The longitudinal study, ‘Growing Up in New Zealand’, was explicitly established to provide contemporary, population-relevant evidence about the multi-disciplinary determinants of pathways towards health and development for children born in the 21st century New Zealand. Improvements in child health have been slower in New Zealand in recent decades relative to other developed countries, and in 2009 New Zealand was ranked 29th out of 30 OECD countries.¹ Examples of child health indicators where New Zealand performs relatively poorly include infant mortality rates, immunization coverage, accidents and injuries in under 5-year-olds, rates of child maltreatment and hospital admission rates for a spectrum of communicable diseases including pertussis, pneumonia and rheumatic fever.^1–4

According to autobiographical memory theorists, past event conversations provide children with a framework for evaluating and connecting past events into a coherent autobiography (R. Fivush, 1994; K. Nelson, 1993; M. K. Welch-Ross, 1995). Two studies were conducted to empirically examine the association between past event conversation style and an independent measure of children's self-concept consistency. In Study 1, 50 New Zealand mothers discussed everyday past events with their children at 51 and 65 months of age. In Study 2, 51 New Zealand parents discussed 1 positive and 3 negative past events with their 5- and 6-year-old children. The consistency of children's self-views was assessed in both studies using the Children's Self-View Questionnaire (R. Eder, 1990). Children's self-concept consistency was moderately associated with greater explanation of the causes and consequences of children's negative emotions, resolution through social contact, and evaluation of positive events but not with simple attributions of emotion. These findings implicate parent-child conversations as a medium through which children can begin to understand the personal meaning of past experiences.

The aim of this study was to examine associations between children's temperament, parent–child goodness-of-fit, and the emotional content of parent–child conversations about past events. Fifty one New Zealand 5- and 6-year-old children and their parents discussed 4 emotional past events. Parents rated children's temperament along 15 dimensions associated with effortful control, extroversion, and negative affect. Parents then rated their own expectations of children's temperament, from which parent–child goodness-of-fit was assessed. Children rated as higher in effortful control were involved in more emotional past-event conversations. Children whose negative affect ratings corresponded more closely with parental expectations were also involved in more emotional conversations. Our findings provide preliminary support for an association between temperament and narrative content.