Whose Mental States Matter? Differential Effects of Maternal Mental State Talk on Canadian and Singaporean Children’s Internalizing Problems

Parent-child conversations serve as conduits through which culturally adaptive norms/expectations/behaviours are transmitted to children. In individualistic contexts in which independence and assertiveness are valued, it may be more beneficial for parents to emphasize their children’s own mental states, while in collectivistic contexts in which interdependence and deference are valued, it may be more important for parents to encourage children to attend to others’ mental states. In this study, we examined how mothers’ emphasis on either their children’s or their own mental states predicted preschoolers’ socio-emotional adjustment in a Canadian and Singaporean context.

Forty European-Canadian, 67 Chinese-Singaporean, and 68 Malay-Singaporean mothers and their preschool children were videotaped interacting during a five-minute snack task. Interactions were coded for the number of 15-second intervals in which mothers referred to their child and/or their own mental state. Mothers also reported on children’s socio-emotional problems using the Child Behavior Checklist, which yielded internalizing and externalizing problem scores.

European-Canadian mothers’ references to children’s mental states (but not their own) negatively predicted children’s internalizing problems. In contrast, Chinese- and Malay-Singaporean mothers’ references to their own mental states (but not children’s) negatively predicted children’s internalizing problems. No significant associations with externalizing problems were found.

Results suggest that in a more individualistic context, socialization practices that emphasize the self are relatively more important to socio-emotional functioning, while in more collectivistic contexts, emphasis on close authority figures are relatively more important. This pattern of findings is consistent with the notion that universal developmental outcomes can be achieved via culture-specific pathways.