G4 Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
Communication between parents and children in experimental situations (1988)
Vanhempien ja lasten kommunikointi strukturoiduissa tilanteissa

Rasku-Puttonen, H. (1988). Communication between parents and children in experimental situations [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Jyväskylä. Jyväskylä studies in education, psychology and social research, 65. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-8572-1

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Rasku-Puttonen, Helena

ISBN: 951-679-982-5

eISBN: 978-951-39-8572-1

Journal or series: Jyväskylä studies in education, psychology and social research

ISSN: 0075-4625

Publication year: 1988

Number in series: 65

Number of pages in the book: 71

Publisher: University of Jyväskylä

Place of Publication: Jyväskylä

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: English

Persistent website address: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-8572-1

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Publication is parallel published (JYX): http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-8572-1

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was (1) to investigate the claim that both verbal and nonverbal communication styles are related to the social and educational background of the parents, (2) to shed light on the discrepant findings of sex differences in family interaction, (3) to examine parent-child communication in different contexts, and ( 4) to attempt to escribe interaction at different levels of analysis. Two experiments were carried out. The subjects in the first experiment were 40 Finnish first graders and their mothers or fathers. The subjects in the second experiment were 48 Finnish families with a four-year-old child. The families were divided into equal groups of lower and higher parental education. The first experiment was carried out in the laboratory and the second one in two stages: the first in a laboratory setting and the second in a laboratory setting or at home. The videotaped situations consisted of different cooperative tasks. The results showed that parental education is not of central importance in everyday communication. There were, however, differences between the two education groups in regard to parents' teaching styles and patterns of communication. The results of the first experiment showed that the parents with a higher education level explained the rules of the game in an exact fashion before playing. Moreover, the results .of the second experiment replicated this finding in that the parents with higher education levels used more mental operational demands in teaching their child than did parents with a lower education level. Many parents with a higher education level also treated their child as an active participant in a problem-solving task by trying to stimulate the child with questions and pieces of information to enable the child to arrive at solutions and to correct mistakes. Only a few minor differences were found in the communication between mothers and fathers as well as between girls and boys. Instead, the particular nature of the tasks and the phase of the task was found to be essential to the forms of interaction.

Keywords: interaction; linguistic interaction; children (age groups); parents; parent-child relationship; communication; family members; educational background

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes