Fivush believes talking about past events with children helps to create a shared history, which is important in developing family relationships and bonds. Children also learn to conceptualize themselves within the context of the family. Of special interest to her is the emotional content. Emotions are the way to link ourselves to our experiences and to other people. One of her most intriguing findings is gender differences in narratives.
Mothers also talk more about emotions than do fathers.
Finally, mothers and fathers include more emotional information, especially sadness, when they are speaking to a daughter. Girls apparently learn that emotions are an important part of narrative, and by the end of the preschool years they will talk more about emotions when recalling past events than boys. The most striking discovery is that gender differences can be seen as early as 3 years of age. At that young age, girls provide longer and richer reports of their own past experiences and talk more about people and relationships than boys. They follow along gender stereotypes but it was interesting to see them so clearly in these family stories.