Department of Psychology, University of Calgary.
Owerko Centre and Department of Psychology, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary.
J Pediatr Psychol. 2021 Aug 11;46(7):757-767. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsab006.
Objective Painful experiences are common, distressing, and salient in childhood. Parent-child reminiscing about past painful experiences is an untapped opportunity to process pain-related distress and, similar to reminiscing about other distressing experiences, promotes children's broader development. Previous research has documented the role of parent-child reminiscing about past pain in children's pain-related cognitions (i.e., memories for pain), but no study to date has examined the association between parent-child reminiscing about past painful experiences and children's broader cognitive skills. Design and Methods One hundred and ten typically developing four-year-old children and one of their parents reminisced about a past painful autobiographical event. Children then completed two tasks from the NIH Toolbox Cognitive Battery, the Flanker Inhibitory Control & Attention Test and the Picture Sequence Memory Test, to measure their executive function and episodic memory, respectively. Results Results indicated that the relation between parental reminiscing style and children's executive function was moderated by child sex, such that less frequent parental use of yes-no repetition questions was associated with boys' but not girls', greater performance on the executive function task. Children displayed greater episodic memory performance when their parents reminisced using more explanations. Conclusions The current study demonstrates the key role of parent-child reminiscing about pain in children's broader development and supports the merging of developmental and pediatric psychology fields. Future longitudinal research should examine the directionality of the relation between parent-child reminiscing about past pain and children's developmental outcomes.
痛苦的经历在儿童期很常见，令人痛苦且引人注目。父母与孩子一起回忆过去的痛苦经历是一个未被开发的机会，可以处理与疼痛相关的痛苦，并且与回忆其他痛苦经历类似，可以促进孩子更广泛的发展。先前的研究记录了父母与孩子一起回忆过去的痛苦经历在孩子与疼痛相关的认知（即疼痛记忆）中的作用，但迄今为止，没有研究检验父母与孩子一起回忆过去痛苦经历与孩子更广泛的认知技能之间的关系。
110 名典型的 4 岁儿童及其父母中的一位回忆了过去的痛苦自传事件。然后，孩子们完成了 NIH 工具包认知电池中的两项任务，即侧抑制抑制和注意力测试以及图片序列记忆测试，分别衡量他们的执行功能和情景记忆。
结果表明，父母回忆风格与孩子执行功能之间的关系受到孩子性别调节，即父母较少使用是与否重复问题与男孩而非女孩的执行功能任务表现相关。当父母使用更多解释进行回忆时，孩子表现出更好的情景记忆表现。
本研究表明，父母与孩子一起回忆痛苦经历在孩子更广泛的发展中起着关键作用，并支持发展和儿科心理学领域的融合。未来的纵向研究应检验父母与孩子一起回忆过去痛苦经历与孩子发展结果之间的关系的方向性。
