Transcript Children’s Fictional Narratives: Gender Differences In

CHILDREN’S FICTIONAL NARRATIVES
ACROSS THE SCHOOL YEARS
Javanna Obregón
Acknowledgements
 Dr. Gigliana Melzi
 Dr. Adina Schick
 The LFIP research team
 The Steinhardt Dean’s Grant for Undergraduate Research
Constructivist Approach to Narratives
 Narratives are a discourse genre
that represent real or imagined
experiences in story form (Melzi &
Caspe, 2008).
Individual
Society
 Precursor to academic or literate
language (Bliss & McCabe, 2008).
 Storytelling is a medium used by
Reality
children to:
 demonstrate their knowledge
about their social world.
 learn and understand their self
within the larger cultural
context.
Narratives
Narrative Development
 Narratives develop in the context of conversations.
 Progression of narrative development:
Scripts
Personal
Narratives
Fictional
Narratives
2 years
3-4 years
5-6 years
Fictional Narratives
 Fictional narratives are fantasy stories.
 Structurally, fictional narratives often include:






A formal beginning
Orienting information (i.e., setting, characters)
Initiating events that are goal-oriented
A problem or obstacle that needs to be solved
A resolution to the problem
A formal ending device
 Predominately studied in preschoolers.
 Focus on gender differences
Gender Differences in Structure
Boys
Initiating events that are goal-oriented
A problem or obstacle
A resolution to the problem
A formal beginning and ending
Orienting information
Cohesive plot
Girls
Gender Differences in Content
Boys
Girls
 Superheroes vs. villains
 Family life and events
 Monsters, animals, and
 Domestic life and activities
dinosaurs
 Violence and chaos
 Royalty theme
Gender Stereotypes in Childhood
 Gender stereotypes are widely held beliefs or attitudes in
regard to characteristics, roles, and abilities associated with
biological sex.
 Children are especially influenced by gender stereotypes:
Society’s
Gender
Stereotypes
Children’s
Understanding
of Gender
Children’s
Preferences
and Behaviors
 During the early childhood years, children have an
extremely rigid understanding of gender.
Middle Childhood Gender Development
increased masculinity
decreased femininity
The Present Study
 The aim of the present study was to investigate the
fictional narratives told by boys and girls during the
school-aged years (8-11years of age).
 Two main questions guided the present study:
 What are the general features of children’s
fictional narratives during the middle childhood
years?
 Are there gender differences in the performance
and content of fictional narratives?
Participants
 Total of 20 children (10 boys, 10 girls).
 Between the ages of 8-11.
 Mgirls = 121.60 mos, SD = 13.07
 Mboys = 114.50 mos, SD = 12.94
 Native English-speaking.
 Parents had completed at least a
high school degree.
 Mfathers = 15.32, SD = 2.75
 Mmothers = 15.85, SD = 3.18
Procedure
 Visited in their homes and asked to complete two questionnaires:
 demographic information.
 the child’s reading, viewing, and oral storytelling practices.
 Children were asked to perform two tasks:
Narrative Retelling
“Tell me two best made-up stories you
have ever heard or told”
Book Sharing
“Share the story in this book with me”
Coding: Narrative Performance
Narrative
Performance
Conversational
Autonomy
Story
Grammar
Literate
Language
K = .90
K = .88
K = .87
(Melzi & Schick, 2012)
(Gillam & Gillam, 2010)
Coding: Narrative Content
Narrative
Content
Character
Conflict
K = .88
K = .90
(Propp, 1968; Quiller-Couch, 1925)
RQ1:
What are the general features of children’s
fictional narratives during middle childhood?
Structural Components
 Children’s
90% of theliterate
children
language
receiveddiffers
a perfect
across
score
context.
of 4 on
conversational autonomy.
Book Sharing
Story Grammar
Literate Language
t(19) = -2.49, p < 0.05
Narrative Retelling
M (SD)
Range
M (SD)
Range
11.85 (1.69)
8-15
12.23 (3.38)
5-18.50
11.15 (2.03)*
7-15
9.73 (3.27)*
3-13.50
Coding: Narrative Content
Character
Supplementary
Characters
Hero
Dispatcher
Helper
Donor
Villain
Princess
Other
(Propp, 1968)
Little Red Rosie
So once upon a time, there was a princess. And her name was Little Red
Rosie. She loved baking cookies. But she had a twin sister and her name
was Little Red Evil Rosie. And the big sister was so mean and evil. So
one day, the little sister baked cookies for the big sister, and the big
sister, like, was really nice to the little sister. But she was, like, evil, like, to
other people. So she ate the cookies in front of her and then went into
her room and said, "thank you.” So then when she went into her room,
she locked the door. She had like a like captured wolf in her closet. And
the wolf was like really nice, but she captured him. And she like didn't
like their cookies, so she like stuffed them in his face and like kicked him
out of the house. The little sister found out that she was so mean. And the
big sister went to jail. That's all.
Cynthia, Age 10
Little Red Rosie
So once upon a time, there was a princess. And her name was Little Red
Rosie. She loved baking cookies. But she had a twin sister and her name
was Little Red Evil Rosie. And the big sister was so mean and evil. So
one day, the little sister baked cookies for the big sister, and the big
sister, like, was really nice to the little sister. But she was, like, evil, like, to
other people. So she ate the cookies in front of her and then went into
her room and said, "thank you.” So then when she went into her room,
she locked the door. She had like a like captured wolf in her closet. And
the wolf was like really nice, but she captured him. And she like didn't
like their cookies, so she like stuffed them in his face and like kicked him
out of the house. The little sister found out that she was so mean. And the
big sister went to jail. That's all.
Cynthia, Age 10
Narrative Retelling: Characters
3.5
Total of Characters
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Heroes
Villains
Supplementary Characters
 The average character diversity score was 0.76 (SD = 0.22).
Little Red Rosie
So once upon a time, there was a princess. And her name was Little Red
Rosie. She loved baking cookies. But she had a twin sister and her name
was Little Red Evil Rosie. And the big sister was so mean and evil. So
one day, the little sister baked cookies for the big sister, and the big
sister, like, was really nice to the little sister. But she was, like, evil, like, to
other people. So she ate the cookies in front of her and then went into
her room and said, "thank you.” So then when she went into her room,
she locked the door. She had like a like captured wolf in her closet. And
the wolf was like really nice, but she captured him. And she like didn't
like their cookies, so she like stuffed them in his face and like kicked him
out of the house. The little sister found out that she was so mean. And the
big sister went to jail. That's all.
Cynthia, Age 10
Little Red Rosie
So once upon a time, there was a princess. And her name was Little Red
Rosie. She loved baking cookies. But she had a twin sister and her name
was Little Red Evil Rosie. And the big sister was so mean and evil. So
one day, the little sister baked cookies for the big sister, and the big
sister, like, was really nice to the little sister. But she was, like, evil in, like,
to other people. So she ate the cookies in front of her and then went
into her room and said, "thank you.” So then when she went into her
room, she locked the door. She had like a like captured wolf in her
closet. And the wolf was like really nice, but she captured him. And she
like didn't like their cookies, so she like stuffed them in his face and like
kicked him out of the house. The little sister found out that she was so
mean. And the big sister went to jail. That's all.
Cynthia, Age 10
Narrative Retelling: Characters
5
4.5
Total of Characters
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Characters
Active Character
Passive Characters
Book Sharing: Character
M(SD)
Total Possible
Hero
0.95 (0.22)
1
Villain
1.00 (0.00)
1
Supplementary Characters
1.50 (0.95)
3
Character Diversity
0.88 (0.25)
1
Character Totals
4.90 (0.97)
5
Active Characters
3.55 (1.05)
3
Passive Characters
1.53 (0.88)
2
Character Types
 Children made use of all the characters provided
by the wordless picture books.
Coding: Narrative Content
Conflict
Character
vs.
Character
Character
vs.
Self
Character
vs.
Destiny
Character
vs.
Nature
Character
vs.
Supernatural
Character
vs.
Society
Character
vs.
Love Object
(Propp, 1968)
Little Red Rosie
So once upon a time, there was a princess. And her name was Little Red
Rosie. She loved baking cookies. But she had a twin sister and her name
was Little Red Evil Rosie. And the big sister was so mean and evil. So
one day, the little sister baked cookies for the big sister, and the big
sister, like, was really nice to the little sister. But she was, like, evil in, like,
to other people. So she ate the cookies in front of her and then went
into her room and said, "thank you.” So then when she went into her
room, she locked the door. She had like a like captured wolf in her
closet. And the wolf was like really nice, but she captured him. And she
like didn't like their cookies, so she like stuffed them in his face and like
kicked him out of the house. The little sister found out that she was so
mean. And the big sister went to jail. That's all.
Cynthia, Age 10
Narrative Retelling: Conflicts
Character vs. Character
Character vs. Supernatural
Other Conflict Types
Total
Primary
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Narrative Retelling: Conflicts
 The average conflict diversity score was 0.32 (SD = 0.11).
3%
5%
35%
57%
0 conflicts
1 Conflict
2 Conflicts
3 Conflicts
Book Sharing: Conflict
 Children made use of all the conflicts provided by
the wordless picture books.
M (SD)
Total Possible
Character vs. Character
1.00 (0.00)
1
Character vs. Self
0.60 (0.50)
1
Conflict Diversity
0.22 (0.08)
0.29
Conflict Totals
1.60 (0.50)
2
Conflict Types
RQ2:
Are there gender differences in the performance and
content of fictional narratives?
Structural Components
 Structurally, girls and boys stories were not significantly
different.
Boys
Girls
(n = 10)
(n =10)
M (SD)
M (SD)
Conversational Autonomy
3.92 (0.18)
3.90 (0.23)
Story Grammar
11.63 (1.93)
12.57 (2.53)
Literate Language
9.37 (2.59)
11.10 (2.40)
Character Totals and Diversity
 Boys and girls did not differ significantly in amount of
characters included.
 Significant difference in character diversity, F(1, 17) = 5.10,
p < .05, partial η2 = .24.
Boys
Girls
(n =10)
(n =10)
Total Character
M (SD)
3.20 (1.03)
M (SD)
3.35 (1.30)
Active Characters
2.10 (0.94)
2.80 (1.03)
Passive Characters
1.10 (0.52)
0.55 (0.60)
Character Diversity
0.63 (0.20)*
0.87 (0.17)*
Character Types
 Significant difference in character types; girls use more
supplementary characters, F(1, 17) = 5.62, p < 0.05,
partial η2 = 0.25.
Hero
Villain
Supplementary Characters
Girls
Boys
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Conflicts
 No significant differences with regards to amount of conflicts included
or conflict diversity.
 Boys and girls differed significantly in their use of conflict types;
F(1, 17) = 5.87, p < .03, partial η2 = .26; F(1, 17) = 4.35, p < .05,
partial η2 = .20.
Character vs. Character
Character vs. Supernatural
Other Conflict Types
Girls
Boys
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Discussion
 Children’s stories during middle childhood are more
sophisticated than those of early childhood, both structurally
and in terms of content.
 Boys and girls did not differ significantly in narrative
performance, possibly due to SES.
 However, there were gender differences in the use of
characters and conflicts in the narrative retellings.
 These differences are similar to those in early childhood.
 Boys’ use of conflict might reflect the increase of masculinity
during middle childhood.
 Girls’ use of character might reflect their greater sense of social
connectedness.
Conclusions and Future Directions
 Larger gender norms are reflected in the
narrative productions of children at this age.
 They are apparent in fictional retellings rather
than in book sharing most likely because
children have more control of the story.
 Thus, narrative retellings are an especially
important context for allowing children’s
creativity and individuality to emerge.
 Future research should continue to explore the
ways in which societal gender norms are
reflected in children’s discourse practices.
Thank You!!
Coding: Narrative Performance
Conversational
Autonomy
Character
Setting
Literate
Language
Story Grammar
Initiating
Events
Internal
Response
Plan
Action/
Attempts
Consequence
(Gillam & Gillam, 2010)
Coding: Narrative Performance
Conversational
Autonomy
Coordinating
Conjunction
Subordinating
Conjunctions
Literate
Language
Story Grammar
Mental/
Linguistic
Verbs
Adverbs
Elaborated
Noun Phrases
(Gillam & Gillam, 2010)