GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PARENT-CHILD CONVERSATIONS ABOUT PAST EMOTIONS - A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION

In this longitudinal investigation we examined the emotional content o f 17 white middle-class parents' conversations about past events with their children at 40 and 70 months of age. Parents' use of emotion lan guage did not differ depending upon parent gender but strong differenc es were found in parents' use of emotion terms depending upon child ge nder parents' references to emotion were more frequent and varied with daughters than with sons. They also mentioned sadness and disliking m ore often with daughters than with sons. While no differences were fou nd between girls and boys at 40 months of age, by 70 months, girls men tioned more unique emotion terms than did boys. Children more frequent ly used emotion terms with their fathers than with their mothers. Age- related changes in parents' and children's use of emotion language wer e also documented The role of conversations about the past in the diff erential emotion socialization of girls and boys is discussed.