Children's psychological adjustment in dual‐ and single‐ethnic families: Coregulation, socialization values, and emotion regulation in a 7‐year follow‐up study

Abstract

AbstractThe study examines how dual‐ethnic and single‐ethnic families differ in terms of children's psychological adjustment and its correlates. Among 48 Finnish–Russian and Finnish families, mothers and fathers reported on children's emotional and conduct problems at ages 4 years and 7 years and children's emotion regulation, emotionality, and their own socialization values at 7 years. Mother–infant and father–infant coregulation was assessed at 7 months. The results show that children had more emotional problems among Finnish–Russian families than among Finnish families at 4 years but not at 7 years. Russian mothers reported more hierarchical and authoritarian values than did Finnish mothers, but the values did not moderate between ethnic context and children's adjustment. Equally many Finnish and Finnish–Russian families had balanced early coregulation, which was linked with fewer attention‐related problems at age 4. In both ethnic contexts, children's emotion regulation was concurrently associated with better psychological adjustment, and high emotionality was associated with more problems. Parental values were not associated with children's adjustment.Highlights This study from infancy to school age analyses psychological adjustment and its correlates among children growing up in single‐ and dual‐ethnic families. Parent‐infant unbalanced co‐regulation related with parent‐reported ADHD problems in preschool children who had more emotional problems in dual‐ethnic than single‐ethnic families. Found differences in parental values and emotion socialization did not expose children in dual‐ethnic families to enduring risk for problems in emotion regulation or adjustment.