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Published on: September 19, 2019
Exploring Personal Narrative Coherence in 10-Year-Old Children: A Global Study Using the Global TALES Protocol.
Marleen F Westerveld1, Stephanie Malone2, Carol Westby3
1Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, Southport, Queensland, Australia.
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
|June 23, 2026
Summary
This study explored personal narrative coherence in 417 children from diverse backgrounds using the Global TALES protocol. Results showed significant effects of participant group and prompt type on coherence, highlighting the need for culturally sensitive assessment tools.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Clinical Linguistics
Background:
- Assessing children's narrative coherence is crucial in multicultural societies.
- Existing tools may not adequately capture variations across diverse cultural and linguistic groups.
- The Global Talking About Lived Experiences in Stories (TALES) protocol offers a potential solution for eliciting narratives.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate personal narrative coherence in children from varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
- To investigate the impact of prompt emotional valence (positive, negative, neutral) on narrative coherence.
- To explore potential interactions between cultural/linguistic background and prompt type.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study of 417 ten-year-old children from 19 countries, speaking 18 languages.
- Personal narratives elicited using the Global TALES protocol with happy, angry, and problem prompts.
- Narratives coded for coherence using the Narrative Coherence Coding Scheme (NaCCS), analyzed with linear mixed models.
Main Results:
- Significant main effects of participant group and prompt type on overall narrative coherence.
- The problem prompt yielded more coherent narratives than the angry prompt.
- Notable variations in coherence across culture/language groups, particularly in the theme dimension.
Conclusions:
- The Global TALES protocol is effective for eliciting personal narratives from diverse children.
- The NaCCS coding scheme is a viable method for assessing narrative coherence across groups.
- Future work aims to refine coding and expand samples for clinical integration.
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