Bibliogr. s. 98-100

This paper presents some findings of a crosscultural research project on everyday family interactions with teenagers in Estonia, Finland, and Sweden – North European cultures that have all been traditionally characterized as relatively silent and reserved in comparison with other European nations. The three monocultural groups consisted of 17 Estonian, 19 Swedish, and 18 Finnish families living in their country of origin; the two bicultural and bilingual groups consisted of 18 Estonian and 18 Finnish families residing in Sweden. The results revealed that little talk characterizes all Estonian and Finnish families, whereas the Swedish mothers living in Sweden talked a lot. The Estonian mothers living in Estonia tended to be more concerned with controlling their children’s behavior, and elicited conversation from teenagers more frequently. At the same time, the Swedish mono-cultural teenagers were more talkative and more active in controlling their mothers’ behavior than their counterparts, exhibiting a higher degree of symmetrical mother-child interaction than their Estonian and Finnish counterparts. Finally, the discussion focuses on possible reasons and consequences of cultural variability in teenagers’ and their mothers’ conversational style.