Co-constructing the Past: Examining Mother- and Father-Child Narratives About Past Events Involving Pain versus Sadness

Pavlova, Maria

Co-constructing the Past: Examining Mother- and Father-Child Narratives About Past Events Involving Pain versus Sadness

dc.contributor.advisor	Noel, Melanie
dc.contributor.author	Pavlova, Maria
dc.contributor.committeemember	Graham, Susan A.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Madigan, Sheri L.
dc.contributor.committeemember	McMorris, Carly A.
dc.date	2019-11
dc.date.accessioned	2019-08-27T17:27:37Z
dc.date.available	2019-08-27T17:27:37Z
dc.date.issued	2019-08-26
dc.description.abstract	Background. Parent-child reminiscing about past events creates an influential sociolinguistic context within which children’s development occurs. Parents differ dramatically in their reminiscing styles, whereas some parents are highly elaborative (i.e., they use open-ended detailed questions) and focus on talking about emotions, other parents are repetitive and emphasize factual information. Elaborative reminiscing has been linked to more optimal developmental outcomes. No studies have examined how parent-children reminiscing about past pain compares to other stressful experiences (i.e., sadness, fear), and how parent-children reminiscing about past pain might be linked to children’s socio-emotional skills. This study was the first to examine the association between parent-child reminiscing about past pain and children’s prosocial acts to pain-related distress in others as well as overall children’s socio-emotional functioning. Methods. One hundred and sixteen 4-year old children (54% girls) and their parents (49% mothers) completed a structured narrative elicitation task wherein they reminisced about a unique past event involving pain, fear, and sadness. Children then witnessed a confederate pretending to be in pain (i.e., hurt fingers and a knee). Children’s prosocial responses and parent-child narratives about past pain were coded using established coding schemes based on the developmental psychology literature. Results. Parent-children narratives about pain were characterized by less emotion-laden and more coping and pain-related words as compared to sadness or fearful narratives. Parents, who used open-ended questions, provided new information, and talked about emotions and coping when talking about past events involving pain, had children who exhibited more prosocial acts and concern in response to other’s pain and had higher parent-reported levels of empathy. Discussion. Parent-children reminiscing about past pain differs from reminiscing about other types of distressing events (e.g., involving sadness or fear) and is linked to children’s socio-emotional skills. This highlights a possibility of differential socialization of pain. Parent-child reminiscing is amenable to intervention and offers a promising avenue for pediatric pain management interventions.	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Pavlova, M. (2019). Co-constructing the Past: Examining Mother- and Father-Child Narratives About Past Events Involving Pain versus Sadness (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/36910
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110828
dc.language.iso	eng	en_US
dc.publisher.faculty	Arts	en_US
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary	en
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.	en_US
dc.subject	pain, sadness, fear, children, parents, reminiscing, prosocial behaviour, empathy	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Psychology	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Psychology--Clinical	en_US
dc.title	Co-constructing the Past: Examining Mother- and Father-Child Narratives About Past Events Involving Pain versus Sadness	en_US
dc.type	master thesis	en_US
thesis.degree.discipline	Psychology – Clinical	en_US
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary	en_US
thesis.degree.name	Master of Science (MSc)	en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopy	false	en_US