Parental Emotion Socialization Research Articles

A Thematic Analysis of Low-Income African American Fathers’ Meta-Emotion Interview Responses

This study explored African American fathers’ beliefs about and experiences with their own and their children’s negative emotions. Participants included 58 African American fathers in the Midwestern region of the United States between the ages of 29 and 40 ( M age = 30.94). Participants completed the Meta-Emotion Interview, a semi-structured interview of parents’ and their children’s negative emotion. A theoretical thematic analysis of participants’ responses to a subset of Meta-Emotion Interview questions about sadness and anger was conducted. Five themes of African American fathers’ beliefs about and experiences with their own and their children’s negative emotions were interpreted: (1) responsibility for children’s emotions, (2) complex relationship with anger, (3) reckoning negative emotions, (4) children at the center, and (5) actively working through emotions. Taken together, these five themes demonstrate that African American fathers recognize the inherent value of negative emotions while navigating the potential harm these emotions may bring to self and others. Furthermore, the findings provide insight into the role of African American fathers in parental emotion socialization processes.

Parent self-compassion: direct effects on parent emotion socialization and indirect effects on adolescent emotion dysregulation

Parent self-compassion: direct effects on parent emotion socialization and indirect effects on adolescent emotion dysregulation

A Systematic Review of Parent Socialization of Negative Affect in Clinical Child Samples: Relations to Youth Emotion Regulation Abilities.

Emotion-focused parenting practices, known as parent emotion socialization, play a crucial role in shaping youth's emotion regulation (ER) abilities. The impact of parent emotion socialization behaviors (ESB) on youth ER has been studied extensively in community samples. However, research on these relations in clinical samples is more limited, albeit growing. The current systematic review sought to evaluate the existing literature examining parent ESB of negative affect in various clinical child and adolescent samples. A literature search was conducted in April 2023, resulting in 1153 abstracts being reviewed. Two reviewers independently screened the titles and abstracts to identify relevant papers, with 152 articles being independently reviewed in full, of which 26 articles met inclusion criteria and are included in the current review. Studies (16 cross-sectional, 6 longitudinal, 4 intervention) utilized multi-methods of assessing youth ER, including questionnaires, physiological, and observational measures in a range of clinical samples, including youth diagnosed with internalizing, externalizing, and neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as youth at-risk for clinical diagnoses such as physically abused children. Overall, results support significant, negative associations between parent ESB practices and youth emotion dysregulation (rs = .22-.35) and negativity/lability (rs = .19-.60), and positive associations with youth ER abilities (rs = .18-.76). Some studies highlighted varying impacts of parental ESB on children with versus without clinical disorders/symptomology, with effects being more pronounced within clinical populations. Implications for these findings and future research directions are discussed, including the significance of focusing on parent ESB in intervention work with clinical child populations.

Parental emotion socialization and parent-child attachment security: A meta-analytic review.

Although parental sensitivity is an established determinant of children's attachment security, effect sizes are modest, suggesting other aspects of parenting that might support secure attachment. Parental emotion socialization (ES) has been proposed as a parenting domain that is theoretically linked to secure parent-child attachment. The goal of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the strength of the relations between parental ES and attachment security in children under the age of 18. We conducted three meta-analyses assessing the links of supportive parental ES, nonsupportive parental ES, and parental elaboration with attachment security assessed with behavioral, representational, and questionnaire measures (ks = 9-11 samples; Ns = 576-1,763 participants). The relation between supportive ES and security was significant but very small (r = .06). The relation between nonsupportive ES and security was not significant (r = -.05). Parental elaboration emerged as a key correlate of secure attachment, with a medium effect size (r = .24), similar to the relation between sensitivity and attachment security. The findings underscore the need for further research to elaborate on the role of ES in the development of attachment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Supplemental Material for Parental Emotion Socialization and Parent–Child Attachment Security: A Meta-Analytic Review

Supplemental Material for Parental Emotion Socialization and Parent–Child Attachment Security: A Meta-Analytic Review

Do parents show interpersonally oriented socialization practices for adolescents' negative emotions? Through the lens of Chinese families.

This research proposes a new framework called interpersonally oriented parental emotion socialization (inter-PES) practices to address parental socialization of adolescents' interpersonal emotional processing. This framework captures parents' interpersonal perspectives when their adolescent children experience negative emotions resulting from social interactions. In Study 1, parents (n = 925; 84.54% females; Mage = 39.86 years, SD = 4.37) recalled their PES practices. Content analysis of parents' narratives showed four components of inter-PES: perspective-taking, positive attributions to others, negative attributions to others, and concern for others. In Study 2, parents (n = 536; 57.98% females; Mage = 42.84 years, SD = 4.01) evaluated their own parenting behaviors on a newly developed scale to measure the four components mentioned above. Factor analysis supported the four-factor structure. Moreover, the four subscales demonstrated good reliabilities. In Study 3, adolescents (n = 864; 45.97% females; Mage = 14.50 years, SD = 0.77) reported their perceived maternal inter-PES using the same scale, and factor analysis again confirmed the four-factor structure. Study 3 also showed that the four components of inter-PES reported by adolescents were related to their perceptions of other commonly assessed maternal parenting variables and self-reported socioemotional development. Overall, this research develops a new tool for studying inter-PES and reveals new avenues for future research on how parents' interpersonal perspectives during emotional socialization may relate to adolescents' socioemotional outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Temperamental Shyness, Peer Competence, and Loneliness in Middle Childhood: The Role of Positive Emotion

Guided by the conceptual frameworks of social withdrawal (Rubin, K. H., & Chronis-Tuscano, A. (2021). Perspectives on social withdrawal in childhood: Past, present, and prospects. Child Development Perspectives, 15(3), 160–167.) and emotion socialization (Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., & Spinrad, T. L. (1998). Parental socialization of emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 241–273.; Morris, (A) S., Criss, M. M., Silk, J. S., & Houltberg, (B) J. (2017). The impact of parenting on emotion regulation during childhood and adolescence. Child Development Perspectives, 11(4), 233–238.), the current study examined multifaceted relations among temperamental shyness, peer competence, and loneliness and focused on the role of socializing and expressing positive emotion in middle childhood. Participants included 1,364 families, among whom mothers reported children’s temperament when children were 4.5 years old. Mothers and alternative caregivers (usually fathers) independently rated family expressiveness when children were 8–9 years old. Mothers rated their children’s peer competence, and children’s positive affect with peers were observed when children were ages 8–9 and 10–11. Children self-rated their loneliness levels at ages 10–11. A path model revealed a moderated mediation effect, such that family positive expressiveness moderated the sequential mediation pathway from child temperamental shyness through child peer competence at ages 8–9 and positive affect with peers at ages 10–11 to loneliness at ages 10–11. This sequential mediation was significant only under low but not high levels of family positive expressiveness. Findings support the importance of socializing positive emotion in the context of temperamental shyness and have implications for family-based intervention strategies aimed at children exhibiting high temperamental shyness.

Emotion-related Processes Between Parents and Adolescents: Evidence for Bidirectional Effects over Time

Parent emotion socialization has long been studied in relation to children’s socioemotional adjustment. Little attention has been paid to how parents’ socialization responses are shaped by youth characteristics over time, such as emotional lability. The present study explored the mutual influence between parent emotion socialization and adolescent emotional lability. Participants were 87 adolescents (M = 14.23 years old, SD = .50; 50 girls) and their parents, who completed questionnaires at three time points from 8th grade through 10th grade. Hierarchical linear modeling demonstrated mutual influences between parent emotion socialization and adolescent emotional lability, with relations moderated by adolescent gender. Increases in parents’ reward of negative emotion predicted decreased emotional lability in girls. Parents’ increased magnification of negative emotions corresponded to decreased emotional lability in boys. Boys’ increases in emotional lability predicted decreased parental magnification of negative emotions over time. Increases in parents’ magnification of negative emotions predicted increased emotional lability in girls. Girls’ increases in emotional lability corresponded to increased parental magnification over time. There were no longitudinal effects of adolescent emotional lability on parents’ reward, override, and punishment of negative emotions. Future directions and clinical applications are discussed.

Connections between Parental Emotion Socialization and Internalizing Problems in Adolescents: Examining the Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation Strategies and Moderating Effect of Gender.

To explore the mediating effect of emotion regulation strategies on the correlation between parental emotion socialization and internalizing problems in adolescents, as well as the moderating effect of gender, a questionnaire survey was administered to 1078 junior high school students (Mage = 13.96 ± 1.00). The results revealed that supportive parental emotion socialization was negatively correlated with adolescents internalizing problems, whereas non-supportive parental emotion socialization was positively correlated with such problems. Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies functioned as parallel mediators in the relationship between supportive parental emotion socialization and adolescent internalizing problems, while only expressive suppression mediated the correlation between non-supportive emotion socialization and adolescent internalizing problems. Gender did not exhibit a moderating effect on the mediation model. These findings suggest that supportive parental responses to adolescents' negative emotions can reduce the incidence of depression and anxiety by cultivating increased utilization of cognitive reappraisal strategies and decreased reliance on expressive suppression strategies among adolescents, whereas non-supportive responses exacerbate the occurrence of depression and anxiety by promoting greater utilization of expressive suppression strategies. In addition, no significant gender differences were observed in the mediation effects. These findings emphasize the importance of prevention programs focusing on parental emotion socialization in adolescence.

Developing a Tool for Assessing Perceived Parental Socialization of Emotions in Adolescents and Young Adults.

Parenting practices have been described as the practices employed by a parent and the parent-child communication, with the focus on raising a child in the best possible manner while instilling cultural,ethical, and personal values. One similar yet different construct that holds significance in the development of a child is parental socialization of emotion. Parental socialization of emotion is the interaction between the parents and child regarding the emotional experience of the child. This has been considered an essential marker of the development of the emotional and social competence of an individual. There are several scales in the aspect of parenting practices. However, scales for parental socialization of emotionespecially considering the perception of adolescents and young adults have yet to fully be explored. The aim of the study is to establish a comprehensive tool that enables the measurement of perceived parental socialization of emotion (PPSE). The process of tool construction, data collection, and analysis was done in five phases that included reviewing existing tools and identification of domains (Phase 1); generation of an item pool (Phase 2); content validity, face validity, and inter-rater reliability (Phase 3); finalization of the tool for data collection (Phase 4); and data collection and analysis (Phase 5). The study for tool construction included participants from ages 13-28 years representing adolescents and young adults from schools and colleges located in New Delhi, India, as well as Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. The research designused was a cross-sectional design, and the data were collected through purposive sampling, including males (N = 337) and females (N = 424). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to check the factorability and for item reduction. The results aided in reducing the number of items from 160 to 46 including the process of content validity, inter-rater reliability, item-total statistic, and factor loading of EFA. The factors above the eigenvalue of 3 were retained whileitems above the factor loading of 0.50 were taken into consideration. A good Cronbach's alpha coefficientof 0.88 for the overall tool was established, with 0.89, 0.84, and 0.87 for the domains Awareness, Acceptance, and Coaching, respectively. The scale constructed includes both the positive and negative emotions of an individual and tries to understand the perspective of the receiver of the parenting practice. The study helps in understanding the phenomenon of PPSE, which might also aid in creating awareness regarding efficient parenting practices.

Adolescent Peer Relationship Difficulties, Prosociality, and Parental Emotion Socialization: Moderating Roles of Adolescent Gender

The present study examined longitudinal, transactional associations between youth social adjustment (prosociality, peer relationship difficulties) and parental emotion socialization in early adolescence. Adolescent gender was considered as a potential moderator. Eighty-seven adolescent-parent dyads (50 girls, 37 boys) participated in 8th grade, with follow-up waves in 9th and 10th grade. Adolescents reported their experiences of peer victimization and their parents’ emotion socialization responses, and parents reported youth prosocial behavior and peer relation problems. Hierarchical linear modeling results indicated transactional associations between parent supportive/unsupportive responses and adolescent peer relations and prosociality over time, some of which were moderated by adolescent gender. Increases in parental supportive emotion socialization corresponded to decreased experiences of peer victimization over time for girls, but not boys. When peer victimization increased over time, girls reported less parental supportive responses and all adolescents reported receiving more unsupportive responses from parents. For all adolescents, parents’ increased supportive responses also corresponded to decreased peer problems and increased prosocial behavior. As prosocial behavior increased, so did parental supportive responses. Increases in parents’ unsupportive responses related to decreased prosocial behavior, and increases in adolescent prosocial behavior related to decreases in parents’ unsupportive responses. Results suggest that there is mutual influence between parent emotion socialization and adolescent social adjustment. Adolescent girls appear to uniquely benefit from parents’ supportive emotional socialization in relation to their experiences of peer victimization. Potential mechanisms and implications are discussed.

The socialization of social–emotional behaviour in early childhood classrooms: child outcomes moderated by socioeconomic risk

ABSTRACT Early childhood educator's emotional socialization may contribute crucially to young children's social–emotional competence. Here, we examined the contributions of self-reported reactions to children's emotions and beliefs about emotional socialization of 90 teachers to the social–emotional competence of 334 pre-schoolers. Teacher-reported emotion socialization, especially as moderated by classroom socioeconomic risk, often predicted pre-schoolers’ end-of-year social–emotional behaviours, independent of child covariates, including children's beginning-of-year premeasures. Only three findings resembled the parent emotion socialization literature, however, and two appeared unique to the pre-school environment. Most were specific to classrooms where children experienced socioeconomic risk. The pattern of moderation findings highlights the importance of context in teachers’ emotional socialization. Suggestions are given for expanded research on the topic and potential applications to assist teachers in their role as emotion socializers.

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.

The Tuning in to Kids parenting program delivered online improves emotion socialization and child behavior in a first randomized controlled trial

Emotion-focused parenting interventions have only rarely been evaluated systematically in Europe. This study investigates the effectiveness of “Tuning in to Kids” (TIK) from Australia delivered online in a randomized controlled trial. TIK is a six-week emotion-focused group parenting program that has shown to improve many aspects of parent emotion socialization as well as child problem behavior in several different countries across cultures. Parents (N = 141) of children between 3 and 6 years of age were included in the study and randomly assigned to an intervention and wait-list control group. The intervention was delivered online due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2021 (intervention group) and one year later (control group) in Switzerland. Parents’ beliefs about emotions, their reported reactions to the child’s negative emotions, family emotional climate, and child behavior (internalizing and externalizing) improved after the intervention and stayed better until the 6 months follow-up in the intervention group, but not in the wait-list controls. Adherence to the program was very high. This study shows that parent emotion socialization practice is changeable with small effects even on child behavior and even after online delivery. This possibly makes Tuning in to Kids a promising emotion-focused parenting intervention when delivered online as an interactive group webinar.

Maternal and paternal emotion dysregulation profiles: Links to parent and child functioning

This study examined profiles of parental emotion dysregulation among 379 mothers (Mage = 35.99) and 397 fathers (Mage = 34.93) of children aged 8 to 12 using latent profile analyses. Three maternal (Low, Moderate, High Dysregulation) and four paternal (Low, Moderate, High Dysregulation, Emotionally Aware but Extremely Dysregulated) profiles emerged. Low (vs. high) profiles were generally associated with more supportive parental emotion socialization practices, better child emotion regulation, and lower child psychopathology. The Emotionally Aware but Extremely Dysregulated paternal profile was distinct in composition. It was associated with the poorest child psychopathology, but not the poorest child emotion regulation, of all paternal profiles, and with the highest engagement in all socialization practices (e.g., supportive practices). Findings suggest that unique patterns of deficits in parental emotion regulation may play a role in socialization of positive emotion and child functioning, particularly for fathers. These profiles can inform specific emotion-related targets for parent intervention.

A self-paced online emotion socialization intervention for parents of children with challenging behavior: Tuning in to Kids OnLine.

Evidence-based parenting programs delivered using online technology are an important way to enhance program uptake. To date, programs that address emotion socialization processes, such as Tuning in to Kids, have always been delivered in person, via group or one-to-one delivery. This study used a randomized control design to examine the efficacy of the self-paced Tuning in to Kids OnLine (TIKOL). Participants were 150 parents of children aged 4-10 years old with challenging behaviors, randomized into intervention or 10-month waitlist control. Parents and teachers completed questionnaires at baseline and 6 months after the intervention (equivalent time points for controls) measuring parent wellbeing, parent emotion socialization, parent efficacy, child behavior, and anxiety. Analyses, using mixed methods multilevel modeling, showed that intervention parents reported significantly reduced emotion dismissiveness and increased emotion coaching, empathy and efficacy compared to controls who did not. Parents participating in TIKOL also reported that their children's behavior problems and anxiety were significantly improved. Greater engagement (modules watched and duration of support calls) was associated with more significant improvements. Findings provide preliminary support for the efficacy of TIKOL in improving parents' emotion socialization and reducing child behavior problems and anxiety, especially when efforts to support online engagement are utilized. Further evaluation using independent observations and a sample representing a wider demographic would strengthen these findings. Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry No. ACTRN12618000310268.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness and Mechanisms of Change in a School-Based Intervention Combining Universal and Indicated Prevention for Preschoolers’ Behavior Problems

ABSTRACT The Social-Emotional Prevention Program (SEP) is a multi-focused intervention combining universal and indicated intervention strategies delivered face-to-face and through the use of technology. The study’s objectives were to assess comparatively SEP effectiveness as a function of preschoolers’ baseline risk of externalizing problems and to evaluate its hypothesized mechanisms of action. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted with five schools assigned to either the intervention or to a comparison condition (wait-list control). Structural equation models (SEM) and complier average causal effects (CACE) were conducted to evaluate program effectiveness and mechanisms of change. Research Findings: SEP participation was associated with improved social-emotional competence irrespective of baseline risk and at-risk preschoolers were more likely to exhibit reductions in externalizing problems. However, perceptions about which risk group benefited more varied as a function of rater. Patterns for SEP mechanisms of action suggest that these were similar across risk status with both child emotion regulation and parental emotion socialization practices emerging as paths to improved social-emotional competencies. Practice and Policy: The present findings add to the extant evidence suggesting that multi-focused programs combining universal and indicated prevention strategies could be successfully delivered in schools to promote social-emotional learning.

Resting heart rate moderates the relationship between parental emotion socialization and callous-unemotional traits in children.

Although empirical findings have indicated that both familial and neurobiological risk factors contribute to the development of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in children, relatively few studies have investigated how these two factors interact to influence these traits. The current study focused on the combined effects of parental emotion socialization and child's resting heart rate on CU traits. Parents of Chinese children (N = 166) completed the Coping with Children's Negative Scale when children were 9.39years old (SD = 0.92), while children's resting heart rate data were collected when they were 10.21years old (SD = 0.72). When they were 11.15years old (SD = 0.67), parents completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits Short-Form. Results showed that parental supportive emotion socialization was negatively associated with CU traits and Callous behaviors in particular. In addition, resting heart rate moderated the relationship between parental emotion socialization and child's CU traits. Findings provide further evidence that an interdisciplinary approach that combines both psychosocial and biological factors is essential to further our understanding of CU traits in youth.

Being sensitive in their own way: parental ethnotheories of caregiver sensitivity and child emotion regulation across five countries.

Caregiver sensitivity builds a basis for children's sense of security and effective emotion regulation during their development. Applying a cross-cultural lens, caregiver sensitivity can be divided into two subtypes, reactive and proactive, and its prevalence and meaning may differ across cultures. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of developmental niche and parental ethnotheories, the current study examines culture-specific meanings of caregiver sensitivity across five countries: India, Nepal, Korea, the United States of America (USA), and Germany. We examine the prevalence of maternal reactive and proactive sensitivity, children's emotional lability and regulation, and how mothers' sensitivity types are related to children's emotional characteristics. Participants included 472 mothers from the five countries with children aged between 6 and 7 years. Mothers reported their sensitivity preference in multiple vignettes and completed an emotion regulation checklist to report their children's emotional lability and regulation. A set of analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) found cultural differences in mothers' preference for proactive and reactive sensitivity. Mothers in India and Nepal reported the highest preference for proactive sensitivity followed by Korea and the USA, while German mothers reported the lowest preference for proactive sensitivity. Consequent regression analyses revealed varying associations between proactive sensitivity and child emotional characteristics in all five countries either directly or as moderated by child sex. These results evidence that parental ethnotheories are part of the developmental niche embedded in a larger cultural context. Findings on the differential links between the types of sensitivity and child emotion regulation provide cultural models of parental emotion socialization and children's emotional functioning.

Parent-adolescent Congruence and Discrepancy in Perceived Parental Emotion Socialization to Anger and Sadness: Using Response Surface Analysis to Examine the Links with Adolescent Depressive Symptoms.

Parents and adolescents often hold discrepant perceptions of parental emotion socialization, which reflect misunderstandings in parent-adolescent communication on emotions and have potential detrimental effects on mental health of adolescents. The present study investigated the associations between parent-adolescent congruence and discrepancy in parental emotion socialization perception to two specific negative emotions (anger and sadness) and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. A total of 372 adolescents (48.4% female, Mage = 13.43, SDage = 0.49) and their parents (79.6% mother, Mage = 41.15, SDage = 5.46) participated in this study. Both parents and adolescents reported perceived parental emotion socialization to anger and sadness, and adolescents reported depressive symptoms. Data were analyzed using polynomial regression and response surface analyses. Both congruence and discrepancy in parent and adolescent's reports were associated with adolescent depressive symptoms. A higher level of adolescent depressive symptoms was associated with higher parent-adolescent congruence in supportive responses to anger, sadness, and nonsupportive responses to anger. A higher level of depressive symptoms was associated with inconsistent reporting of supportive responses to sadness and nonsupportive responses to anger (only when parents had a more positive view than adolescents). This study highlights the significance of evaluating parent-child communication process by assessing perceived emotion socialization from both parents and adolescents and analyzing the reporting congruence and discrepancy. It also suggests that enhancing effective communication regarding parental emotion socialization could be a promising target for adolescent mental health promotion programs.