Talking about internal states in mother–child reminiscing influences children\u27s self-representations: A cross-cultural study

This study examined the relation of mother–child discussions of internal states during reminiscing to the development of trait and evaluative self-representations in 131 European American and Chinese immigrant 3-year olds. Mothers and children discussed one positive and one negative event, and children were interviewed for self-descriptions. Euro-American mothers and children made more references to internal states and focused more on causal talk than did Chinese, and Euro-American children were more likely than Chinese children to describe their own traits and evaluative characteristics. Mothers’ and children\u27s use of internal state language during reminiscing of the negative event uniquely predicted children\u27s trait and evaluative self-representations, independent of culture. Explanations of internal states and conversing in the negative event context were particularly effective in predicting children\u27s self-representations. Discussions of internal states further mediated cultural influences on children\u27s self-representations. The findings provide new insight into the contribution of parent–child reminiscing to the development of self