Omosiuwa Enakpene
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Ella Simmons
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology / LSA
Program: UROP
Session: Session 4 (1:40pm – 2:30pm)
Authors: Omosiuwa Enakpene, Ella Simmons
Abstract
In this study of language and cognition, we examine the language parents use with their children in relation to their own views on parenting. Parents have profound roles in the development of their kids and vary in their parenting style (i.e., authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian). We presented 94 parents with a set of prompts and asked them to give a written response as if they were talking to their child. Next, we examined their written responses to identify parents’ use of commands. Commands include phrases like “stop!†or ‘“Come here.†They often imply “You†as the subject and are also referred to as imperatives. In addition to providing written responses, parents completed the Revised Parental Authority Questionnaire in order to assess their attitudes about parenting styles. We predicted that participants’ parenting styles would correlate with their use of commands. In particular, we speculate that more authoritarian parents are more likely to use commands, whereas permissive parents are less to use commands. Our data revealed a relation with parents’ preference for authoritative values: Parents who prefer authoritative parenting attitudes over permissive attitudes used commands less frequently as their preference increased. While these findings diverge from our prediction, they do confirm that parenting attitudes are related to how parents choose to communicate. Knowing the relationship between the use of imperative language and parenting beliefs could help individuals and social groups by providing more knowledge on the nuanced differences in word choices. Findings from this study may also provide an indirect avenue for identifying parenting attitudes from individuals’ language choices.
