Abstract
The current study expands upon the extant literature by examining the influence of contextual risk factors (e.g., parental
psychological distress, household income, educational attainment) on parental responses to children’s emotional experiences.
Participants included 97 ethnically and demographically diverse mother–child dyads with children ranging in age from 7 to
12. Mothers reported indicators of supportive and unsupportive emotion socialization practices, and measures of child emotion
regulation and emotion dysregulation. Higher scores on the familial risk index were positively related to increased emotion
dysregulation and negatively related to decreased emotion regulation through mediated effects of mothers’ unsupportive reactions
to children’s negative emotional expressions. These findings suggest the importance of considering contextual influences on
the emotion socialization process and offer potential avenues to foster adaptive emotional development in the context of high
risk.
psychological distress, household income, educational attainment) on parental responses to children’s emotional experiences.
Participants included 97 ethnically and demographically diverse mother–child dyads with children ranging in age from 7 to
12. Mothers reported indicators of supportive and unsupportive emotion socialization practices, and measures of child emotion
regulation and emotion dysregulation. Higher scores on the familial risk index were positively related to increased emotion
dysregulation and negatively related to decreased emotion regulation through mediated effects of mothers’ unsupportive reactions
to children’s negative emotional expressions. These findings suggest the importance of considering contextual influences on
the emotion socialization process and offer potential avenues to foster adaptive emotional development in the context of high
risk.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Category Original Paper
- Pages 1-8
- DOI 10.1007/s10826-011-9551-3
- Authors
- Anne Shaffer, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
- Cynthia Suveg, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
- Kristel Thomassin, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
- Laura L. Bradbury, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
- Journal Journal of Child and Family Studies
- Online ISSN 1573-2843
- Print ISSN 1062-1024