Parental Worry, Family-Based Disaster Education and Children’sInternalizing and Externalizing Problems During the COVID-19 Pandemic

dc.contributor.authorLi, X., & Zhou, S.
dc.date.accessioned2021-03-31T18:25:57Z
dc.date.available2021-03-31T18:25:57Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.abstractInternalizing 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.en_US
dc.identifier.citationLi, 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.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2021-08696-001.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11212/5034
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publishersychological trauma: theory, research, practice, and policy.en_US
dc.subjectInternational Resourcesen_US
dc.subjectChinaen_US
dc.subjectresearchen_US
dc.subjectdisasteren_US
dc.subjecttreatmenten_US
dc.subjectparental factorsen_US
dc.subjectpandemicen_US
dc.titleParental Worry, Family-Based Disaster Education and Children’sInternalizing and Externalizing Problems During the COVID-19 Pandemicen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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