Narrative practices and the social construction of self in childhood

Narrative, self, and face-to-face interaction all intersect in everyday storytelling practices in which children and caregivers make claims to personal experiences. This article examines such practices as a site for the social construction of self in early childhood. Drawing upon excerpts of narrative talk from a variety of cultural traditions in the United States, we describe the self-relevant meanings and processes entailed in three particular narrative practices. [narrative, self, childhood socialization, language socialization, ethnopsychology]