Telling stories: Gender differences in peers’ emotion talk and communication style

Sarah Pritchard

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Eighty girls and 64 boys (M= 6 years; 8 months, SD= .65) narrated a wordless picture book in mixed- or same-gender dyads. In mixed-gender as well as same-gender dyads, girls used more emotion explanations than did boys. Combined across dyad type, girls used more emotion labels than did boys. Girls used a higher proportion of collaborative speech acts than did boys in same-gender dyads, but girls and boys used the same amount in mixed-gender dyads. Whereas girls used a higher proportion of informing acts in mixed-gender dyads than did boys, boys used more than did girls in same-gender dyads. The findings support contextual models of gender and suggest that speaker as well as partner gender influence emotion expression and conversational style.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-15
Number of pages15
JournalBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology
Volume29
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 29 Nov 2010

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