Moderators of Gender Effects on Parent’s Talk to Their Children: A Meta-Analysis

Another meta-analysis examined the specialized context of parents’ language with their children. They did not include self-report studies in their meta-analysis, and as a result had significantly different findings from earlier parent-child speech meta-analyses. Leaper, Anderson, & Sanders (1998) identified two types of speech: supportive speech, which they defined as “positively responsive,” was associated with mothers’ speech and is comparable to Leaper & Ayres’ affiliative speech; and directive speech, which the authors associated with fathers’ speech and is comparable to assertive speech (although Leaper & Ayres’ “assertive speech” included criticism and giving information, which were not included in Leaper, Anderson, & Sanders’ “directive speech”). The authors’ findings included: 1) “mothers tended to use more supportive language strategies with their children than did fathers;” 2) fathers used more directive and informative language as well as asked more questions; 3) mothers were more talkative with daughters than with sons (p. 12).

Significantly for the focus of this paper, Leaper, Anderson, & Sanders (1998) found that “In general, mothers were more likely to demonstrate higher amounts of verbal interaction” (p. 21): mothers spoke to their children more. This is in line with Leaper & Ayres’ (2007) findings that the presence of a child was a significant moderator in women’s talkativeness.