Conversational Length and Balance in Mother-Child Discussions about Sibling Conflicts: The Roles of Culture and...

The present study explored the roles of culture, maternal education, and child gender in the conversational length and balance of mother-child discussions about sibling conflicts.

Participants included 77 African American, 82 European American, and 86 U.S. Mexican dyads (child M age = 10.54 years, 47% girls). Mothers and children were given eight minutes to discuss three areas of conflict. The overall number of conversational turns was summed; the numbers of maternal and child words, and conversational turns, were summed in the sibling conflict portion of the larger conversation.

African American mothers' and children's words per turn were positively correlated. This association was negative among U.S. Mexican dyads and non-significant among European American dyads. Whereas European American and U.S. Mexican dyads who preferred to speak English did not differ in conversational length, U.S. Mexican dyads who preferred to speak Spanish had shorter conversations than other groups. Controlling for maternal education eliminated many cultural group differences. Mother-daughter dyads had longer sibling conflict discussions than mother-son dyads.

Conversational length and balance are separable and unique metrics that provide insight into underlying cultural and gendered influences on parent-child conflict conversations.