Mother-child reminiscing of emotional events during the pandemic: The role of changing family relationships and maternal prepandemic depression.

Abstract

This study examined the role of pandemic-induced changes in family relationships and maternal prepandemic depression in mother-child reminiscing during the pandemic and how this reminiscing in turn related to child outcomes. Mother-preschooler dyads (N = 69) were recruited from a larger longitudinal study, with 45% of mothers having a history of major depressive disorder before the pandemic. The dyads discussed the most positive and negative events (nominated by the mother) that the child experienced during the lockdown period. Mothers' emotion-related utterances were coded for emotion coaching and narrative style. Mothers also reported changing family relationships (family togetherness, household disagreements) during the pandemic prior to the reminiscing task. A principal component analysis on maternal emotion coaching and narrative style revealed two factors: interactive and explanatory emotion talk. Regression analyses indicated an interaction between maternal prepandemic depression and household disagreement (i.e., household disagreement was associated with less interactive emotion talk only for mothers with major depressive disorder) and a positive effect of family togetherness in predicting mothers' interactive emotion talk. Further, maternal interactive emotion talk predicted child decreased internalizing symptoms and explanatory emotion talk predicted improved autobiographical memory retrieval. These results underscore the importance of family emotional reminiscing in children's well-being during stressful times. Our findings offer insights for interventions aimed at promoting positive outcomes for children facing adversity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).