Mother-Child Reminiscing in the Context of Secure Attachment Relationships

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter argues that discussions about children's past negative emotions have important consequences for children's ability to understand and cope with negative emotion. Parent-child reminiscing about children's past stressful (and negative emotional) experiences has implications for how children understand and remember stressful events after the fact, as well as how they cope with future stressful experiences. The chapter is organized as follows. It begins with a brief discussion of children's emotional understanding and its likely importance for children's ability to cope with negative emotion both during and after stressful experiences. It highlights the importance of parent-child discourse, particularly parent-child reminiscing, for fostering children's understanding of negative emotion, and reviews recent research on this topic. The chapter then considers a discussion of attachment theory in an attempt to understand individual differences in the quality of parent-child communication surrounding emotional and stressful experiences. The chapter then highlights the research that suggests that having a secure attachment facilitates open communication between caregivers and children, especially regarding difficult or negative experiences. Finally, it discusses the importance of open, high-quality mother-child reminiscing for promoting children's understanding of stressful experiences as well as their psychological well-being.