Parental Verbal Threat and Children’s Anxiety: Examining the Role of Positive Refocusing

Parental verbal threat communication has been associated with children’s anxiety, particularly in the context of health-related threats. The present study examined whether parental verbal threat about a disease, specifically COVID-19, was associated with children’s generalized anxiety and whether positive refocusing, an adaptive cognitive emotional regulation strategy, was related to this association. The participants of the current study were parents and their children from the Netherlands (N = 188). Children were between 8 and 18 years old (M = 14.23) and their parents were 18 years old and above. Parents reported verbal threat communication related to COVID-19, while children reported their anxiety levels and use of positive refocusing. Linear regression analyses were conducted, including an interaction term between parental verbal threat and positive refocusing. Results showed that parental verbal threat was not significantly associated with children's anxiety. The interaction...Show moreParental verbal threat communication has been associated with children’s anxiety, particularly in the context of health-related threats. The present study examined whether parental verbal threat about a disease, specifically COVID-19, was associated with children’s generalized anxiety and whether positive refocusing, an adaptive cognitive emotional regulation strategy, was related to this association. The participants of the current study were parents and their children from the Netherlands (N = 188). Children were between 8 and 18 years old (M = 14.23) and their parents were 18 years old and above. Parents reported verbal threat communication related to COVID-19, while children reported their anxiety levels and use of positive refocusing. Linear regression analyses were conducted, including an interaction term between parental verbal threat and positive refocusing. Results showed that parental verbal threat was not significantly associated with children's anxiety. The interaction between parental verbal threat and positive refocusing was not significant, indicating that positive refocusing did not weaken this association. However, positive refocusing showed a significant negative association with children's anxiety levels, suggesting that adaptive cognitive emotional regulation strategies may have a supportive role against children's anxiety levels. Overall, these findings suggest that parental verbal threat about COVID-19 may not be strongly associated with children’s generalized anxiety in this sample as it was first expected.Show less

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Parental Verbal Threat and Children’s Anxiety: Examining the Role of Positive Refocusing