian (92%), and native English speakers • Mother-child conversations were coded for:  a) • These findings suggest that stable individual differences
(94%). reminiscing style including elaborations and evaluations, in mothers’ reasoning about personality-related concepts
b) emotion talk, and c) personality trait talk following predict how they converse about personality and emotion
Procedure previously established coding schemes (e.g., Leichtman with their children. This may in turn have implications for
et al., 2000; Song & Wang, 2013). the development of children’s understanding of
• Mothers completed the Test of Personal Intelligence
Mini-12 (Mayer, Panter, & Caruso, 2012), and a personality.
demographic questionnaire via Qualtrics.1 • Elaborations included “times when mothers introduced
a topic for discussion, moved the conversation to a new • The findings require replication and extension.
• Mothers recorded a conversation with their child at aspect or event, or added information regarding a
home following written instructions. Mothers were particular aspect” (Song & Wang, 2013, p. 285). • These findings point to one possible contributor to
asked to talk with their child about four specific differences in mother-child conversations. The potential
topics. They were instructed to talk the way they exists for mothers to be trained in reasoning in this area.
normally would and to take as long as they needed for • Mothers’ evaluations consisted of “providing
each topic. evaluative feedback on children's previous statement”
(Song & Wang, p. 285). References
Alvarez, J. M., Ruble, D. N., & Bolger, N. (2001). Trait understanding or evaluative reasoning? An
• Conversation prompts were: analysis of children's behavioral predictions. Child Development, 72(5), 1409-1425.
Major Findings Brown, J. R., & Dunn, J. (1991). 'You can cry, mum': The social and developmental implications of
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1. Comparison of two relatives the Brownell, C. A., Svetlova, M., Anderson, R., Nichols, S. R., & Drummond, J. (2013). Socialization
child knew well. • Mothers’ elaboration was positively correlated with their of early prosocial behavior: Parent's talk about emotions is associated with sharing and helping in
toddlers. Infancy, 18(1), 91-119. DOI:10.1111/j.1532-7078.2012.00125.x
evaluations (r(34) = .31, p = .07) and emotion talk (r(34) = Carpendale, J. I. M., & Lewis, C. (2004). Constructing an understanding of mind: The
2. Comparison of the child to others. .58, p = .001), suggesting an elaborative “style.” 2 development of children's social understanding within social interaction. Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 27, 79-151.
Fivush, R. (1991). Gender and emotion in mother-child conversations about the past. Journal of
3. Recollection and discussion of a
• Mothers’ elaboration (r(34) = .75, p <. 001), evaluations
Narrative and Life History, 1, 325–341. 4
recent negative interaction with a Garner, P. W., Dunsmore, J. C., & Southam-Gerrow, M. (2008). Mother-child conversations about
(r(34) = .63, p < .001), personality trait talk (r(34) = .46, p = emotions:Linkages to child aggression and prosocial behavior. Social Development, 17(2), 259-
peer and description what the 277.
peer was like.
.005) and emotion talk (r(34) = .54, p = .001) were Leichtman, M. D., Pillemer, D. B., Wang, Q., Koreishi, A., & Han, J. J., (2000). When baby Maisy
positively correlated with the same variables among came to school: Mothers' interview styles and preschoolers' event memories. Cognitive
Development, 15, 99-114.
children, indicating consistency within dyads.
4. Recollection and discussion of a Liu, D., Gelman, S. A., Wellman, H. M. (2007). Components of young children's trait
understanding: Behavior-to-trait inferences and trait-to-behavior predictions. Child Development,
recent positive interaction with a 78(5), 1543-1558.
peer and description what the • Mothers’ TOPI MINI-12 scores were positively correlated
Mayer, J. D., Panter, A. T., & Caruso, D. R. (2012). Does personal intelligence exist? Evidence
peer was like.
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Song, Q., & Wang, Q. (2013). Mother-child reminiscing about peer experiences and children's
emotion talk (r(34) = .33, p = .05) when they conversed with
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1 Mothers also completed a child behavior assessment and children participated 2 Reported findings are partial correlations controlling for age.
*This research was part of the first author ’ s masters thesis at the University of New Hampshire and paid for
in a story completion task not described here. by the Department of Psychology*