Professor explains how to talk to children about school shootings

With the recent school shooting in Michigan, many parents are wondering how to effectively talk to their children about these events and the emotions associated with it. Sarah Lindstrom Johnson, assistant professor in the School of Social and Family Dynamics, spoke with Arizona Horizon about how to talk to our kids about school shootings.

Johnson says the best way to handle this is to find the space to have this difficult conversation instead of getting distracted by other factors.

“Make a concerted effort to have this conversation, focus it around emotion. A lot of times as parents we want the right answer and we don’t always, and this is one of those cases where we don’t always know why we want to do our best. The best we can do is understand our child’s emotions and what they’re feeling,” Johnson said.