Children’s Emotions after Exposure to News: Investigating Chat Conversations with Peers as a Coping Strategy

Ming Ebbinkhuijsen; Kirsten E. Bevelander; Moniek Buijzen; Mariska Kleemans

doi:10.1007/s10964-021-01408-0

Children’s Emotions after Exposure to News: Investigating Chat Conversations with Peers as a Coping Strategy

Ming Ebbinkhuijsen^*, Kirsten E. Bevelander, Moniek Buijzen, Mariska Kleemans

^*Corresponding author for this work

Behavioural Change

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Hardly any research has been conducted regarding coping strategies that children can use in response to negative news, although they are frequently exposed to and emotionally affected by such news. Chat conversations with peers about the news could be a coping strategy for children in this regard. To investigate this, children (N = 307; 46.3% girls; M_age = 10.51; SD_age = 0.98; range 8–13 years old) participated in a preregistered experiment in which their emotions were measured before and after exposure to a news video on a smartphone and also after a postexposure activity (i.e., chatting about the news as an experimental condition versus chatting about something else or solving a puzzle as control conditions). The results showed that the decrease in negative emotions and the increase in positive emotions were weaker for children who chatted about the news than for those in the control conditions. Thus, seeking social support in online chat conversations did not have the anticipated effect—and might even have an adverse effect.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1424-1436
Number of pages	12
Journal	Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Volume	50
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01408-0
Publication status	Published - 20 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
ME participated in the design and coordination, data collection, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; KEB participated in the design of the study, the interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; MB participated in the design of the study, interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; MK conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors received no specific funding for this study. The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

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title = "Children{\textquoteright}s Emotions after Exposure to News: Investigating Chat Conversations with Peers as a Coping Strategy",

abstract = "Hardly any research has been conducted regarding coping strategies that children can use in response to negative news, although they are frequently exposed to and emotionally affected by such news. Chat conversations with peers about the news could be a coping strategy for children in this regard. To investigate this, children (N = 307; 46.3% girls; Mage = 10.51; SDage = 0.98; range 8–13 years old) participated in a preregistered experiment in which their emotions were measured before and after exposure to a news video on a smartphone and also after a postexposure activity (i.e., chatting about the news as an experimental condition versus chatting about something else or solving a puzzle as control conditions). The results showed that the decrease in negative emotions and the increase in positive emotions were weaker for children who chatted about the news than for those in the control conditions. Thus, seeking social support in online chat conversations did not have the anticipated effect—and might even have an adverse effect.",

author = "Ming Ebbinkhuijsen and Bevelander, {Kirsten E.} and Moniek Buijzen and Mariska Kleemans",

note = "Funding Information: ME participated in the design and coordination, data collection, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; KEB participated in the design of the study, the interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; MB participated in the design of the study, interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; MK conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors received no specific funding for this study. The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s).",

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doi = "10.1007/s10964-021-01408-0",

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AU - Bevelander, Kirsten E.

AU - Buijzen, Moniek

AU - Kleemans, Mariska

N1 - Funding Information: ME participated in the design and coordination, data collection, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; KEB participated in the design of the study, the interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; MB participated in the design of the study, interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; MK conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors received no specific funding for this study. The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

PY - 2021/2/20

Y1 - 2021/2/20

N2 - Hardly any research has been conducted regarding coping strategies that children can use in response to negative news, although they are frequently exposed to and emotionally affected by such news. Chat conversations with peers about the news could be a coping strategy for children in this regard. To investigate this, children (N = 307; 46.3% girls; Mage = 10.51; SDage = 0.98; range 8–13 years old) participated in a preregistered experiment in which their emotions were measured before and after exposure to a news video on a smartphone and also after a postexposure activity (i.e., chatting about the news as an experimental condition versus chatting about something else or solving a puzzle as control conditions). The results showed that the decrease in negative emotions and the increase in positive emotions were weaker for children who chatted about the news than for those in the control conditions. Thus, seeking social support in online chat conversations did not have the anticipated effect—and might even have an adverse effect.

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Children’s Emotions after Exposure to News: Investigating Chat Conversations with Peers as a Coping Strategy

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