Introduction Young children’s epidemic awareness and risk prevention about public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 are issues of great importance deserving research. Objective To explore the effect of young children’s epidemic cognition on their coping behavior, and the mediating role of emotion. Method An online anonymous survey was administrated on 2221 Chinese parents of young children aged three to six during the COVID-19 overwhelming period. Results (1) The epidemic cognition (M = 4.17, SD = 0.73), the coping behavior (M = 4.16, SD = 0.65), and the emotion (M = 3.99, SD = 0.81) were at a relatively high level. (2) Young children’s epidemic cognition significantly predicted their coping behavior (β = 0.71, t = 45.29, P < 0.001). The positive prediction effect of epidemic cognition on young children’s emotion was significant (β = 0.19, t = 8.56, P < 0.001), and emotion had a significant positive predictive effect on young children’s coping behavior (β = 0.20, t = 4.89, P < 0.001). Conclusion Young children’s epidemic cognition can significantly predict their coping behavior, and emotion plays a significant mediating role in their relation. It is necessary for practitioners to optimize the contents and methods of epidemic education on young children.

The father–child interaction deserves attention during the COVID‐19 epidemic. This study administrated the Child Anger Questionnaire and the SCL‐90 Symptom Checklist to collect primary data from 1862 fathers of Chinese young children during the COVID‐19 outbreak, examined the relation between young children's anger and their fathers' mental health, and verified whether the relation was moderated by the gender or the child number. The results demonstrated that the detection rate of anger among Chinese young children was 60.08%, the scores of SCL‐90 factors of their fathers were significantly lower than the Chinese normal adult male norms and those of infant parents, and the anger of young children had a significant effect on their fathers' mental health. Gender and child number moderated this relation. It is of great significance to strengthen the attention to the anger of young children and the mental health of fathers during the period of public health emergencies, and to promote the harmonious interpersonal relationship between young children and their fathers.