The study compares mothers' conversation with their 4-year-old children about two past events in two autonomy-oriented (35 German and 42 Swedish families), one relatedness-oriented (22 Cameroonian Nso families) and one autonomy-relatedness oriented (38 Estonian families) contexts. German mothers were rather similar to Swedish mothers in talking a lot, providing a lot of information and engaging children into conversation, but they differed from Swedish mothers by talking more about social content. Swedish children were more independent conversational partners to their mothers than other children, including German children. Estonian mothers' contribution to conversation was similar to Cameroonian Nso mothers, except that they asked a lot of open-ended questions to engage children in conversations. Estonian children did not differ from Swedish and German children in their contribution to conversations. Compared to Swedish mothers, past event talk of Estonian mothers was characterized by a bigger proportion of talk devoted to social content, but also to the child, mental states and non-social content. It was characteristic of Cameroonian Nso mothers that they focused more on other people and actions, and their conversational dominance was larger. Differences in reminiscing were consistent with different cultural models of self and the type of autonomy – psychological or action – promoted.

Mother's open-ended questions and elaborative statements during reminiscing were analysed for their content (child agency, co-agency, non-social, and social context) in three cultural contexts. Participants were 115 mothers and their 4-year-old children: 35 dyads from Berlin, Germany, 42 from Stockholm, Sweden, and 38 from Tallinn, Estonia. Across samples the most prominent content was talk about non-social context followed by co-agency and child agency. Tallinn mothers asked the children to talk about themselves, and Berlin mothers asked the children to talk about themselves together with other people, more frequently than they talked about these contents themselves. The content was related to the cultural orientations of mothers assessed through questionnaires: the Berlin mothers whose independence/ interdependence ratio was higher talked less about other people and asked the children fewer questions about other people; the Stockholm mothers with a higher independence/interdependence ratio talked more about child agency. In Tallinn both correlations existed on a trend level. The results are discussed in the light of common conversational practices and mothers' orientation to independence and interdependence in these cultural contexts.

This study examines mother-child reminiscing conversations with respect to variation in use and function of mothers' elaborations, the nature of children's memory elaborations, and the connections between the two, in three Western middle-class cultures where autonomy is valued over relatedness. Mothers participated with their 4-year-old children (35 dyads from Berlin, Germany, 42 dyads from Stockholm, Sweden, and 38 from Tallinn, Estonia). Mothers' open-ended questions predicted children's memory elaborations in Estonian dyads, mothers' statements and verbal confirmation did so in German dyads, and verbal confirmations did so in Swedish dyads. Number of children's elaborations was similar in all three groups, but Estonian mothers were less elaborative than Swedish and German mothers. These findings contrast with previous research in which number of child elaborations has been linked to number of mother elaborations. The results suggest that different aspects of elaborative style function differently. The differences are discussed in light of culturally rooted meanings and practices of talking.

The present study compared the meanings of talkativeness for 216 Estonian and 163 Swedish adolescents. Although both nations have stereotypically been described as taciturn, the results of the study suggested that Estonians differed from Swedes in having a more negative or neutral attitude towards talkativeness. Swedes, on the other hand, emphasized more frequently that the positive or negative interpretation of talkativeness depends on the person, on the topic, on the amount of talk, and on the situation. Both Estonian and Swedish adolescents regarded talk as a tool for communication with others rather than a tool for self-expression. Talking for communication with others dominated in the answers of Swedes, whereas Estonians mentioned talking as a tool for conveying information as frequently as a tool for communication with others.

The study focused on cultural, contextual, and gender differences in children's peer talk. Same-sex dyads of Estonian (n = 38), Finnish (n = 38), and Swedish (n = 34) preschool age children were videotaped during unstructured and structured play settings. We found only one gender difference in children's talkativeness and in the use of regulatory speech: during free play, Swedish boys used more imperatives per directives than Swedish girls. At the same time there were significant cultural and contextual differences. Estonian children were most directive and Swedish children were least directive. Finnish children were less directive than Estonian children but more directive than Swedish children. It was concluded that cultural and contextual factors strongly influence the likelihood, extent, and nature of gender differences in peer talk.

This paper compares the tendency to express autonomy in 20 Estonian, 20 Swedish, and 20 Swedish Estonian middle-class families with preadolescent children during videotaped family mealtimes. The results indicate that compared to the Swedish participants, participants from both Estonian samples expressed autonomy less frequently. Being talkative does not always mean expressing more autonomy. The Swedish preadolescents who were the most talkative and whose mothers were talking less, were more likely to express their personal needs, opinions and preferences. Possible reasons of cultural variability in autonomy orientation are discussed.

The present study compares preschool children in Finland, Estonia and Sweden regarding linguistic structures with which children in dyads elicited talk from each other in a naturalistic play activity Nineteen Finnish (mean age 5.1), 19 Estonian (mean age 5.4) and 17 Swedish (mean age 5.1) same-sex pairs were video-recorded by a native researcher Analyses of the results showed that children in different groups produced quite a similar number of utterances and eliciting talk structures. The Swedish and Finnish children used most yes-no questions, whereas the Estonian children had the highest occurrence of open questions. Imperative as well as elliptic structures were used by the Finnish children to a significantly higher extent than by the Swedish children. In summary, the groups differed less from each than was predicted on the basis of adult-child interaction. The results suggested that the symmetrical child-child free play context affected the choice of eliciting talk structures.