Trajectories of Chinese paternal emotion-related socialization behaviors during early adolescence: Contributions of father and adolescent factors.

Abstract

Parental emotion-related socialization behaviors (ERSBs) are developmental and multiply determined. However, longitudinal studies on the development patterns of ERSBs and their antecedents, especially for Chinese fathers, are scarce. This study examined the longitudinal trajectories of Chinese fathers' ERSBs during early adolescence and whether they are influenced by the father (depressive symptoms and emotion dysregulation) and adolescent factors (depressive symptoms and emotional intelligence). We used 4-year, self-reported, survey-based data from Chinese early adolescents (46.70% girls, Mage at Wave 1 = 10.26 years, SD = 0.33) and their fathers (Mage at Wave 1 = 40.36 years, SD = 4.22), and data analyses were conducted using unconditional and conditional latent growth model (N = 1061 at Wave 1). The results revealed an increase in the father's supportive and non-supportive ERSBs over 4 years. Furthermore, father's depression symptoms, emotion dysregulation, and adolescent's depression symptoms can predict paternal supportive ERSBs' trajectories, while only the father's depression symptoms and emotion dysregulation can predict the change in non-supportive ERSBs. The findings give a holistic picture of the developmental trajectories of paternal ERSBs during early adolescence, and highlight the importance of accounting for differences in father and adolescent factors in understanding changes in parental ERSBs during this critical developmental period.