Parental Strategies in Argumentative Dialogues with Their Children at Mealtimes

Abstract

This study focuses on parent-child argumentation to single out the argumentative strategies most frequently used by parents to resolve in their favor the process of negotiation occurring during the argumentative dialogues with their children at mealtime. Findings of the analysis of 132 argumentative dialogues between parents and children indicate that parents mostly use arguments based on the notions of quality and quantity in food-related discussions. The parents use other types of arguments such as the appeal to consistency, the arguments from authority, and the arguments from analogy, in discussions related to the teaching of the correct behavior in social situations within and outside the family context, e.g., in the school context with teachers and peers. The results of this study bring to light how parents and children contribute to co-constructing the dialogic process of negotiating their divergent opinions.

Keywords: argumentative strategies, family, mealtime, negotiation, parent-child interaction