Parental Worry, Family-Based Disaster Education and Children’sInternalizing and Externalizing Problems During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
sychological trauma: theory, research, practice, and policy.
Abstract
Internalizing and externalizing problems are prevalent in disaster-exposed children but fewstudies have investigated these problems in relation to parental factors. This study examined how parentalworry and family-based disaster education related to children’s internalizing and externalizing problemsduring the outbreak of COVID-19 in China.Method:Parents reported parental worry, family-baseddisaster education and their children’s (5–8-year-old young elementary schoolchildren [n 245] and 2459–13-year-old early adolescents [n 245]) internalizing and externalizing problems.Results:Dataanalysis showed that (a) across ages, parental worry related to children’s internalizing and externalizingproblems significantly and positively; (b) the significant and negative relationships between family-baseddisaster education and internalizing and externalizing problems were only supported in young elementaryschoolchildren; and (c) high level of parent worry attenuated the negative link between family-baseddisaster education and young elementary schoolchildren’s internalizing problems.Conclusion:Thisstudy expands our knowledge about relationships between parental worry and children’s disaster-relatedwell-being, and highlights the importance of adapting family-based disaster education to different ages.Data suggest that parents of young elementary schoolchildren and early adolescents both should avoidshowing excessive worry in front of their children during the pandemic to help reduce their children’sinternalizing and externalizing problems. Effective family-based disaster education can mitigate youngelementary schoolchildren’s emotional distress and behavioral problems, the effect of which may bemaximized if parents can avoid being overly worried. Parents of early adolescents should support theirchildren in acquiring pandemic-related information independently and encourage them to seek supportoutside the family.
Description
item.page.type
Article
item.page.format
Keywords
International Resources, China, research, disaster, treatment, parental factors, pandemic
Citation
Li, X., & Zhou, S. (2021). Parental worry, family-based disaster education and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological trauma: theory, research, practice, and policy.