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Sometimes "we" can help: parents' pronoun use buffers fear and anxiety transmission.
- Source :
- Anxiety, Stress & Coping; Jul2023, Vol. 36 Issue 4, p488-501, 14p, 2 Charts, 2 Graphs
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- 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. 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 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. The concordance between parents' and their children's fear/anxiety differs depending on parents' natural language when reflecting on the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- BIRTHPARENTS
STRUCTURAL equation modeling
PARENTS
ANXIETY
PRONOUNS (Grammar)
FEAR
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10615806
- Volume :
- 36
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Anxiety, Stress & Coping
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 163976985
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2022.2127694