Emotion Socialization Strategies Research Articles

The Role of Mothers’ Psychological Resilience and Emotion Socialization Strategies on Their Children’s Emotion Regulation Skills

The Role of Mothers’ Psychological Resilience and Emotion Socialization Strategies on Their Children’s Emotion Regulation Skills

Convergent and divergent parental emotion socialization processes shape children's emotional responding

AbstractParents have an essential role in shaping children's emotional responses, a process called emotional socialization. Typically, researchers measure parental socialization behaviors via self‐report and in‐laboratory observations. However, the extent to which there is convergence between parents’ reported and enacted socialization practices is an open question. The aims of the current study were (1) to quantify the convergence/divergence in parents’ reported and enacted emotional socialization practices and (2) to analyze how convergence/divergence in specific parent socialization practices relates to children's emotional responding across different contexts (alone and with a parent). Participants were a diverse sample of 181 parent‐child dyads (children ages 3–11). We analyzed emotion socialization strategies (problem‐focused reactions, emotion‐focused reactions, expressive encouragement, punishing reactions, minimizing reactions, and distress reactions) as they related to children's behavioral and physiological responding to an emotional challenge. We found an overall pattern of divergence for most socialization strategies, but convergence for problem‐focused reactions. For children's observed distress, a convergent pattern of reported and enacted minimizing specifically was related to more distress while alone. For children's physiological reactivity, enacted problem‐solving was related to greater parasympathetic decreases across social context (from being alone to being with parent). Taken together, our findings suggest that convergence and divergence in parental emotional socialization practices may capture unique variability in how parents contextually respond to children's feelings, and children's emotional responding.

Clarifying the relation between mother and adolescent borderline personality disorder symptoms: The roles of maternal and adolescent emotion regulation and maladaptive maternal emotion socialization.

Despite evidence for the intergenerational transmission of borderline personality disorder (BPD) pathology from mothers to offspring, the factors underlying the relation between mother and child BPD symptoms remain unclear and little is known about the pathways through which maternal BPD symptoms may relate to BPD symptoms in their offspring. One set of factors that warrants consideration in this regard is mother and child emotion regulation (ER) difficulties. In particular, theory and research suggest an indirect relation between mother and child BPD symptoms through maternal ER difficulties (and related maladaptive emotion socialization strategies) and, subsequently, child ER difficulties. Thus, this study used structural equation modeling to examine a model wherein maternal BPD symptoms relate to offspring BPD symptoms in adolescence through maternal ER difficulties (and maladaptive maternal emotion socialization strategies) and, subsequently, adolescent ER difficulties. A nationwide community sample of 200 mother-adolescent dyads completed an online study. Results provided support for the proposed model, revealing both a direct relation between maternal and adolescent BPD symptoms and two indirect relations through (a) maternal and adolescent ER difficulties and (b) maternal ER difficulties, maternal maladaptive emotion socialization strategies, and adolescent ER difficulties. Results highlight the relevance of both mother and adolescent ER difficulties in the relation between mother and offspring BPD pathology, as well as the potential clinical utility of targeting mother and child ER in interventions aimed at preventing the intergenerational transmission of BPD pathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A person-based approach to emotion socialization in toddlerhood: Individual differences in maternal emotion regulation, mental-health and parental sense of competence

Mothers adopt various emotion socialization strategies and sometimes exhibit contradictory responses. Thus, it is essential to understand how mothers differentiate in their use of emotion socialization strategies, and whether a set of emotion socialization responses is associated with individual differences in emotion regulation, mental health, and parental sense of competence during toddlerhood. Therefore, we used a person-centred approach to identify mothers’ emotion socialization responses and then compared mothers based on the aforementioned characteristics. The mothers (N = 680) with toddlers (M = 23.56 months) responded to the Coping with Toddlers’ Negative Emotions Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Brief Symptom Inventory, and the Parental Sense of Competence Scale. The 3-profile-solution revealed: Unspecified (moderate scores in all emotion socialization strategies), supportive (high scores in supportive emotion socialization strategies) and mixture profiles (high in all emotion socialization strategies). The supportive and mixture profiles scored highly in cognitive reappraisal. Unspecified and mixture profiles did not vary in expressive suppression and mental health symptoms, but they scored lower than supportive profile mothers. In the parental sense of competence, the supportive profile scored higher than the mixture profile. The results showed mothers mainly using supportive emotion socialization strategies can demonstrate adequate emotion regulation and benefit from psychological well-being that potentially boosts parenting competence.

Reflective functioning and emotion socialization behaviors in caregivers of preschoolers

AbstractObjectiveThe present study assessed the associations between caregivers' adverse experiences with childhood caregivers, adult and parental reflective functioning (RF), and emotion socialization strategies with their preschoolers in an effort to illuminate the unique and joint contribution of adult and parental RF in caregiving.BackgroundParental RF is defined as parents' ability to reflect on their child's state of mind, whereas adult RF involves parents' capacity to reflect on their own experiences with childhood caregivers. Most research on adult and parental RF has examined these constructs separately, making it unclear whether adult and parental RF play similar or different roles in caregiving.MethodParticipants were 64 preschooler–caregiver dyads from Head Start programs (Mchildage = 4; 81% Black). A multimethod approach was used, including self‐report, interview, and observational measures. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were employed to evaluate whether adult and parental RF accounted for unique or joint variance in caregivers' emotion socialization behaviors after accounting for caregivers' adverse experiences with childhood caregivers. Adult RF also was tested as a moderator of the relation between caregivers' adverse experiences with childhood caregivers and emotion socialization strategies.ResultsAdult and parental RF each demonstrated unique associations with particular emotion socialization strategies. Adult RF also moderated the association between caregivers' exposure to maladaptive parenting in childhood and emotion socialization behaviors.Conclusion and implicationsFindings suggest that both types of RF are important for caregivers' ability to validate children's emotions and that reflecting on caregiving received in childhood can act as a protective mechanism and help promote effective caregiving behaviors.

Parental emotion socialization: Relations with adjustment, security, and maternal depression in early adolescence.

How parents approach and teach their children about emotions are key determinants of children's healthy adjustment (Denham, 2019). Parental emotion socialization has been mostly studied in parents of young children. Our study identified emotion socialization (ES) strategies used by parents of early adolescents (Study 1) and then examined the relations of ES strategies with early adolescent adjustment, parent-child attachment, and maternal depression (Study 2). Study 1 included 171 parents of 9- to 14-year-old children who completed an open-ended questionnaire about their reactions to their children's negative emotions, which was content coded for ES strategies. We found that parents do use the 6 traditional ES strategies (problem solving, emotion focused/comforting, encouragement, minimizing, punitive, and distress) with early adolescents, while also using 3 approaches not identified in studies of parents of younger children (self-regulation, parent seeking information, parent explaining). We also found that some ES strategies are context and gender specific. Study 2 included 218 mother and child dyads (children aged 9- to 14- years). Mothers completed the Revised Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale, adapted to include items assessing the 3 new strategies, and measures of child adjustment, attachment, and maternal depression. The ES strategies loaded on 3 factors: Collaborative Coping, Negative Reactions to Child's Distress, and Low Expectation for Child's Self-Regulation. Negative Reactions to Child's Distress showed associations with children's internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behavior, and child attachment, while Collaborative Coping was related to prosocial behavior. Our results point to the importance of investigating additional ES strategies in early adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescent emotion regulation trajectories: The influence of parent and friend emotion socialization.

With mounting evidence demonstrating the link between child emotion regulation (ER) and emotion socialization, we conducted a longitudinal study to understand (a) emotion-specific trajectories of adolescent ER and (b) how specific parent and friend emotion socialization strategies impact ER over 4 years. Participants were 209 adolescents (52.5% girls; Mage =12.66 years; 75.7% White) and their parents. Latent growth curve models identified unique trajectories for anger and sadness/worry regulation. Anger regulation increased across time, whereas sadness/worry regulation remained highly stable longitudinally, lacking variance for growth modeling. Friend emotion socialization emerged as a more salient predictor of anger regulation than parent emotion socialization. Friend reward, override, and punish responses predicted initial levels. Friend punish and parent magnify responses predicted the slope.

1.73 Self-Reported Maltreatment History Moderates the Relationship Between Parental Emotion Socialization Strategy and Future Depression Symptoms in Adolescents

Parental emotion socialization (ES) strategies can play a critical role in adolescent mental health. In the context of adverse experiences, youth may be especially vulnerable to emotional feedback from parents. The current project aims to determine whether parental ES strategies predict change in adolescents’ clinical symptoms 1 year later, and to analyze the moderating role of childhood trauma on this relationship.

COVID-19 Impact on Parental Emotion Socialization and Youth Socioemotional Adjustment in Italy.

This study examines the change and associations in parental emotion socialization strategies in response to children’s negative emotions and youths’ adjustment, comparing before the Covid‐19 pandemic hit Italy and since the pandemic began. Participants were convenient cross‐sectional/normative (Study 1) and clinical/longitudinal (Study 2) samples of Italian parents whose children were in middle childhood and adolescence. In Study 1, self‐reported socialization strategies, youths’ maladjustment, and emotion dysregulation increased since the pandemic began. Whereas, in Study 2, socialization strategies and youths’ maladjustment decreased since the pandemic started. In both studies, unsupportive parental emotion socialization predicted youths’ maladjustment and emotion dysregulation, while supportive parental emotion socialization predicted adaptive emotion regulation. This study advances knowledge about the impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on the family context.

Profiles of Emotion Socialization Across Development and Longitudinal Associations with Youth Psychopathology.

Although there is relative consensus in the literature regarding associations between certain emotion socialization (ES) strategies and youth behavioral health, there is very limited research from a person-centered perspective. To address this gap, the current study examined patterns of ES strategies in families and explored predictors and youth outcomes associated with those patterns. An economically-diverse sample of 229 predominately White mothers and fathers of youth aged 3-12years was recruited online for a longitudinal study. Latent profile analysis was used to determine the optimal number of family clusters with similar ES profiles. Model fit supported a four-class model, which consisted of an Emotion Coaching profile, characterized by the lowest levels of putatively labeled unsupportive ES practices and the highest levels of putatively labeled supportive ES practices, a Moderate profile characterized by moderate levels of both unsupportive and supportive ES practices, a Limited Engagement profile characterized by low levels of both unsupportive and supportive ES practices, and an Emotion Dismissing profile characterized by the highest levels of unsupportive ES practices and the lowest levels of supportive ES practices. Cross-sectional and longitudinal differences were observed across the ES profiles with regard to demographic and parent emotional competence predictors and youth outcomes. The current study extends the literature on ES by providing evidence on how distinct ES profiles differentially predict youth behavioral health outcomes. Findings also underscore the importance of examining parent emotional competence as a catalyst for adaptive change in the family system.

Longitudinal Associations Between Parenting Practices and Youth Sleep Problems.

Sleep problems among youth are highly prevalent and associated with adjustment difficulties. When considering influences on youth's sleep, bidirectional links between youth's sleep health and family functioning have been suggested. Parenting practices are among the many familial factors that could be transactionally related to poor sleep in youth; however, research is lacking on potential longitudinal associations between parenting practices and sleep problems in youth. In addition, sensitive periods for this link are mostly unknown. The current study examined longitudinal relations between constellations of parenting practices and youth sleep health to identify profiles of parenting practices that are predictive of sleep problems in youth across different developmental stages. Participants were 292 parents (M = 36.51, SD = 7.3) of children between the ages of 3 and 14 years (M = 8.4, SD = 3.6). A person-centered approach was used to create profiles across traditionally labeled positive and negative parenting practices, as well as supportive and unsupportive parental emotion socialization strategies. Parenting profiles were then examined as longitudinal predictors of youth sleep problems. Findings revealed 3 distinct parenting profiles, which were differentially associated with sleep problems in youth, with the first profile predicting the lowest levels of sleep problems and the third profile predicting the highest levels of sleep problems, particularly among peripubertal youth. This study extends previous findings by elucidating distinct constellations of parenting practices that are differentially predictive of youth sleep problems and highlighting parenting among the various family processes that can longitudinally contribute to youth's sleep health.

Fearful Temperament and Child Social Anxiety Symptoms: Clarifying the Influence of Maternal Punitive Responses.

Fearful temperament-the tendency to exhibit apprehension and/or avoidance in novel situations-is a well-established risk factor for childhood anxiety in general, and social anxiety in particular. Yet, there is little understanding of parent emotion socialization strategies that influence the association between fearful temperament and child social anxiety symptoms. The present investigation addresses this gap in the literature by examining maternal punitive responses to clinically anxious children's negative emotions as a moderator of the covariance between fearful temperament and social anxiety symptom severity. Clinically anxious children ages 8-12years (N = 105; 57.1% female; 61.9% racial/ethnic minority) and their mothers completed measures assessing child fearful temperament, maternal punitive emotion socialization responses, and child social anxiety symptoms. Children also participated in an anxiety-provoking speech task during which manifest social anxiety was coded by trained observers. Children's fearful temperament coupled with greater maternal punitive responses to children's negative emotions was associated with lower child-reported social anxiety symptoms. Models predicting manifest social anxiety were not significant. Maternal punitive responses to children's negative emotions may encourage clinically anxious youth to approach feared situations and therefore result in lower anxiety. Yet, the potentially negative effects of punitive responses on other aspects of anxious children's socioemotional development warrant scientific attention. Future research should examine the phenomenology of punitive parental responses among parents of anxious youth to better understand their effects on child behavior.

Child diurnal cortisol differs based on profiles of maternal emotion socialization in high risk, low income, and racially diverse families.

Young children's physiological and emotional regulation depend on supportive caregiving, especially in the context of stress and adversity. Experiences of child maltreatment become biologically embedded by shaping stress physiology. Maternal emotion socialization may have an important influence on children's limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (LHPA) functioning. Grounded in theories of caregiver emotion socialization, a person-centered latent profile analysis was utilized to identify profiles of maternal emotion socialization among a high risk, low income, and racially diverse group of 248 mothers and their young children (Mage =4.39years, SD=1.10). The majority of the mothers (n=165) had a history of involvement with the Department of Child Services for substantiated cases of child maltreatment. A latent profile analysis was conducted revealing three emotion socialization profiles: disengaged, engaged, and engaged+supportive. Emotion socialization profile differences in children's diurnal cortisol levels and slope (using area under the curve with respect to ground and increase, respectively) were examined. Children's diurnal cortisol levels were higher, and slopes were flatter, when mothers used more disengaged emotion socialization strategies. Mothers who neglected their children were more likely to fit the disengaged profile than the engaged profile. Implications for the socialization of regulation in children exposed to adversity are discussed.

Parental Emotion Socialization and Adult Outcomes: The Relationships Between Parental Supportiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Trait Anxiety

Despite the burgeoning interest in the relationships between parental emotion socialization practices, emotion regulation (ER), and anxiety in youth, there is considerably less research focusing on the ways in which parental emotion socialization in childhood is associated with these variables in adulthood. A sample of 202 university students completed an online survey, which aimed to examine the relationships between retrospective reports of parental emotion socialization strategies in childhood, ER in adulthood, and trait anxiety. Adult perceptions of their parents’ use of unsupportive emotion socialization strategies in childhood was related to lower levels of ER skills and greater use of maladaptive ER strategies in adulthood, while perceptions of parents’ use of supportive strategies were related to higher levels of ER skills and greater use of adaptive ER strategies. Together, adult perceptions of unsupportive parental emotion socialization strategies in childhood and their ER skills and ER strategy use in adulthood predicted trait anxiety.

The Relations of Parental Emotion Dysregulation and Emotion Socialization to Young Adults’ Emotion Dysregulation

Parents’ own emotion dysregulation and their socialization of emotions have been found to predict offspring’s emotion dysregulation, but little is known about how these factors interact to predict young adults’ emotion dysregulation. Thus, we aimed to examine whether each of three forms of parental responses to their offspring’s negative emotions (i.e., supportive, harsh, distressed) predicted young adults’ emotion dysregulation, particularly for young adults whose parents did not present emotional difficulties. One hundred and twenty-two young adults (Mage = 22.37 years, SDage = 2.23, age range: 18–26 years) and their primary parents were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Young adults and their primary parents reported on their own emotion dysregulation, and primary parents reported their supportive, harsh, and distressed responses to young adults’ negative emotions. For distressed parental responses and supportive emotion-related socialization, the interaction effect between emotion dysregulation and their emotion socialization strategies was significantly related to young adults’ emotion dysregulation, Fs(6) = 6.70 and 6.58, ps < 0.001, for distressed responses and supportive socialization, respectively. When parents’ harsh responses to negative emotions were examined, only the main effects of harsh responses and parents’ own emotion dysregulation predicted young adults’ emotion dysregulation, F(5) = 4.55, p < 0.001. Results highlight that both specific socialization strategies and parents’ own regulatory characteristics are important in young adults’ emotional experience. Further, if parents are not well-regulated emotionally, changes in their responses to young adults’ negative emotions may not be effective.

Emotion Socialization and Young Adult Internalizing Symptoms: the Roles of Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation

Caregivers play a crucial role in the socialization of youth emotional understanding and regulation, which are implicated in socio-emotional outcomes. Although a rich literature details the sequelae of parent emotion socialization (ES) strategies, there is less understanding of variables that may explain associations between ES strategies and youth psychopathology. The current study aimed to test potential explanatory variables–mindfulness and emotion regulation strategies. SEM was utilized to test direct and indirect effects of young adult recalled parent ES, mindfulness, and emotion suppression and cognitive reappraisal on internalizing symptoms in a sample (N = 256) of 18 to 33 year olds (Mage = 19.85, SDage = 2.31). Higher levels of supportive ES were positively related to young adult mindfulness (β = 0.334, SE = 0.102, p < .05, for mothers; β = 0.366, SE = 0.097, p < .01, for fathers). In turn, mindfulness was related to higher levels of cognitive reappraisal (β = 0.250, SE = 0.114, p < .01), lower levels of emotion suppression (β = − 0.433, SE = 0.138, p < .001), and lower levels of internalizing symptoms (β = − 0.793, SE = 0.897, p < .001). Several indirect effects were also significant. Results provided support for the indirect influence of parents’ supportive ES on offspring internalizing symptoms through young adult mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal. Parenting interventions designed to create healthy family contexts may wish to incorporate a focus on supportive ES responses, given associations with offspring mindfulness, adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and lower internalizing symptoms.

Improving Child Emotion Regulation: Effects of Parent–Child Interaction-therapy and Emotion Socialization Strategies

Emotion regulation is a mechanism that, when targeted in treatment, can ameliorate heterogeneous psychopathology across ontogeny. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is one evidence-based intervention hypothesized to improve child emotion regulation. Building on this hypothesis, the present study examined three objectives. First, it examined whether child behavior improvement or parent positive parenting skill use during PCIT predicted improvements in post-treatment child emotion regulation. Second, it measured whether these associations persisted after controlling for baseline child emotion regulation, as well as positive and negative parent emotion socialization strategies. Third, it evaluated whether positive parenting skill use and child behavior improvement mediated associations between pre- and post-treatment child emotion regulation. PCIT participants were 86 2–8 year-olds and their caregivers. Child behavior improvement during PCIT (β = −0.65, p < 0.01) and positive pre-treatment parent emotion socialization strategies (β = −0.33, p = 0.05) were associated with improvements in post-treatment child emotion regulation. Additionally, improvements in child behavior during PCIT (β = −0.29, p < 0.01) but not mid-treatment positive parenting skill use (β = 0.00, p = 0.98) mediated the association between pre- and post-treatment emotion regulation. For children with clinically-elevated emotion regulation scores pre-treatment, over 80% of such scores fell to the normative range post-treatment. These preliminary results indicate PCIT may be effective in improving children’s emotion regulation, such effectiveness may persist even when treatment coincides with parent negative emotion socialization strategy use, and such effectiveness appears attributable to child behavior improvements over treatment. Additionally, parent positive emotion socialization strategies appear to be promising targets for future interventions.

Patterns of parental emotion-related discourse and links with children's problem behaviors: A person-centered approach.

Research demonstrates that parents' emotion-related discourse during reminiscing shapes children's psychosocial outcomes, yet little is known about how different forms of parental emotion-related discourse work in combination. The present study takes a person-centered approach to better understand the relation of multiple forms of parental emotion discourse during reminiscing with problem behaviors in early childhood, as well as child influences on parents' emotion discourse during reminiscing. Specifically, we simultaneously examine three forms of parents' emotion-related discourse (emotion coaching and dismissing, emotion explanations, and elaboration) using cluster analysis to determine parents' patterns of these three discourse forms during discussion about past events. Parents and their preschool-aged children (n = 154) completed a parent-child reminiscing task. Transcripts were coded for emotion coaching and dismissing, emotion explanations, and elaboration. Parents reported on children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors, temperament, and gender, and children completed a language assessment. Cluster analyses revealed three parental discourse patterns: elaboration/negative emotion emphasis, positive and negative emotion emphasis, and low emotion discourse. Children's receptive language was associated with parents' membership in the low emotion discourse cluster. Children's temperament and gender were unrelated to parental emotion-related discourse patterns. Parents in the positive and negative emotion emphasis cluster had children with fewer internalizing behaviors compared to both other clusters, and parents in the elaboration/negative emotion emphasis cluster had children with more internalizing behaviors compared to both other clusters. Findings support the utility of a person-centered approach in providing a holistic view of parents' use of multiple emotion socialization strategies during reminiscing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Maternal Emotion Socialization Mediates the Relationship between Maternal and Adolescent Negative Emotionality.

Parents and children with high negative emotionality may be more likely to provide and receive non-supportive contingencies, respectively. However, no study has examined child and parent negative emotionality in the same study and explored whether the link between child and parent negative emotionality may exist in part because of parental emotion socialization. The present study was designed to explore the link between the negative emotionality of mothers and their adolescent children and the potential mechanisms for this similarity. Maternal emotion socialization was explored as a mediator between maternal and adolescent negative emotionality, and between maternal negative emotionality and adolescent internalizing symptoms. Participants were mothers (M age = 30.47) with their children at two time points: preschool (Time 1; M age = 4.55 years old) and adolescence (Time 2; M = 13.73), with 81 boys and 94 girls. Negative emotionality was measured using a questionnaire, with mothers reporting for herself and her child. Maternal emotion socialization was measured by mothers' self-report of their contingencies to their adolescent child's negative emotions: 1) Punish; 2) magnify; 3) ignore; 4) override; and 5) support. The results revealed that the maternal punishing of the adolescent's negative emotions was a mediator between concurrent mother negative emotionality and adolescent negative emotionality, such that higher mother negative emotionality was associated with more punishing, and more punishing was associated with higher adolescent negative emotionality, controlling for previous levels of maternal and child negative emotionality. Furthermore, being supportive of a child's negative emotions was negatively associated with concurrent levels of adolescent internalizing symptoms, while magnifying a child's emotions held a marginal positive association, controlling for previous levels of internalizing symptoms. The results highlight the importance of considering maternal emotion socialization strategies, even into adolescence, for a more comprehensive understanding of children's emotional well-being. The findings have implications for developing and implementing emotion-based parenting interventions.

Chinese fathers' emotion socialization profiles and adolescents' emotion regulation

The present study examined the various configurations of Chinese fathers' emotion socialization behaviors and how these configurations relate to adolescents' emotion regulation (ER). A total of 731 Chinese secondary school students completed measures of paternal reactions to their negative emotions, their use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies, and overall ER ability. Four profiles of paternal emotion socialization were identified: the supportive (high supportive, low punitive, and moderate minimization responses to adolescents' negative emotions), the balanced (moderate warmth/responsiveness and nonsupportive reactions, and below-average levels of expressive encouragement), the disengaged (low across the four paternal emotion socialization practices), and the harsh (low supportive and high nonsupportive responses) profiles. Chinese adolescents with supportive and balanced fathers reported greater use of cognitive reappraisal than did those with disengaged and harsh fathers. Overall ER ability was the highest among adolescents with supportive fathers and the lowest among those with harsh fathers. Expressive suppression did not differ across four profiles. These findings highlight the importance of adopting person-centered approaches in understanding parental emotion socialization strategies and their associations with adolescents' emotion regulation.