Child-To-Parent Health Misinformation Interventions Among Older Parents: A Relational Understanding of Psychological Reactance

This study examines older adults’ psychological reactance to child-to-parent health misinformation interventions by attending to relational concerns regarding parental authority, as well as how such reactance is linked to problematic health information and family communication practices. We surveyed 428 Chinese older adults aged 60 and above. Structural equation modeling indicates that threat to behavioral freedom and threat to parental authority function as factors of reactance, with threat to parental authority conceptualized as a role-based social value threat. Psychological reactance is associated with orientations toward older adults’ practices often discussed as problematic in health and family communication contexts, including tendencies toward unverified health information sharing and avoidance of health-related communication with adult children. Perceived communication style was central: autonomy-supportive prevention was negatively associated with both threats, whereas controlling prevention was positively associated with both. Correction was mainly associated with threat to behavioral freedom, although autonomy-supportive correction was directly associated with lower health communication avoidance. These results advance theoretical understanding of psychological reactance as a relationally embedded phenomenon and offer insights into factors associated with problematic health information practices and intergenerational communication among older adults.