| This research builds upon previous research examining within-class maternal elaborative styles (e.g., Fivush & Fromhoff, 1988; Nelson, 1981; Reese, Haden, & Fivush, 1993) and earlier sociological studies exploring between-class differences in children's narratives and the consequent impact on children's academic success (e.g., Cazden, 1968). The study examined if interviewers could elicit longer, more detailed accounts from preschoolers if they adopted a highly elaborative style and therefore reduce documented social class differences in children's narratives. An additional narrative support, interview structure, also was examined. Interviewers elicited two types of narrative from sixty-four children of lower and middle SES backgrounds. Children participated in two different science activities on separate occasions and were subsequently asked to narrate about each event. Each child's narrative was elicited on both occasions by an interviewer using either a high or low elaborative style. Each participant discussed one event under the more structured condition, and the remaining event under the less structured condition. Structure was defined as the extent to which children were provided a task focus. Hence, in the more structured setting, children's narratives culminated in the development of a book about their experience. Less structured interviews were conducted with standard verbal protocols. The videotaped interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded for narrative extent, narrative structure, and narrative cohesion. Children in high elaborative condition, especially those in the lower income group, tended to provide more extensive narratives than those in the lower elaborative condition; however, neither the expected effect of elaboration nor the hypothesized interaction between income group and elaborative condition was significant. In contrast, MANOVA tests detected the predicted significant main effect of interview structure, as well as for an interaction between interview structure, interviewer elaborativeness, and social class. These data indicated that more structured interviews encouraged children's narratives and that, together, the more structured interviews and higher interviewer elaborativeness were more advantageous for lower income children than for middle income children. |
