ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between early parentally structured interactions and the enduring themes of communion and agency woven into adolescents’ developing sense of autobiographical self. While clear and sustained individual differences exist among mothers in their level of elaboration, one do not yet know much about why some mothers may be more elaborative than others. This chapter considers these differences as a possible function of gender, of both the parent and the child. Although the majority of psychological research on parentÓchild interaction has focused on the role of mothers, there have been longstanding calls for more research with fathers, coupled with increased attention on the differential and complementary roles that mothers and fathers play in child development. Almost all family research to date has been with two parents of opposite gender who self-identify as male or female. The consistency of gender differences in reminiscing suggests that reminiscing may be stereotyped as a female activity.
