Poster Session 6: Parenting

Presenters: Allegra Midgette, Jennifer Coffman, Sarah Ashworth, Hannah Netschytailo, Hailey Ramos, Andrea Hussong

Summary
This study allowed for an examination of the messages provided during parent-child conversations about gratitude, and an exploration of conversational messages that are supportive of the development of children's gratitude. We employed an inductive thematic analytical approach to identify messages present in 40 parent-child dyad conversations about gratitude. Dyads were selected based on whether or not the children evidenced growth in gratitude after their parents participated in a parent training program about facilitating gratitude conversations ( ½ evidenced growth, ½ did not). Preliminary findings suggest that improvements in children's gratitude coincided with their parents (a) providing their children an opportunity to talk about their feelings (b) sharing how the child's behavior influenced their feelings, and (c) instructing their child on how to be more grateful.

Objectives
-- To analyze the type of events that parents consider to be ones in which their child is being grateful and ungrateful.
-- To analyze the messages present in parent-child conversations about gratitude.
-- To analyze whether certain conversational messages are more supportive of children's gratitude growth than others.

Subject Codes: ethics and values, communication, parenting
Population Codes: inclusive of adults, diverse but not representative, middle childhood
Method and Approach Codes: thematic analysis, ethics and values, qualitative methodology