Cross-sectional and longitudinal relations between mother-child talk about conflict and children's social understanding.

We examined the relations between the ways 48 mothers and their 3- to 5-year-olds talked about a conflict depicted in a picture book and their children's current and subsequent level of social understanding. We distinguished explanatory talk, which directed attention to the actions that generated the conflict, from non-explanatory talk, which discussed the conflict in terms of, for example, making up or saying sorry. Controlling for child age and overall talk by mother, explanatory talk was positively associated with contemporaneous social understanding. Social understanding at time one was also positively associated with social understanding 30 months later. These data suggest that dialogue about conflict may be helpful for 3- to 5-year old children's understanding of the mental world, to the extent that it facilitates their understanding of particular social situations.