Abstract The ways in which children narrate about emotionally negative events is intricately linked to the ways in which they create meaning and, ultimately, cope with such experiences. In this study we interviewed 5‐ to 12‐year‐old children growing up in violent communities about both emotionally positive and negative experiences. Children were able to report a great deal of information about both types of events, but they reported more objects and people, and used more descriptive detail, when narrating positive experiences. In contrast, children included more information about their thoughts and emotions when narrating negative experiences, and recounted these experiences more coherently. Few differences were found as a function of children's age, time since the events occurred, reported family discussion about the events, level of exposure to community violence or level of child behaviour problems. Implications of these findings for how children strive to create meaning out of the stressful events of their lives are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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