Abstract
Mastery of cognitive emotion regulation strategies is an important developmental task. This paper focuses on two strategies that occur from preschool age onwards (Stegge and Meerum Terwogt, 2007): reappraisal and response suppression. Parental socialization of these strategies was investigated in a sample of N = 219 parents and their children. Informed by the tripartite model of family impact on children's emotion regulation, direct relations of emotion socialization components (modeling and reactions to the child's negative emotions) and indirect relations of parental emotion-related beliefs (such as parental emotion regulation self-efficacy) were examined. Data on emotion socialization components and parental beliefs on emotion regulation were collected via self-report. Data on children's emotion regulation strategies were collected via parent report. Findings showed direct effects of parental modeling and parenting practices on children's emotion regulation strategies, with distinct socialization paths for reappraisal and response suppression. An indirect effect of parental emotion regulation self-efficacy on children's reappraisal was found. These associations were not moderated by parent sex. Findings highlight the importance of both socialization components and parental emotion-related beliefs for the socialization of cognitive emotion regulation strategies and suggest a domain-specific approach to the socialization of emotion regulation strategies.
Highlights
The children’s soccer team loses the last game of the season after a tough match
DIRECT RELATIONS BETWEEN EMOTION SOCIALIZATION COMPONENTS AND CHILDREN’S USE OF EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES Consistent with previous theorizing on modeling as a socialization component (Bandura, 1977), findings of the present study suggest that parents’ modeling of reappraisal might facilitate reappraisal in their children, and parents’ modeling of response suppression use might facilitate response suppression in their children
Taken together, this study confirmed that the tripartite model of emotion socialization (Morris et al, 2007) is applicable to the socialization of the cognitive emotion regulation strategies of reappraisal and response suppression, and adds to the evidence for John and Gross’ (2004) suggestions about the role of parental emotion-related beliefs and behaviors in this process
Summary
The children’s soccer team loses the last game of the season after a tough match. Six-year-old players Michael and Jacob are fighting to hold back their tears when leaving the pitch to meet their parents. Michael’s father puts his arm around his son’s shoulders and tries to cheer him up by praising Michael’s and his teammates’ great shots. Michael says that he thinks his team played well they lost. She tells her son that a lost game is not a big deal and that Jacob is behaving like a baby.
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