Parent–child talk about the origins of living things

Abstract

This study examined relations between 124 British children's and their parents’ endorsements about the origins of three living things (human, non-human animal, and plant) as reported on questionnaires. In addition to completing questionnaires, half of the sample discussed the origins of entities (n = 64) in parent–child dyads before completing the questionnaires. The 7-year-old age group endorsed creationism more than evolution, and the 10-year-old age group endorsed both concepts equally for all three living things. Children's endorsements were correlated with their parents’ endorsements for all three living things. Children's endorsement of evolutionary theory was more closely related to parent–child conversational mentions of evolution than to parents’ endorsement of evolutionary theory in questionnaires. A similar pattern was found for children's endorsement of creationism. Parent–child conversations did not consistently invoke evolution or creationism even when parents endorsed a particular theory. Findings are interpreted in relation to the pivotal role of joint collaborative conversation in children's appropriation of scientific content.