Our Research...
Narratives of Trauma
Narratives are the way in which we make sense of the world and of our experiences, but when something senseless happens, how do we cope? How do individuals understand and narrate highly stressful and traumatic events, and does it matter how these kinds of experiences are recalled?
In a series of studies, we are examining how children, adolescents and adults narrate highly stressful and negative experiences as compared to positive experiences. Across studies, we find that narratives of negative events are longer, and focus more on thoughts and emotions, than narratives of positive events. We are currently examining how narratives of both positive and negative events are related to self-understanding and emotional well-being.
Projects about Trauma Narratives...
The Emory Asthma Project
During the preschool years, children are just learning how and why to reminisce about their past. Although even infants are able to remember specific details of their experiences, over the course of the preschool years, children learn how to organize these memories into narratives that help provide a structure for understating and evaluating their past experiences, and their selves.
In these early reminiscing conversations, parents do most of the work, providing most of the information and asking their children to repeat or confirm information. Across the preschool years, children become more competent participants in these reminiscing conversations, essentially becoming able to create a coherent narrative of their past on their own. Importantly, children of highly elaborative mothers learn to tell stories about their own past in more detailed and coherent ways. Intriguingly, these children also develop a more differentiated self-concept, and higher levels of emotional regulation. These patterns of results indicate that children are learning how to remember and narrate the events of their lives in family social interactions, in which autobiographical memory and self emerge.
Narratives of Natural Disasters
When natural disasters hit, they disrupt our lives, our families and our homes. In a series of studies, we examine how families talk about these experiences over time, and how this relates to children’s developing ability to cope with these events. In one series of studies, we followed preschool children and their mothers who had experienced Hurricane Andrew over a six-year period. Both children and their mothers who had experienced the most stress during this hurricane narrated the event with less detail and emotion than those who experienced less stress. Moreover, children who were least able to tell a detailed emotionally regulated narrative of the hurricane soon after it’s’ occurrence displayed the most stress symptoms even 6 years later.
We are currently examining parents and children’s narratives about a devastating tornado that occurred ten years ago that destroyed their small hometown.
Expressive Writing
Diary writing is a common practice and many people use diaries to express their deepest worries and concerns. Does this kind of expressive writing help individuals cope with stressful events? Certainly in adults, there is a great deal of evidence that expressive writing is useful; however, we are finding that expressive writing may actually be detrimental for children. Young children who are not yet able to create coherent and emotionally regulated narratives of stressful events may not benefit from individual writing, but may need the help of an adult to guide and structure their writing into a more coherent and emotionally regulated narrative.