Financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample
Abstract Socioeconomic status predicts the quantity and nature of child-directed speech that parents produce. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. This study investigated whether the cognitive load imposed by resource scarcity suppresses parent talk by examining time-...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13177-2 |
| _version_ | 1817968852421574656 |
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| author | Erin Roby Rose M. Scott |
| author_facet | Erin Roby Rose M. Scott |
| author_sort | Erin Roby |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Socioeconomic status predicts the quantity and nature of child-directed speech that parents produce. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. This study investigated whether the cognitive load imposed by resource scarcity suppresses parent talk by examining time-dependent variation in child-directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample. We predicted that child-directed speech would be lowest at the end of the month when Americans report the greatest financial strain. 166 parents and their 2.5 to 3-year-old children (80 female) participated in a picture-book activity; the number of utterances, word tokens, and word types used by parents were calculated. All three parent language measures were negatively correlated with the date of the month the activity took place, and this relationship did not vary with parental education. These findings suggest that above and beyond individual properties of parents, contextual factors such as financial concerns exert influence on how parents interact with their children. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T20:14:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-df31b30dd0b344d0a437de6f376267f5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T20:14:03Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-df31b30dd0b344d0a437de6f376267f52022-12-22T02:31:46ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-06-0112111110.1038/s41598-022-13177-2Financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sampleErin Roby0Rose M. Scott1Department of Pediatrics, NYU Grossman School of MedicinePsychological Sciences, University of California MercedAbstract Socioeconomic status predicts the quantity and nature of child-directed speech that parents produce. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. This study investigated whether the cognitive load imposed by resource scarcity suppresses parent talk by examining time-dependent variation in child-directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample. We predicted that child-directed speech would be lowest at the end of the month when Americans report the greatest financial strain. 166 parents and their 2.5 to 3-year-old children (80 female) participated in a picture-book activity; the number of utterances, word tokens, and word types used by parents were calculated. All three parent language measures were negatively correlated with the date of the month the activity took place, and this relationship did not vary with parental education. These findings suggest that above and beyond individual properties of parents, contextual factors such as financial concerns exert influence on how parents interact with their children.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13177-2 |
| spellingShingle | Erin Roby Rose M. Scott Financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample Scientific Reports |
| title | Financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample |
| title_full | Financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample |
| title_fullStr | Financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample |
| title_full_unstemmed | Financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample |
| title_short | Financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample |
| title_sort | financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13177-2 |
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