What are the themes in young children's stories? an analysis of the content of children's written productions

María Paz Gómez, C. June Maker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The authors examined themes in written narratives of second grade students including gender and ethnic differences. Eighty-seven stories were considered for this re-search, six general themes were found, and content and comparative analyses were performed among themes. Children tended to write more frequently about personal experiences and activities, and about settings that involved nature and animals; however, interactivity and social context was almost always present in children's stories. Boys and girls tended to write about almost the same topics, with a higher tendency of girls to write about family including female characters performing gender-oriented tasks. Finally, the researchers found some ethnic dif-ferences in children's stories, especially fantasy stories, nature, and family.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)86-105
Number of pages20
JournalZbornik Instituta za Pedagoska Istrazivanja
Volume43
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Children's writing
  • Content analysis
  • Cultural differences in stories
  • DISCOVER project
  • Differences in stories of boys and girls
  • Narratives
  • Written stories

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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