Socialization of children's experience and expression of pride

Abstract

AbstractTo understand socialization pathways in the development of specific, self‐relevant emotions, we examined the socialization of third‐grade children's experience and expression of pride in a sample of 196 mother–child dyads, including children's gender and race as instantiations of cultural contexts. Mothers' self‐reported beliefs about the value of positive emotions, beliefs about the value of negative emotions, and positive expressivity within the family were examined in relation to Black and White boys' and girls' own reported feelings and expressions of pride in response to five vignettes. Results revealed that mothers' beliefs and expressive behaviour were associated with their children's feelings of pride, but were not significantly associated with children's expressing pride in the vignettes. Socialization processes seemed similar across child gender and race, with the one exception of maternal value of positivity being differently associated with children's pride expression by race. Results exploring gender and race as cultural contexts indicated that mothers' beliefs and expressivity varied little by child gender, but did by race; Black mothers reported valuing positive emotions more so than White mothers. Children reported pride differences in the vignettes by both gender and race, with female and Black children reporting feeling and expressing pride more so than male and White children. These findings suggest parental and cultural roles in the socialization of how children feel and express pride.