About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 20. Social Cognition

Abstract

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When faced with unexpected events, some might explain, "God works in mysterious ways," whereas others might attribute the event to natural causes. Such explanatory variability is shaped by one’s religious cultural background (Payir et al., 2022). However, it is unknown how such explanatory reasoning is transmitted specifically from parents. Studying parent-child conversations allows the opportunity to understand the transmission of belief processes in a setting similar to conversations that occur in everyday life (McLoughlin et al., 2023). Prior research demonstrates that environmental factors such as parental beliefs (Cui et al., 2020), cultural norms (Corriveau et al., 2013), and religious affiliation (Harris & Corriveau, 2021) can influence how children learn about the world around them. The current study examines how children learn about illness, by examining the occurrence of natural and supernatural topics in parent-child conversations. Additionally, this study includes religious and non-religious families from two distinct cultural-religious settings (i.e., the US where Christians are a majority and China where Christians are the minority).

Sixty-three parent-child dyads from China (Mage=7.82, SD=1.99; 32 girls; 49% religious) and 34 from the U.S. (Mage=7.47, SD=2.15; 12 girls; 62% religious) completed a storybook conversation task. Dyads were presented with the beginning and end of a story (e.g., a boy’s mom is sick and then one day she is better) and were instructed to discuss what may have occurred in the middle. Conversations were transcribed and coded by two independent coders native to Chinese or English. The content of utterances was coded as referring to natural topics (e.g., medical treatments) and supernatural topics (e.g., prayer).

Parent-child dyads were more likely to discuss natural topics when their conversation topic were focused on illness than other topics for both China dyads (B=0.38, p<.001) and U.S dyads (B=.41 p=.003). Dyads were more likely to discuss supernatural topics when specifically taking about illness than not about illness for China (B=.30, p=.001) but not the U.S. (p=.37). Supernatural topics were most likely to occur in conversations about illness for China dyads that identified as religious (B=.16, p=.001) and U.S dyads that identified as most religious (B=.09 p=.02). Finally, coexistence (i.e., both natural and supernatural topics) in conversations was not significantly predicted by talk about illness, age of child, or religiosity for China dyads (ps>.08). However, for U.S. dyads, coexistence was significantly predicted by religiosity (B=2.63 p=.008) such that families that were the most religious were more likely to included coexistence in their conversations than families that were not religious. Talk about illness and age of child was not significant (ps>.35).

In conclusion, natural causal reasoning is highly valued by both religious and non-religious dyads when discussing illness. Importantly, religious dyads incorporated supernatural explanations in addition to natural reasoning, suggesting that when parents discuss illness with their children, natural and supernatural beliefs are not conflicting thoughts of reasoning but instead coexist. Furthermore, the findings illustrate being most religious in a majority religious group (e.g., Christians in the U.S.) to be influential to coexistent natural and supernatural reasoning.

Author information

Author	Role
Adine Ana Maria Deleon, Boston University	Presenting author
Allison J. Williams-Gant, Boston Unversity	Non-presenting author
Yarui Chen, Flordia State University	Non-presenting author
Pei Wang, Boston University	Non-presenting author
Kathleen H. Corriveau, Boston University	Non-presenting author

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