Past research indicates that mothers have different styles of reminisc
ing with their children (e.g., R. Fivush & F. A. Fromhoff, 1988). This
study examined fathers' styles of talking about the past as well. Mot
hers and fathers from 24 2-parent families talked separately with thei
r 3-year-olds about shared one-time events. Consistent with previous r
esearch on mothers, parents displayed 2 distinct narrative styles. The
styles were not associated with gender of parent. However, parents of
daughters were generally more elaborative (i.e., they provided more n
arrative structure and talked longer) than parents of sons. In turn, d
aughters participated in the conversations to a greater extent than so
ns, but sons and daughters had similar linguistic skills. Parents do n
ot appear to be basing their narrative styles on the memory or languag
e capabilities of their children. Instead. the practice of reminiscing
may be a sex-typed activity.