Data for "The effects of child age, interaction context, and socioeconomic status on Chinese mothers’ mental state talk in parent-child interactions"

Title: The effects of child age, interaction context, and socioeconomic status on Chinese mothers’ mental state talk in parent-child interactionsSubmitted to: Journal of Psycholinguistic ResearchThis file contains the raw data that support all analyses and results reported in the manuscript.This study investigated three factors that influence mothers’ mental state talk: child age, interaction context, and socioeconomic status. A total of 79 Chinese mothers and their children aged 3-6 years participated in five interaction contexts (block-playing, drawing, playing with a transformer, playing with a ball, and reading) in which mothers’ mental state talk was coded. We found that mothers of 4-year-old children engaged in significantly more total mental state talk, perception talk, and volition talk than mothers of children in other age groups in these talks. There was a strong association between mothers’ mental state talk and interaction context. Mothers used more volition and cognition talk in the block-playing context and more perception talk in the reading context. Moreover, high socioeconomic status mothers had a significantly higher total mental state talk and cognition talk than low socioeconomic status mothers. These findings help to make up for the long-standing lack of research on Chinese mothers’ mental state talk, and provide useful evidence for understanding Chinese mothers’ mental state talk. Data collection has been approved by children's parents.