Talking about health events: Conversational style of parents and children in a family relationship context

The present study examined conversational style and attachment orientation within health-relevant experiences of parents and their 4 to 8 year old children. Thirty-nine parent-child pairs discussed together health-relevant experiences that directly involved the child, were indirectly experienced, and commonly experienced. It was hypothesized that measures of relationship security for child and parent would be positively related, and both would be negatively related to parent health literacy and elaborative discourse during conversation. Results demonstrated that parent and child relationship style were not associated and not significantly related to elaborative discourse. However, a trend was found between attachment and elaborative discourse within the direct conversation, which was not found within other conversation topics. Parent health literacy was significantly negatively related to relationship style. This study has implications for how relationship style and health literacy is reflected in talk about health events within families and the importance of communication between parents and children.