Responding to ostracism in children: The role of parental recollections of the playground

Abstract

Ostracism threatens the fundamental need to belong. When children are ostracized, a myriad of psychosocial and emotional consequences may occur. Parents hold a key role in guiding their children through difficult peer situations and mitigating their effects. However, there is a dearth of research that examines how children’s peer experiences affect their parents. The current study examines the relationship between parents’ playground recollections and subsequent affective reactions to their children’s experience of ostracism. 250 parents observed their children ostracized during a game of Cyberball and reported affect using the PANAS-C/P (Ebesutani, 2012). Then, each parent reported their recollections of their childhood playground experiences. Parents’ childhood experiences were coded as positive, negative, or anxious/lonely (Putallaz et al., 1991). Parents with positive playground recollections were more negatively affected by their children’s ostracism than parents with anxious/lonely recollections. Parents with positive, negative, and anxious/lonely playground recollections experience different levels of negative affect scores depending on the gender of their child. Parents of girls experienced lower levels of negative affect when they had anxious/lonely past recollections. These results suggest a link between parents’ anxious/lonely childhood experiences and subsequent affective reactions to their children’s experiences of peer rejection. Future studies may explore the relationship among parents’ experiences of ostracism, their affective responses to their children’s ostracism, and subsequent parenting and coping strategies.