Sometimes "we" can help: parents' pronoun use buffers fear and anxiety transmission.
Anxiety Stress Coping
; : 1-14, 2022 Sep 25.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2326399
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Parents' natural language when describing health-related threats reflects parents' cognitions that may shape their transmission of anxiety and fear. Parents' greater communal focus (i.e., higher we-talk) and less self-focus (i.e., lower I-talk) may buffer against intergenerational fear/anxiety transmission. The current study investigated whether the relation between parents' and children's anxiety and pandemic-related fear differed by parent we- and I-talk. DESIGN ANDMETHODS:
Parents of 114 children (2-19 years; M = 9.75, SD = 3.73) completed online measures assessing children's and parents' anxiety and COVID-19-related fears, and engaged in a written reflection on their early pandemic experiences. The proportion of parents' we-talk and I-talk during the reflection was obtained using Linguistic Inquiry Word Count software.RESULTS:
Results of multilevel structural equation models were partially consistent with expectations The protective effect of we-talk was only observed for parents with lower fear/anxiety. For parents with higher fear/anxiety, higher I-talk was associated with lower child fear/anxiety. At higher levels of parent we-talk and at lower levels of I-talk, there was an unexpectedly positive association between parents' and children's fear/anxiety.CONCLUSIONS:
The concordance between parents' and their children's fear/anxiety differs depending on parents' natural language when reflecting on the pandemic.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Qualitative research
Language:
English
Journal:
Anxiety Stress Coping
Journal subject:
Behavioral Sciences
/
Psychology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
10615806.2022.2127694
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