CONTEXTUAL VARIATION IN MATERNAL CONVERSATIONAL STYLES

The consistency of individual maternal conversational styles was asses sed across two different contexts: tree-play and conversations about p ast events. Twenty-two White, middle-class mother-child pairs particip ated when the children were 40 months old. During separate sessions, m others played with their children using a provided toy and elicited th eir children's memories of shared past experiences. Cluster analyses r evealed two distinct maternal styles in free-play and two comparable m aternal styles of talking about the past. Most important, individual m others' styles were found to vary across the different contexts. The f indings suggest that mother-child dyads must be observed in multiple c ontexts to adequately characterize relations between maternal styles a nd children's language and narrative development. Further implications of maternal styles as reflecting context-sensitive strategies are dis cussed.