The cost and benefit of fear induction parenting on children’s health during the Covid-19 outbreak

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9787791
AutoresHuiguang Ren (0000-0001-5431-2200, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, autor de correspondencia), Charissa S L Cheah (0000-0002-0488-2667, University of Maryland, Baltimore County), Junsheng Liu (0000-0002-6823-0617, East China Normal University)
Año2021
Volumen57
Número10
Páginas1667-1680
Fecha de publicación2021-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaDevelopmental Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0012-1649 • E-ISSN: 1939-0599
EditorialAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/dev0001205
PMID34807688
OpenAlexW3128168670
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9

The outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was an unprecedented global public health emergency with a significant psychological toll. This study aimed to understand how specific COVID-19 related stressors contributed to Chinese parents' fear induction practices, and how these practices, in turn, contributed to their children's disease prevention practices during the outbreak and depressive symptoms after the outbreak. Parents (N = 240, Mage = 38.50 years, 75% mothers) with elementary-school-age children (Mage = 9.48 years, 46% girls) in Wenzhou, 1 of the most impacted cities in China, reported on the presence of confirmed or suspected cases in their communities, their frequencies of consuming COVID-19-related information, fear induction practices, and their children's trait anxiety and disease prevention practices during the outbreak (January 28-30, 2020). Child-reported depressive symptoms were collected between March 7-11, 2020; during which there were very few remaining cases and no new confirmed cases or deaths. Parents' higher frequency of virus-related information consumption but not the presence of community infection was associated with their engagement in more fear induction practices, which was in turn associated with children's greater engagement in prevention practices during the outbreak, but more postquarantine depressive symptoms. Child trait anxiety exacerbated the association between parent fear induction and child depressive symptoms. Using fear induction parenting may promote children's willingness to cooperate and participate in disease prevention practices during the crisis but at the cost of children's long-term mental health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Anxiety · Disease · MEDLINE · Mental health · Outbreak · Psychiatry · PsycINFO · Public health · Stressor · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum · Medicine · Psychology