Predictors of preschoolers' self-knowledge: Reference to emotion and mental states in mother-child conversation about past events

Reference to emotion and mental states were expected to predict the organiz ation of children's self-knowledge. Thirty-three 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds (17 females and 15 males) discussed 4 past events with their mothers. Conversat ions were coded for emotional content and reference to mental states. Child ren completed the Children's Self-View Questionnaire (CSVQ; Eder, 1990). Or ganization of self-knowledge was defined as the consistency with which chil dren rated themselves as either high or low with respect to the disposition s indexed by the CSVQ. Hierarchical multiple regression showed that referen ce to emotion was a significant predictor of organization scores after cont rolling for linguistic skill, but that mental state reference was not. Moth ers initiated talk about emotion more often than their children did. The re sults are consistent with theories of the early social construction of the self-concept and have implications for developing models of autobiographica l memory.