U.S. and Chilean Mothers’ Use of Mental References With Infant Girls and Boys: Comparison of Maternal Practices in Gender Socialization via Language in Two Countries

Abstract

Variability in parents’ socialization of gender across countries has been understudied. To address the gap, this study compares U.S. and Chilean mothers’ practices in socialization of gender through use of mental state language. Drawing on 90 Chilean and 52 U.S. mother–infant dyads, we examined variation in the frequencies of mothers’ utterances of five types of mental references—emotion, desire, physiological states, causal talk, and cognition—to determine whether they varied by country and infant gender. Infant age ranged between 10 and 15 months. The frequencies with which both U.S. and Chilean mothers in our sample talked about most mental references did not vary according to infant gender, with the exceptions of causal talk in the United States. Specifically, the U.S. mothers used more causal talk with girls than boys. There were more similarities than differences in maternal use of the mental references in the U.S. and Chilean samples. This study did not observe gendered socialization practices through the use of these mental references in infancy among the U.S. and Chilean mothers. Instead, the current study suggests that, using mothers’ mental references in the child’s first year as the indicator, both gender-neutral and cross-gendered socialization practices emerge in the United States, and only gender-neutral socialization practices emerge in Chile.

Keywords

cross-cultural research mother–infant dyad mental references socialization of gender

Introduction

From birth, children’s sex starts to affect the parenting practices children experience (Leaper & Friedman, 2007). From the perspective of ecological and sociocultural models, parenting practices in socialization of gender likely reflect gender roles and divisions in a larger society (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998; Leaper, 2002; Leaper & Friedman, 2007). For example, meta-analyses indicate that parents begin using different practices with boys and girls from birth, such as the toys they provide (e.g., vehicles and military toys for boys; dolls and housewares for girls) and bedroom decoration (e.g., the color blue and animal motifs for boys, the color pink and floral motifs for girls; Leaper, Anderson, & Sanders, 1998; Lytton & Romney, 1991; see Fausto-Sterling, García, Coll, & Lamarre, 2012, for a review). These practices reflect some typical ideologies for gender roles, for example, men are expected to engage in mechanical-related activities, whereas women are expected to engage in household work (Fausto-Sterling et al., 2012).

Different parenting practices by child gender also emerge in parents’ use of language with children from birth, such as using more supportive speech (e.g., praise), talking longer, and providing more elaboration about past events with girls than boys (Leaper et al., 1998; Reese & Fivush, 1993; Reese & Newcombe, 2007). Among various types of parenting practices, parents’ use of language is one of the crucial mediums to socialize gender roles that are expected in the larger society (e.g., Dennis, Talih, Cole, Zahn-Waxler, & Mizuta, 2007; LaBounty, Wellman, Olson, Lagattuta, & Liu, 2008; Tenenbaum, 2009). The use of language as a means of gender socialization includes parents’ references to mental states (e.g., thoughts, emotions) that they attribute to the child, themselves, or others in conversations with children (Taumoepeau & Ruffman, 2006, 2008). Some prior research has found that parents’ mental state references in conversation with their children are part of practices in gender socialization in toddlerhood, middle childhood, and adolescence in the United States and other countries (e.g., Japan, Peru; Chang, Sandhofer, & Brown, 2011; Dennis et al., 2007; Melzi & Fernández, 2004; Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2003). However, it is not clear when this gender socialization practice emerges, and if it emerges in infancy, what kinds of gender differences there are in parents’ mental state talk. To address this research gap, the present study examines whether there are differences in mothers’ use of mental references with boys and girls aged between 10 and 15 months.

Departing from the majority of research on gender socialization, which is typically focused on U.S. samples (see the review of Leaper & Friedman, 2007), this study compared use of mental state language of mothers from two countries, the United States and Chile. Our reason for focusing on these two groups of mothers is that although the U.S. and Chilean societies have common gender roles and divisions, the two societies have different emphases on these distinctions: Although gender divisions have started to diminish in contemporary U.S. society, there remain different gender role expectations in many areas, with women being expected to be caregivers who show concern for others’ emotional and physical needs, whereas men are expected to be the primary breadwinners, assertive, and advanced in cognitively demanding careers (Tamis-Lemonda & McFadden, 2010). As similar in the U.S. society, although some signs of gender divisions have emerged (e.g., more women sharing the breadwinner’s responsibility), the above gender divisions have also been emphasized in the Chilean society (Contreras & Plaza, 2010; Nierman, Thompson, Bryan, & Mahaffey, 2007). However, the two countries are different in levels of gender equality. For example, the report of United Nations (United Nations Statistics Division [UNSD], 2014) indicates that compared with the U.S. counterparts, Chilean women and men share less equal power to make influential decisions (lower percentages of female members in government in Chile), and less equal responsibilities to be breadwinners (lower female labor force participation rate in Chile). Given that parenting practices in gender socialization likely reflect gender roles and divisions in a larger society (Leaper & Friedman, 2007), both similarities and differences in parenting practices in gender socialization are possible among U.S. and Chilean mothers. Thus, by studying the use of mental state language by mothers from the U.S. and Chilean societies, this study has the potential to contribute to knowledge on how larger societies’ values are reflected in parents’ socialization practices across countries and cross-country variations and similarities in the parental socialization of gender in early childhood.

To examine variations in U.S. and Chilean mothers’ use of mental references according to infant gender, this study examined five types of mental references in mothers’ speech during a story-sharing task, including cognition, causal talk, desire, emotion, and physiological states. Traditionally, causal talk and physiological states are not counted as types of mental references (Taumoepeau & Ruffman, 2006, 2008). In this study, however, these two types of speech were included as mental state talk for the following reasoning. The use of causal talk in mothers’ speech indicates that mothers think children are able to understand complex ideas and relationships between things, and it promotes the child’s mental work of understanding causation. Furthermore, the use of physiological states in mothers’ speech indicates that mothers think children are able to understand one’s physiological states that cannot be observed, such as feeling sleepy or hungry. Thus, the use of both types of speech reflects parents’ references to mental states, and promotion of more complex thinking in their children.

Each type of mental state talk may reflect parents’ emphasis on a particular capacity or characteristic. Cognition and causal talk has been described as being related to logical thinking that is one of the crucial capacities for being successful in science and mathematics (Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2003). Desire reflects the emphasis on assertiveness (Dennis et al., 2007). Paying attention to others’ emotions and physiological states (e.g., hunger or sleepiness) is often defined as one of the crucial characteristics associated with feminine-typed attributes (e.g., nurturance) and caregiving (Leaper & Friedman, 2007). In addition, particularly regarding emotion, some research notes that parents’ socialization of emotion can vary by types of emotions (e.g., talking more about sadness and fear with girls while more about anger with boys; Bird & Reese, 2006; see Fivush & Buckner, 2003, for a review). Even so, socializing children to be sensitive to emotions is often considered as a means of fostering their capacities in affiliation (interpersonal sensitive and responsiveness)—one typical feminine-type attribute (Leaper & Friedman, 2007). In the U.S. and Chilean societies, women are still expected to be caregivers and to be affiliative, whereas men are expected to be advanced in science and mathematics and to be assertive (Contreras & Plaza, 2010; Ma, 2008; Tamis-LeMonda & McFadden, 2010); thus, examining mothers’ use of these specific types of mental state references has the potential to reveal whether U.S. and Chilean mothers engage in gendered, gender-neutral, or cross-gendered socialization practices via language in infancy.

Gender Divisions in the United States and Chile

Both contemporary U.S. and Chilean societies are in a state of transition with respect to gender divisions: Although some signs of diminished boundaries of gender divisions and inequities have emerged, traditional gender divisions remain in many areas (Andrade, 1992; Contreras & Plaza, 2010; Tamis-Lemonda & McFadden, 2010). In both societies, for example, signs of diminished gender divisions and inequities include increases in female labor force participation among women with and without children, and percentages of dual-earning families (Larrañaga, 2007; U.S. Bureau of Labor [USBL], 2014). On the contrary, traditional gender divisions are observed in types of occupation and married adult labor force participation in both the societies. Men are overrepresented in engineering and mathematical professions and careers that center on decision making (e.g., members of parliament), whereas women dominate many care-providing professions (Ma, 2008; Mizala & Torche, 2012; National Science Foundation [NSF], 2015; UNSD, 2014). Furthermore, more married men than married women are in labor force (Larrañaga, 2007; USBL, 2014).

Despite their commonalities, the two societies also have difference in gender divisions and equality. Among 187 countries on the report of United Nations (UNSD, 2014), Chile ranked at a somewhat lower level for gender equality (68th) compared with the United States (47th). The gender equality is reflected in empowerment (e.g., percentages of seats in parliament held by women) and labor market (e.g., labor force participation by women); compared with the U.S. counterparts, Chilean women are less likely to participate in the labor market and hold less power to make influential decisions (UNSD, 2014). Thus, although gender divisions have started to blur in both societies, particularly in terms of the boundary between being a breadwinner and caregiver for women, distinctions in gender roles remain substantial in many areas, and are more exaggerated in Chile. Men dominate cognitively and executively demanding professions and are more likely the primary breadwinners; women more often engage in care-providing careers that demand nurturance and affiliation, associated with capacities of sensitivity to others’ emotion and physiological states.

Socialization of Gender in the United States and Chile

Ecological and sociocultural models emphasize that larger societies’ values can shape parents’ practices in socializing gender such as through the ways parents talk to their children (Leaper, 2002; Leaper & Friedman, 2007). The previous reviews of contemporary U.S. and Chilean societies suggest that the distinctions in gender roles remain substantial in both societies, with men expected to be advanced in cognitively and executively demanding professions and to be primary breadwinners, whereas women are more likely primary caregivers in the family and engage in care-providing careers. Accordingly, U.S. and Chilean parents likely use mental references to socialize their young children into these gender roles, which reflect the values of their societies. In addition, as the Chilean society scored lower in gender equality than the United States (UNSD, 2014), Chilean parents may be more likely to exercise gendered socialization practices than U.S. parents overall. Alternatively, the previous review also indicates some signs of diminished gender divisions in both societies, particularly in terms of the boundary between being a breadwinner and caregiver for women. Thus, parents in the United States and Chile may exercise gender-neutral or cross-gendered socialization practices with their young children, particularly in terms of socialization associated with characteristics of caregivers, such as paying attention to emotions and physiological states. For example, parents in the United States and Chile may talk about emotions and physiological states to infant girls and boys with similar frequency (gender-neutral socialization) or more with boys than with girls (cross-gendered socialization) to keep up with the shifts in gender roles expected for females.

Empirical findings on the U.S. parents’ socialization practices via mental state talk are primarily based on ethnic majority (European American) dominant samples of toddlers or older children, with suggestion that gendered, gender-neutral, and cross-gendered socialization practices via mental state talk are all likely. Specifically, in our review, except for Nelson, Leerkes, O’Brien, Calkins, and Marcovitch (2012), all the studies discussed below on U.S. parents’ mental state talk were based on European American dominant samples. In the case of talk about emotions and physiological states, studies document that both fathers and mothers exercise gendered socialization practices via mental references, that is, talking more about emotion (e.g., sad-event-related emotions and thoughts and desires about emotions) and physiological states with preschool- and school-age girls (Fivush, Brotman, Buckner, & Goodman, 2000; LaBounty et al., 2008). Moreover, research suggests ethnic difference in parents’ gendered socialization practices via mental references to emotions within the U.S. population. For example, Nelson et al. (2012) found that the degrees to which African American mothers performed gendered socialization practices via emotional talk with preschoolers are stronger than the degrees exercised by European American mothers. In contrast to these findings of gendered socialization practices, one study suggests that mothers employed gender-neutral practices via mental references, that is, exercising similar frequencies of talking about emotions and physiological states with toddler and preschool boys and girls (Denham, Zoller, & Couchoud, 1994). Research on desire-related language (e.g., wants, needs, preferences) indicates that cross-gendered socialization practices are likely in U.S. families, albeit empirical research is thin. One study on U.S. preschool-age children documented that mothers employed cross-gendered socialization practices in fostering autonomy and relatedness (Dennis et al., 2007). Specifically, mothers encouraged their girls’ expressions of autonomy more than their boys’. By contrast, these mothers fostered relatedness with both boys and girls equally.

In the case of causal and cognitive talk, empirical research documents both gendered and cross-gendered socialization practices in U.S. families. A number of studies show that both fathers and mothers employ gendered socialization practices, that is, using more cognitively demanding talk, such as causal explanation and thinking-fostering questions, with boys than with girls, based on the samples of toddlers, preschoolers, and adolescents (Chang et al., 2011; Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2003). By contrast, LaBounty and colleagues (2008) found that U.S. mothers made more references to cognitive mental states when talking with preschool- and school-age girls than boys.

The above mixed findings (including gendered, gender-neutral, and cross-gendered socialization practices) may be explained by many factors, such as child age, types of mental references, and methods of eliciting mental references. Identifying possible factors requires some systematical comparisons, such as comparing different child age groups in a given condition (a particular type of mental reference paired with a particular method of eliciting) and then moving on to another condition and so on. The amounts of studies so far are not large enough to allow for such comparison. Thus, based on prior research on toddlers and older children, it remains inconclusive regarding associations between child age, context (e.g., type of mental references), and U.S. parents’ practices in gender socialization through mental references.

The majority of the research on parents’ practices in gender socialization has focused on U.S. populations, with little effort in addressing potential cross-country variations. Some of these efforts were made by Dennis et al. (2007), suggesting that Japanese mothers foster autonomy more with boys, whereas U.S. mothers foster autonomy less with boys. This likely reflects differences in larger societies’ values: Masculine ideology (e.g., men should be assertive) is more valued in Japan than in the United States (Hofstede, 1998). Their findings shed light to how larger societies’ values are reflected in parents’ socialization practices across countries. Following this vein, comparing U.S. and Chilean parents’ practices in gender socialization via mental references has the potential to address some interesting questions. For example, do Chilean parents exercise gendered socialization practices that reflect their society’s values as some prior findings on U.S. parents? Alternatively, do Chilean parents exercise gender-neutral/cross-gendered socialization practices that reflect some signs of the diminished boundaries of gender divisions? Furthermore, as the Chilean society scored lower in gender equality than the U.S. society (UNSD, 2014), are Chilean parents more likely to exercise gendered socialization practices than U.S. parents?

The above questions remain unknown as there is a lack of empirical research on Chilean parents’ practices in gender socialization, including practices via mental references. Despite this, there is evidence that Chilean adults advocate for clear gender-division expectations; for example, drawing on national data, Contreras and Plaza (2010) found that approximately 80% of Chilean adults agreed that women working full-time has negative effects on family life, such as child rearing and domestic work. Another study on college students suggests that Chilean young adults tend to hold traditional perspectives toward gender roles, for example, that men should be assertive and make the major decisions (Nierman et al., 2007). Accordingly, Chilean mothers may still employ gendered socialization practices.

Present Study

The main goals of this study are to examine whether the frequencies of maternal mental state utterances—specifically references to cognition, emotion, desire, physiological states, and causes—differ by infant gender, and whether these differences are the same between families in central regions of the United States and Chile. Testing these questions requires a model examining the interaction effect of infant gender by country sample (United States vs. Chile) on frequencies of maternal utterances by type of mental reference while controlling for main effects of infant gender and country. Accordingly, we examine threefold comparisons: (1) infant gender differences in frequencies of each type of maternal mental state reference combined across countries, (2) country differences in frequencies of each type of mental state reference combined across infant genders, and (3) infant gender differences in frequencies in each type within each country. Together, these comparisons address what kind of practice central U.S. and Chilean mothers use in early gender socialization via mental state references, and whether this practice is similar or different in the two countries.

As the tests of main effects of infant gender and country are supplementary (comparisons 1 and 2 above), and this study is primarily interested in examining potential variations across these samples of U.S. and Chilean families in terms of infant gender differences in frequencies of maternal mental state references by each type of mental references (comparison 3 above), we do not have specific hypotheses for overall gender and country differences; these comparisons are examined exploratorily. However, for the Gender × Country comparison, we have some expectations. For the U.S. families, we do not have a specific hypothesis regarding whether frequencies of U.S. mothers’ mental references vary according to infant gender for the following reasoning. First, the contemporary U.S. society is in a transitioning status, with some signs of the blurred boundaries of gender divisions accompanied by the existence of a number of traditional gender divisions. Moreover, prior research remains inconclusive regarding U.S. parents’ practices of gender socialization via the five types of mental references with toddlers and older children, and research on these practices in infancy is lacking. In the case of the Chilean mothers, we hypothesize that Chilean mothers in our sample will exercise gendered socialization practices by talking more about emotion and physiological states with girls than boys, but more about desires, cognition, and causes with boys than girls for the following reasoning. Although there are some signs of diminished boundaries of gender divisions in the contemporary Chilean society, distinctions in gender roles remain substantial in many areas and previous research suggests Chilean adults advocate for clear gender divisions. Finally, as the U.S. society scored higher in gender equality than Chile (UNSD, 2014), this study hypothesizes that compared with U.S. mothers, Chilean mothers exercise more gendered socialization practices across the five types of mental references overall.

Method

Participants

The present sample was drawn from a cross-national, longitudinal project on relations between young children’s emotional development and parents’ emotion socialization practices in the United States and Chile throughout toddlerhood. The sample included 142 mothers and infants (90 Chilean dyads from Santiago, Chile; 52 U.S. dyads from an urban area in the Midwest), with 56.7% boys in the Chilean sample and 47.2% boys in the U.S. sample. All dyads were recruited from the child care centers their infants attended, including both publicly and privately funded centers. All the Chilean dyads were Latin-American (ethnic majority). In the U.S. sample, 41 dyads (78.8%) were European American, seven dyads (13.5%) were African Americans, four dyads (7.7%) were others (i.e., Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Mideast immigrants). Child age ranged from 10 to 15 months (Chile: M = 11.99, SD = 1.37; United States: M = 12.00, SD = 1.39). Maternal age ranged from 15 to 48 years (Chile: M = 27.79, SD = 6.74; United States: M = 31.93, SD = 6.05). The majority of mothers in the U.S. sample (84.6%) had a bachelor’s degree or higher, whereas approximately half of the mothers in the Chilean sample (47.8%) had this level of education. The U.S. and Chilean samples were similar in child age and gender, but different in mothers’ age and educational level; U.S. mothers were older, t(141) = −3.21, p = .002, and more U.S. mothers had a bachelor’s degree or higher, χ²(1, N = 143) = 17.39, p < .001.

Procedure

Story-stem development

Two open-ended story-stems were developed to elicit mothers’ mental state talk with their infants. These story-stems were developed in Chile and translated into English. Each story involved a natural conflict typical for children aged younger than 2 years; each story had a male and female version, changing only the name and gender of the protagonist, so that the gender of the protagonist could be matched with the gender of the infant subject. Both story-stems were piloted in both the United States and Chile prior to the start of this study; results indicated the story-stems elicit stories that included mental references in both U.S. and Chilean parents. The two story-stems were as follows: (a) The keys, “Andy/Mary is playing with the house keys and he/she approaches the door. He/she tries to insert the keys, once and again, but he/she couldn’t!” (b) Bed time, “Tommy/Lucy is with his/her mom. He/she was very sleepy and they begin to look for his/her favorite teddy bear (or pacifier) . . . but they couldn’t find it . . .”

Data collection

During a prearranged visit with the mother–infant dyad, which took place either in their home or at the child care center, mothers were provided with the two story-stems, typed in large font on a laminated card; they were also given puppets and props related to the story. For each story, the mothers were asked to develop the middle and end of the story based on the story-stem, and tell the story to their infant using puppets and props to help engage the infant’s attention. The task was filmed, and the stories were transcribed verbatim. For the U.S. sample, the total number of words the mothers used to tell both stories ranged from 134 to 2,105 words (M = 368.62, SD = 276.57). For the Chilean sample, the total number of words ranged from 91 to 1,135 words (M = 340.92, SD = 200.31); there was no significant difference in total number of words mothers used in their stories, t(139) = −0.69, p = .494.

Coding mental state talk

A coding system was developed to record eight types of mental state references from the transcripts using an event-based (only relevant mental state references were coded), mutually exclusive (each relevant word/phrase was coded into only one category) coding system; only five types are used in the current study (see Table 1). The system was developed to integrate the methods used and specific content recorded by Garner and Dunsmore (2011); King and Paro (2015); Meins, Fernyhough, Fradley, and Tuckey (2001); Osório, Meins, Martins, Martins, and Soares (2012); and Ruffman, Slade, and Crowe (2002). As suggested by LaBounty and colleagues (2008), the complicated contexts in which causal talk was used in the contexts of emotion, physiological states, desire, and cognition were not coded as regular causal talk, but coded into one of the other categories. Similarly, the complicated contexts in which cognition was used in reference to emotion, physiological states, or desire were not coded as regular cognition, but coded into one of the other categories. Thus, in the present study, cognition-causal-talk, emotion-cognition/emotion-causal-talk, physiological-state-cognition/physiological-state-causal-talk, and desire-cognition/desire-causal-talk were coded as cognition, emotion, physiological states, and desires, respectively; see Table 1 for definitions and descriptions. The counts of each mental reference code were grouped across the two story-stems together for further analysis because, with the exception of physiological states, there were no differences in the number or type of mental references across story-stems, for boys or girls, in the U.S. and Chilean samples. Furthermore, although mothers used more physiological states in Story 2 than Story 1, this story-stem difference was observed for both boys and girls, respectively, Chile t(49, 37) = 4.79 and 2.83, ps < .001 and = .008; United States, t(22, 26) = 4.15 and 3.67, ps < .001.

Table1.

Types of Mental References Through Language Used in Analyses, and Examples.

Language types	Definitions	Examples
Emotion	Explicit reference to feelings or emotions	Happy, sad, love (if referring to a person or animal), unhappy, feel, angry, grumpy, worried, guilty, scared
Desire	Words or phrases that refer to what people want or like	Want, like, love, hope, wish, dream, prefer, appreciate, favorite
Physiological states	Includes references to both internal physiological states that cannot be observed, and external physiological states and expressions of the body that can be observed	Ill, sick, hurt, pain, sleepy, tired, hungry, thirsty, balance, being quiet, being calm, being bored
Regular causal talk	Words or phrases that explain why something happens, or cause–effect relations, or make reference to causal associations or sequences between two events, excluding causation in the context of emotion, desire, physiological states, and cognition	Because, why, and then, after, before, but, until, so
Regular cognition	Words referring to mental or cognitive processes, excluding cognition in the context of emotion, desire, and physiological states	Think, know, guess, figure out, remember, understand, wonder

Coder training and intercoder agreement

Coders from each country were trained on the same set of transcripts from the pilot study, some from Chile and some from United States, which were translated into each language. After coders reached a minimum of 80% agreement consistently in each coding category, they were allowed to code independently. For each country, the transcripts were coded by two independent coders who used the primary language of the participant (English or Spanish) fluently. For the U.S. sample, intercoder reliability was randomly assessed for 26% of videos; correlations between the two independent coders on the frequency of mental references in each category ranged from .74 to .99 (M = .87). For the Chilean sample, intercoder reliability was randomly assessed for 30% of videos, with correlations between two independents coders ranging from .83 to .98 (M = .92). Cohen’s kappa ranged from .50 to .94 (M = .78) and .55 to .70 (M = .63), respectively, for the U.S. and Chilean samples, which represents a substantial agreement across types of mental state references (Vierra & Garrett, 2005).

Data Analysis

Types of mental references were considered a within-subject factor in which frequencies of different types of mental references were interdependent within subjects (Pan, 2001; Ziegler, 2011); thus, a Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) model was used to examine whether the frequencies of maternal utterances—for the types including regular cognition, emotion, desire, physiological state, and regular causal talk—differ by infant gender in the U.S. and Chilean samples. Given that the purpose of analysis was to test infant gender differences in the frequencies of maternal utterances by nationality and types of mental state talk, and the within-subject factor (i.e., types of mental state talk), needed to be included as independent variables in the model to control the dependency between frequencies of different types of language within subjects, the three-way interaction of child gender, nationality, and types of mental state talk were included in the GEE model. Whenever a three-way interaction is included in a regression model, all of the main effects, and the two-way interactions, must also be included (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003). Thus, in the model, the number of maternal utterances was regressed on child gender (0 = male, 1 = female), nationality (0 = Chile, 1 = United States), types of mental state talk (four dummy variables for desires, physiological states, regular casual talk, and regular cognition, with emotion as the reference category), all the two-way interactions of the above factors (Child Gender × Nationality, Child Gender × Types of Language, and Nationality × Types of Language), and the three-way interactions of the above factors. Preliminary analyses show no maternal-age and maternal-education differences in the number of maternal utterances for each talk in both the U.S. and Chilean samples. Albeit without these differences, we still controlled for the two variables (mothers’ education was effect-coded such that high school or below = −1, bachelor’s degree or beyond = 1) to compare the U.S. and Chilean samples in infant gender effect on the frequencies of maternal utterances given all the other conditions were kept similarly. As some scholars noted ethnic difference in mothers’ mental references to emotions in the United States (Nelson et al., 2012), we controlled for ethnic status (effect-coding system: minority and majority in the United States/Chile = −1 and 1, respectively). We also controlled for the number of total words said by mothers in both stories (which was centered at the mean and divided by 100 words).

According to the recommendation of Pan (2001) for GEE analysis, Wald chi-squares were used to test which variables significantly predicted the number of maternal utterances. The distribution of number of maternal utterances was highly positively skewed, with the coefficients of skewness ranging between 1.60 and 3.26 across types of mental state for the Chilean sample, and between 1.15 and 2.02 across types of mental state talk for the U.S. sample. In addition, the number of maternal utterances was a nonnegative integer value for each type of talk in both the U.S. and Chilean samples (see Table 2). Accordingly, we used the quasilikelihood under the independence model criterion (QIC) statistic, proposed by Pan, to evaluate competing GEE models using Poisson or negative binomial regression, and whether an unstructured or exchangeable correlation structure of the within-subject factor (i.e., types of mental state talk) best fit the data. A lower QIC indicates a better model fit. Finally, a negative binomial regression model with an unstructured correlation structure was chosen. Furthermore, to detect if error variance homogeneity across the U.S. and Chilean groups in the model was violated due to unbalanced sample sizes of the two groups, we examined the plot of error residual against predicted number of maternal utterances. In the plot, the LOWESS line was close to horizontal, indicating no relation between error residual and predicted number of maternal utterances, which served as evidence of homogeneous error variance across the two groups (Beaujean & Morgan, 2016).

Table 2.

Ranges, Means, and Standard Deviations of Raw Count and Count/100 Words Uttered by Mothers by Types of Mental Reference and Nationality.

Type of language	Chile		United States
Type of language	Range	M (SD)	Range	M (SD)
	Raw count
Emotion	0-12	1.12 (1.76)	0-8	1.21 (2.12)
Desire	0-17	3.68 (3.44)	0-20	4.53 (4.41)
Physiological states	0-16	3.04 (2.75)	0-10	2.17 (2.45)
Regular causal talk	0-12	2.86 (2.86)	0-12	2.29 (2.48)
Regular cognition	0-6	1.01 (1.31)	0-10	2.92 (2.91)
	Count/100 words
Emotion	0-8.51	0.37 (0.95)	0-1.88	0.29 (0.49)
Desire	0-3.13	1.07 (0.81)	0-5.90	1.30 (1.15)
Physiological states	0-4.05	0.94 (0.80)	0-2.11	0.57 (0.58)
Regular causal talk	0-4.50	0.89 (0.90)	0-2.93	0.63 (0.66)
Regular cognition	0-1.42	0.28 (0.36)	0-4.39	0.92 (1.01)

To examine child gender difference in the number of maternal utterances within each type of mental state talk for the U.S. and the Chilean samples separately, we conducted a pairwise comparison for child gender, which resulted in five pairwise comparisons (one for each type of talk) for both the U.S. and Chilean samples. The estimated gender difference in all pairwise comparisons were generated from the GEE model. In addition, Bonferroni adjustment was conducted to control the family-wise error rate across the five types of talk at .05 for both samples. The adjusted p values for those pairwise comparisons are reported in Table 3.

Table 3.

Means and SDs of Number of Maternal Utterances per 100 Words by Child Gender, and Results of Pairwise Comparisons for Child Gender in Number of Maternal Utterances by Nationality and Type of Mental Reference.

Type of mental reference	Boys		Girls		Boys vs. girls
Type of mental reference	M	SD	M	SD	Estimate	SE	Z
Chile
Emotion	0.24	0.36	0.55	1.37	−0.49	0.35	−1.41
Desire	1.06	0.83	1.08	0.79	−0.02	0.17	−0.09
Physiological states	1.05	0.81	0.80	0.77	0.35	0.18	1.96
Regular causal talk	0.76	0.85	1.05	0.94	−0.32	0.20	−1.56
Regular cognition	0.24	0.36	0.33	0.37	−0.18	0.25	−0.74
United States
Emotion	0.24	0.47	0.33	0.51	−0.26	0.47	−0.54
Desire	1.40	1.02	1.22	1.27	0.36	0.24	1.46
Physiological states	0.58	0.55	0.56	0.61	0.25	0.27	0.92
Regular causal talk	0.36	0.33	0.89	0.79	−0.76	0.26	−2.92*
Regular cognition	0.81	0.91	1.02	1.09	−0.14	0.28	−0.52

Note. Estimate was an exponentiated transformed value of difference between boys and girls that was generated from the negative binomial GEE regression model. SE = standard error of estimate.

p < .05 (p values computed with Bonferroni adjustment).

Results

Table 2 shows ranges, means, and standard deviations of raw counts and proportional counts (references per 100 words) uttered by mothers across both stories by types of mental state references for each country. There were wide ranges in both raw counts and proportional counts of maternal utterances across the five types of mental state references in both groups in our sample. The results indicate large variations in maternal use of these types of mental state talk in telling stories to infants, with some types of references being uttered a lot, whereas others were uttered very few times. The widest range of raw counts occurred in desire for both the Chilean and U.S. samples, whereas the widest range of proportional counts occurred in emotion for the Chilean sample and in desire for the U.S. sample. Figure 1 displays the mean number of each type of mothers’ mental state talk (per 100 words) by nationality and child gender. Contrasting the gray versus black bars illustrates cultural differences, while contrasting solid versus striped bars illustrates gender differences.

Figure 1.

Means of number of maternal utterances per 100 words by child gender, nationality, and type of mental reference.

Gender differences

Results from the GEE with negative binomial regression model indicated significant interactions between child gender and types of mental reference, χ²(4) = 21.14; p < .001 (see Table 4), when controlling for mothers’ educational level and age as well as total number of words told in both stories. The significant interaction between child gender and type of mental references suggests that there were overall child gender differences in the number of maternal utterances across the five types of mental references, regardless of nationality. Further post hoc analyses were conducted using pairwise comparisons paired with Bonferroni adjustment, to test child gender differences in the number of maternal utterances within each type of mental reference in the whole sample, regardless of nationality. The results indicated that there were no child gender differences in the number of maternal utterances in desire, emotion, regular cognition, and physiological states for the whole sample; however, child gender differences appeared in regular causal talk. Mothers used more regular causal talk in telling stories to infant girls than boys (Z = −3.26, Bonferroni adjustment p =.005 [computed with the family-wise error rate across the five types of talk at .05 for the whole sample]).

Table 4.

Fitted Results of the GEE With Negative Binomial Regression Model Testing the Main Effects of Child Gender, Nationality, Type of Mental Reference, and Their Interactions on the Number of Mothers’ Utterances.

	Wald χ²	df
Intercept	0.38	1
Nationality	1.69	1
Child gender	1.11	1
Type of language	73.70***	4
Total number of words	31.18***	1
Mothers’ education	0.63	1
Mothers’ age	0.06	1
Ethnic majority status	2.68	1
Nationality × Child Gender	0.003	1
Child Gender × Type of Mental Reference	21.14***	4
Nationality × Type of Mental Reference	49.50***	4
Nationality × Child Gender × Type of Mental Reference	4.51	4

Note. Total number of words were centered at the mean and then divided by 100. GEE = generalized estimating equations.

***

p < .001.

Country differences

Results from the GEE with negative binomial regression model also indicated significant interactions between nationality and types of mental references, χ²(4) = 49.50; p < .001 (see Table 4), when controlling for mothers’ educational level and age and total number of words. This suggests overall differences between the mothers in the United States and Chile in the number of maternal utterances across the five types of mental state talk, regardless of child gender (see Tables 4 and 5). Further post hoc analyses, using pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni adjustment, indicated one difference between the two groups in the number of maternal utterances within one type of mental references for the whole sample. Particularly, U.S. mothers in this sample used more regular cognition references (Z = 5.50, Bonferroni adjustment p < .001 [computed with the family-wise error rate across the five types of talk at .05 for the whole sample]) than did Chilean mothers in this sample. By contrast, the frequencies of U.S. and Chilean mothers’ talk about regular causal references, physiological states, emotion, and desires were similar in the sample.

Table 5.

Fitted Results of the GEE With Negative Binomial Regression Model Predicting Effects of Child Gender, Nationality, Type of Mental Reference, and Their Interactions on the Number of Mothers’ Utterances.

	B	SE	Wald χ²
Intercept	−0.65	0.44	2.18
United States (ref. = Chile)	0.13	0.41	0.10
Girl (ref. = boy)	0.49	0.35	1.97
Regular cognition (ref. = emotion)	0.01	0.03	0.06
Regular causal talk (ref. = emotion)	1.00	0.23	19.11***
Physiological states (ref. = emotion)	1.34	0.21	40.59***
Desires (ref. = emotion)	1.36	0.22	37.64***
Total number of words	0.17	0.03	31.18***
Mothers’ education	0.10	0.13	0.63
Mothers’ age	0.00	0.01	0.06
Ethnic majority status	0.37	0.23	2.68
United States × Girl	−0.23	0.59	0.15
Girl × Regular cognition	−0.30	0.23	1.70
Girl × Regular causal talk	−0.17	0.35	0.24
Girl × Physiological states	−0.84	0.36	5.58*
Girl × Desires	−0.50	0.37	1.86
United States × Regular Cognition	1.02	0.40	6.53**
United States × Regular Causal Talk	−0.67	0.46	2.18
United States × Physiological States	−0.52	0.42	1.54
United States × Desires	0.31	0.48	0.42
United States × Girl × Regular Cognition	0.19	0.57	0.11
United States × Girl × Regular Causal Talk	0.68	0.62	1.19
United States × Girl × Physiological States	0.33	0.62	0.29
United States × Girl × Desires	−0.11	0.66	0.03

Note. Total number of words were centered at the mean and then divided by 100. SE = standard error of B; GEE = generalized estimating equations.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Differences in gender socialization by country

Results from the GEE with negative binomial regression model indicate that the three-way interaction between child gender, types of mental references, and nationality was not significant overall (see Table 4). However, the focus of this study is to investigate whether there are infant gender differences in the frequencies of maternal utterances in cognition, emotion, desire, physiological state, and causal talk among U.S. and Chilean mothers, and whether these gender differences are similar or different between the U.S. and the Chilean samples. Thus, further pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni adjustment were conducted to test child gender differences in the number of maternal utterances by type of mental references and nationality to discover whether there might be some specific types of mental state talk that do reveal national differences in gender socialization. For the U.S. sample, the frequencies of mothers’ talk across types of mental references were similar for boys and girls; the only difference appeared in the frequencies of mothers’ regular causal talk, with more use of causal talk with infant girls than boys (Z = 2.92, Bonferroni adjusted p = .02; see Table 3). For the Chilean sample, frequencies of mothers’ talk across all types of mental references were similar for boys and girls (see Table 3).¹

These country-specific results provide more detail to explain the prior findings on gender differences in the whole sample combined across countries. When the U.S. and Chilean samples were examined together, there was a statistically significant child gender difference in mothers’ causal talk, but the result was driven by the gender difference in mothers’ causal talk in the United States.

Discussion

Drawing on samples of 90 Chilean and 52 U.S. mother–infant dyads from child care centers in urban areas in their countries, the present study examined whether frequencies of mothers’ use of five types of mental references—talk about emotion, desires, physiological states, causal talk, and cognition—varied according to infant gender in these U.S. and Chilean families. Overall, our findings indicate that the frequencies with which both the Chilean and U.S. mothers in this sample talked about these types of mental states were very similar for infant boys and girls, with the exception of causal talk for the U.S. mothers. Specifically, the U.S. mothers in the sample used more causal talk with girls than boys.

Together, our findings indicate that similarities prevailed over differences in terms of U.S. and Chilean mothers’ use of mental references with infants. Among most types of mental state talk, including emotion, physiological states, desires, and cognition, both the U.S. and Chilean mothers talked about them at similar levels with infant boys and girls. These types of mental references have been related to respective masculine- or feminine-stereotyped attributes: In both the U.S. and Chilean societies, paying attention to emotional and physiological need is often described as an important characteristic of caregiving and is associated with femininity (Andrade, 1992; Leaper & Friedman, 2007); cognitive talk is related to logical thinking that is an important capacity for being advanced in science and mathematics, which is traditionally perceived as a strength of men (Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2003). Talking about desires is related to assertiveness (e.g., asserting one’s own wants, needs, and preferences), which is often described as an important masculine characteristic (Dennis et al., 2007). From the perspectives of ecological and sociocultural models, parenting practices with boys and girls partly reflect parents’ expectations of gender roles (Leaper, 2002; Leaper & Friedman, 2007); thus, our findings suggest that the U.S. and Chilean mothers in this sample likely expect the abovementioned attributes (i.e., paying attention to emotion and physiological need, logical thinking, and showing desires/being assertive) are gender-neutral or good for both genders.

It is noteworthy that although prior research on Chilean parents’ use of mental references is lacking, some prior research (observing story-time or free interaction) did observe gendered socialization practices via mental references with U.S. preschoolers and older children, particularly including emotions and physiological states (e.g., LaBounty et al., 2008) and cognitive talk (e.g., Chang et al., 2011). Thus, at least for the U.S. families, one possibility is that gendered socialization practices, via use of some mental references (i.e., emotion, physiological states, and cognition), have not yet begun in infancy, but emerge for older children who are faced with more pressure to be integrated into some still-existing boundary of gender division in school and the U.S. society. Future studies should examine this possibility by following infants and mothers longitudinally through early childhood.

Although our findings were dominated by cultural similarities, some nuances were noted in the U.S. and Chilean mothers’ use of mental references. Specifically, the U.S. mothers in the sample talked more about causes with infant girls than boys, while Chilean mothers in the sample talked about causes with similar frequencies with infant girls and boys. Causal talk is related to causal thinking, crucial to tasks and careers often seen as masculine (Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2003). Thus, the Chilean mothers likely expected that the attribute of being advanced in causal thinking is gender-neutral. By contrast, the U.S. mothers in the sample provided infant girls with more exposure to causal talk, suggesting that these mothers expected this attribute does not exclusively belong to men. These findings suggest that cross-gendered socialization practices via the use of talk about causation may begin as early as infancy in the United States.

It is noteworthy that the lack of gendered socialization via talk about causation in the U.S. families in the study is inconsistent with some prior research (observing story-time/free interaction) on gendered socialization practices in the United States (e.g., Chang et al., 2011). Child age may explain this discrepancy. We studied infants, whereas prior research studied older children. In the U.S. society, there is growing awareness of some gender stereotypes (Leaper & Friedman, 2007). Thus, in terms of causal talk, one possibility is that U.S. mothers now use cross-gendered socialization practices to counteract typical stereotypes in the U.S. society; it is also possible that this cross-gender socialization transitions into more traditionally gendered socialization practices with older children who are faced with more pressure to be integrated into typical (stereotyped) criteria in school and the larger society. Again, future research would benefit from examining this possibility by conducting longitudinal research.

Overall, our study suggests that typical gendered socialization practices through five types of mental references (i.e., emotion, physiological states, desires, cognition, and causal talk) are not performed in late infancy among central U.S. and Chilean mothers. Instead, our findings suggest that both gender-neutral (via references to emotion, physiological state, desire, and cognition) and cross-gendered socialization practices (via references about causation) may emerge in late infancy among U.S. mothers; and that gender-neutral socialization practices, via the use of all mental references, may emerge in this period among Chilean mothers. Our findings are in contrast to previous research suggesting more traditionally gendered socialization practices via use of mental references among U.S. parents, and our own hypothesis that gendered socialization practices via mental references would be more common among Chilean mothers than U.S. mothers. Moreover, the current findings imply that mothers’ early practices in gender socialization via mental references are not directly or consistently influenced by the traditional views of gender divisions that remain prevalent in contemporary U.S. and Chilean societies (Contreras & Plaza, 2010; Tamis-Lemonda & McFadden, 2010). By contrast, their practices in this period appear more in line with current trends in the dissolution of boundaries around gender roles in both U.S. and Chilean societies (Larrañaga, 2007; NSF, 2015; UNSD, 2014; USBL, 2014).

Contributions, Limitations, and Future Directions

The current study makes a number of contributions to research on parents’ practices in socialization of gender. First, although prior studies have examined U.S. mothers’ gender socialization through use of mental references, these studies focused on toddlers and older children (e.g., Dennis et al., 2007; Tenenbaum, 2009; Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2003). To the best of our knowledge, the present study is one of the first to examine these practices as early as infancy. Second, the majority of previous research focuses on the U.S. population; the current study is one of the first to examine early gender socialization through mental state talk across countries. Our findings suggest similarities prevailed over differences in socialization practices via use of mental references among central U.S. and Chilean mothers.

Several limitations must be acknowledged. First, frequencies of maternal utterances in each type of mental reference were associated with the story length; the longer the stories were, the more types of mental references were used. Although we controlled for the total number of words in the analysis, this cannot completely minimize the limitation that the mothers who told shorter stories confined our ability to observe their utterances across types of mental references, or gender differences therein. Second, we examined variations of maternal utterances in each type of mental reference across infant genders by taking a between-subject comparison approach, that is, comparing the mothers with boys versus those with girls. This approach cannot control for individual differences in frequencies of utterances across types of mental references; for example, some mothers may use certain types of mental references in telling a story, while other mothers use other types. Future research would benefit from taking a within-subject comparison approach, that is, comparing the same mother’s utterances with her own boy versus her own girl. Third, we used ethnic majority dominant samples of mother–infant dyads from child care centers in urban areas in both the United States and Chile, and therefore our findings may have limited application to ethnic minority families, dyads not attending child care centers, or from rural areas in either country. In addition, the majority of U.S. mothers in the sample had a bachelor’s degree or higher, whereas approximately half of the Chilean mothers had a bachelor’s degree or higher; U.S. mothers were also slightly older than the Chilean mothers, but the means for both samples were close to 30 years old. Thus, our findings may have limited application to mothers with lower educational level and younger ages.

We acknowledge some future directions. First, this study focused on U.S. and Chilean mothers’ use of language with infants at one specific time, when infants were aged between 10 and 15 months. It is important for future research to use a longitudinal approach to study how the U.S. and Chilean mothers’ use of mental state talk changes throughout childhood. Doing so would provide useful information on how mothers’ practices in gender socialization via mental references emerge across child developmental stages in these countries. Second, the study used ethnic majority dominant samples of mother–infant dyads from child care centers in both the United States and Chile. Using a similar research design with fathers, with diverse ethnic groups, and with the dyads not attending child care centers would contribute to our understanding of differences across parental genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds (using child care center vs. not) in socialization of children’s gender roles in both countries. Third, the study focused on the U.S. and Chilean mothers’ socialization practices via mental references (behavior). Future research would benefit from exploring mothers’ conformity to gender norms (ideology) and testing associations between their gender ideology and gender socialization behavior in both countries. Finally, it would be useful to employ a similar research design with families from other nations to increase our understanding of cross-country similarities and differences in parents’ practices of gender socialization through mental state talk beginning in infancy.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by a grant from the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, FONDECYT No. 1160110.

Notes

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