Conversations To Be Had: How Parents' Communication with Their Children Relates to
Child Distress during Times of Uncertainty
Dier, S. E., Thibodeau-Nielsen, R. B., Palermo, F., Dooley, A., Rueda-Posada, M. F., & White,
R. E. (2024). Parent conversations with young children: Implications for child well-being during
the COVID-19 pandemic. Developmental Psychology. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0001851
Past research has shown that, during stressful situations, parents' communication with their child can protect their child from negative developmental outcomes, such as poor social- emotional and coping skills. However, parent stress in these situations can have the opposite effect on children, worsening existing distress through disruptions in normal parenting. These topics were especially relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic, where stress and conversations about the pandemic between parent and child were more common. This study found that, when parents reported higher levels of stress, conversations regarding pandemic-related changes (e.g., “People are getting sick,” “The park is closed,” “We have to wear masks”) were associated with more distress in children. The types of explanations parents gave for these pandemic-related changes, such as why they now had to wear masks, were also related to child distress but in different ways. Self-protective explanations (e.g., "We wear masks to protect ourselves from germs.") were associated with lower child distress regardless of parent stress levels. On the other hand, danger explanations (e.g., "We wear masks because it is dangerous outside.") were related to higher child distress among parents reporting higher levels of stress.
This study used survey data from two groups of parents of preschool-age children (3 to 6 years old). The first group joined in May 2020, and later that year, a second group was added to include more families with lower-income levels to help make the study results more representative of a wider range of families. Only data collected during the fall of 2020 from both groups were included in this study. Parents completed several questionnaires on their stress and their child’s distress and gave open-ended responses concerning the conversations they had with their child about the pandemic. The open-ended responses were categorized based on the content and type of conversations (e.g., explanations and supportive conversations) that parents were having with their child.
Researchers found that income was negatively related to parent stress, meaning the lower income a parent had, the higher their stress. This stress was also related to higher child distress, showing how economic restraints may influence the whole family system. Additionally, this study found that nearly all parents talked about the pandemic with their children, albeit in different ways. This differed from past research that found parents of younger children (i.e. those aged 3-4 years) tend to avoid speaking about serious topics to protect their children. It may be that the nature of the pandemic and the drastic changes it made to daily life necessitated such conversations.
Overall, this study aids our understanding of how the content and wording of conversations may affect how young children cope with stressful environments. Parents can use this information as a tool in future conversations with their children to keep their child's stress to a minimum despite being stressed themselves. This is seen especially through self-protective explanations that were related to lower child stress. By working to mitigate their own stress and using explanations focused on what the family is doing to take care of themselves, parents can support their child's needs and set the stage for resilience during times of uncertainty.
Written by Arianna Rosas, NSF REU Intern with the Scientific Study of Interpersonal Relationships Across the Lifespan Site