“It’s Okay to Feel Scared”: A Content Analysis of Parent’s COVID-19 Explanations to Their Children

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a unique set of challenges and fears to many families around the world. With upended routines, precarious schooling situations, and unprecedented job loss, it is understandable that parents are experiencing heightened stress. While it is natural to want to protect children from unpleasant information, previous research has demonstrated that young children pick up on emotional changes in the family, especially fears and anxieties (Field & Purkis, 2011). According to social learning theory, many behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions are learned through the observation of others (Bandura, 1977). Parents, in particular, are powerful socializing agents in the lives of their children. With many families now experiencing an increase in time together, it is important to examine the socializing messages parents are transmitting to their children.

Parenting may serve as a buffer for children’s fear-learning experiences (Kim & Delgado, 2019). Parent-child conversations after fear-inducing events, for example, may help children reduce their fear and worries. Buijzen and colleagues (2007) found that children whose parents helped them understand the threatening content observed in news coverage demonstrated less fear than their peers who had fewer conversations with their parents about these topics. These findings emphasize the socializing potential of parent-child conversations about social traumatic events.

The current study seeks to (1) identify the most prevalent themes found in parents’ explanations of COVID-19 to their children and (2) examine how parents’ explanations of COVID-19 are longitudinally linked to children’s descriptions of the pandemic and their anxiety symptoms. By examining the prevalent themes found in parents’ explanations, we hope to uncover how children are being socialized to think and feel about COVID-19.
The sample comprises 205 parents and their children in early elementary school. Parents completed online surveys from May to August 2020 assessing their mental health, parenting practices, and changes in income and employment. Content coding was used to identify the most prevalent themes in parents’ reported explanations of COVID-19. Laboratory assessments are currently underway and will continue through the fall. In the lab, children are reporting on their understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and their anxiety symptoms (Lowe, 2015).

Preliminary content coding revealed that discussing the seriousness/danger of the COVID-19 pandemic was the most common theme (61.31%) found in parents’ explanations of COVID-19 to their child. The least common theme was “fear awareness” (8.03%), or the acknowledgement of fear as a possible emotional reaction to the pandemic. While many parents mentioned multiple themes, 33.58% of parents only discussed the “seriousness/danger” or the potential for “death/consequences” in their explanation of COVID-19. Twelve percent emphasized “seriousness/danger” while also providing “comfort/reassurance,” while 15.33% gave purely “educational” explanations.

These initial descriptive findings suggest that a significant group of parents may facilitate fear-learning in their children by focusing solely on the dangers of COVID-19. Next steps include assessing how parents’ explanations of COVID-19 are linked to their own stress and anxiety and examining how these explanations translate to children’s current understandings of the pandemic and their self-reported anxiety symptoms.

Authors

• Emily Starr, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Presenting Author

• Jenna Elizabeth Finch, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author