Parent-Child Communication and Children's Health-Protective Behaviors During COVID-19: Mediation by Children's Empathy

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

Individual health-protective behaviors (e.g., hand washing, social distancing) have an enormous impact on the spread of COVID-19 (CDC, 2020). Emergent research suggests that children’s behavioral responses to COVID-19 are motivated by social responsibility and parental expectations (Oosterhoff, Palmer, Wilson & Shook, 2020). Parent-child communication is an important relationship factor that may influence child empathy and socially responsible behavior (Panfile & Liable, 2012; Riesch, Anderson & Krueger, 2006; Thompson & Gullone, 2008). Research during previous pandemics indicates that individuals’ knowledge of disease is associated with increased health-protective behaviors (Wong & Sam, 2010). However, we know little about the role that parent-child communication about COVID-19 plays in children’s health-protective behaviors during the current pandemic. This study aimed to fill these gaps by examining relations among parent-child COVID-19-related communication, children’s empathy, and children’s health-protective behaviors during the pandemic. We hypothesized that greater frequency of parent-child communication about COVID-19 would be associated with more health-protective behaviors. Further, we expected that this association would be mediated by children’s levels of empathy during the pandemic (see Figure 1).

Participants were 157 children (52% female, 48% Latinx, Mage=15.2 years, SD=.57) drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study of child development. Children responded to an online survey about COVID-19 in the weeks after the initial stay-at-home orders in March 2020. On a scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (daily/always), children self-reported how frequently they talked about different aspects of COVID-19 with their parents (e.g., symptoms, views on social distancing, effects of the pandemic; M=2.18, SD=.93) and how frequently they engaged in health-protective behaviors (e.g., washing hands more than usual, practicing social distancing; M=3.90, SD=.70). Empathy was measured using a 5-item child report of the COVID-19-adapted Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman, 2001; M=2.33, SD=.56). Using data from prior waves, these analyses controlled for children’s race-ethnicity, gender, poverty status, IQ (WPPSI; Wechsler, 2012), and pre-pandemic empathy (AMES; Vossen, Piotrowski, & Valkenburg, 2015).

We conducted all analyses using the lavaan package in R (Rosseel, 2012) and missing data were addressed using full information maximum likelihood method of estimation. Linear regression revealed a significant direct effect from frequency of parent-child COVID-19-related communication to children’s health-protective behaviors (β=.176, p=.003). Mediation analyses revealed a significant indirect pathway from frequency of parent-child communication to more frequent child health-protective behaviors through higher levels of children’s empathy (see Table 1). The direct effect dropped to non-significance after including children’s empathy in the model, indicating that empathy mediated the positive association of parent-child COVID-related communication and children’s health protective behaviors.

This study offers novel data regarding the impact of parent-children communication on children’s health-protective responses during a global pandemic. Findings suggest that parent-child communication about COVID-19 is associated with greater child empathy, which, in turn, promotes health-protective behaviors during the pandemic. These findings have significant potential to inform public health initiatives with families and children by identifying parent-child communication and child empathy as promising targets for interventions to slow virus spread.

Authors

• Derrian Tabilin, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Linnea Linde-Krieger, University of Arizona
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tuppett M. Yates, University of California - Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author