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Talking (or Not Talking) about the Past: The Influence of Parent–Child Conversation about Negative Experiences on Children's Memories
Author(s) -
Salmon Karen,
Reese Elaine
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.3186
Subject(s) - psychology , conversation , developmental psychology , narrative , context (archaeology) , child sexual abuse , psychopathology , child abuse , autobiographical memory , cognition , child development , recall , sexual abuse , social psychology , cognitive psychology , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , clinical psychology , communication , paleontology , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , environmental health , neuroscience , biology
Summary We review research investigating the influence of conversations between parents and their children about past negative experiences on children's memory and management of their emotional experiences. To do so, we are guided by social cultural developmental theory and a developmental psychopathology framework. In the first section, we first discuss the ‘best case’ scenario, in which parents and child have a close relationship within which the child's negative emotions can be discussed and understood, and the child's ability to remember her experiences in a detailed and coherent narrative form is optimised. In the second section, we turn to the most problematic scenario of child maltreatment, including child sexual abuse, and consider the implications for children's memory when these optimizing factors are not present or are limited. Finally, we discuss exemplar intermediary scenarios. We propose that early problems acquiring critical skills for remembering emotional experiences in the context of parent–child relationships can have negative consequences for children's memory but also for their psychological functioning more broadly, which can extend across development. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.