Cognitive reflection and authoritarianism relate to how parents respond to children's science questions.

When children ask questions about science, parents use a variety of strategies to answer them, including providing accurate information, connecting to prior knowledge, or simply saying "I do not know." This study examines the factors underlying individual differences in parental explanatory characteristics. Parents ( = 148; = 38; 84% female, 16% male; 58% with White American children; 67% having completed college; 49% with household income over $75,000) of children ages 7 to 10 answered eight questions about biology as if they were responding to their child.

"Why do dogs pant?": Characteristics of parental explanations about science predict children's knowledge.

Using a new method for examining parental explanations in a laboratory setting, the prompted explanation task, this study examines how characteristics of parental explanations about biology relate to children's knowledge. Parents (N = 148; M  = 38; 84% female, 16% male; 67% having completed college) of children ages 7-10 (M  = 8.92; 47% female, 53% male; 58% White, 9.