The Relation Between Parenting, Children's Social Understanding and Language

This research will extend our earlier ESRC longitudinal study examining relations between parenting and 3-to-5 year-olds' social understanding (SU) and language (R00023701). Some of our main findings were that: (1) mothers' talk about mental states facilitates children's later SU, (2) advanced language in children shapes later parenting styles (rather than vice versa as typically conceptualised), and (3) advanced SU in children shown by mental state talk leads to a more cooperative child. Using this very rich data set we will follow up our children between 8 and 11 years, examining mothers' own SU and general language ability to determine whether it is mothers' talk that facilitates children's SU, or there is some kind of genetic predisposition (evident in mothers' own SU and language) that causes the link. We will also examine children's implicit SU. No study examined such relations into middle childhood, mothers' own abilities, or how parenting links to implicit SU