Socialization of emotion: who influences whom and how?

Developmental trajectories of adolescent internalizing symptoms and parental responses to distress

Parents' responses to their children's negative emotions are a central aspect of emotion socialization that have well-established associations with the development of psychopathology. Yet research is lacking on potential bidirectional associations between parental responses and youth symptoms that may unfold over time. Further, additional research is needed on sociocultural factors that may be related to the trajectories of these constructs. In this study, we examined associations between trajectories of parental responses to negative emotions and adolescent internalizing symptoms and the potential role of youth sex and racial identity. Adolescents and caregivers (N = 256) completed six assessments that spanned adolescent ages 13-18 years. Multivariate growth models revealed that adolescents with higher internalizing symptoms at baseline experienced increasingly non-supportive parental responses over time (punitive and distress responses). By contrast, parental responses did not predict initial levels of or changes in internalizing symptoms. Parents of Black youth reported higher minimization and emotion-focused responses and lower distress responses compared to parents of White youth. We found minimal evidence for sex differences in parental responses. Internalizing symptoms in early adolescence had enduring effects on parental responses to distress, suggesting that adolescents may play an active role in shaping their emotion socialization developmental context.

Mothers' and fathers' emotion socialization: Longitudinal relations with toddlers' social competence

We examined longitudinal direct associations between mothers' and fathers' emotion socialization behaviors (ESB) at 18 and 24 months and toddlers' social competence (SC) at 24 and 30 months in a sample of ethnically diverse families (n = 128) participating in a parenting intervention study. We also investigated interaction effects between mothers' and fathers' ESBs and between each parent's ESBs and child emotionality. We coded parents' ESBs to their toddlers' positive and negative emotions during no-toy play and a clean-up task. Mothers reported on their toddlers' social competence and emotionality. Using multiple linear regression modeling, we report three findings. First, mothers' and fathers' most frequent ESBs were emotion coaching and ignoring to positive and negative emotions, respectively, but emotion coaching of positive emotions by either parent was not associated with children's SC. Second, mothers' and fathers' ESBs to negative emotions, however, were associated with children's SC, but these associations varied by child emotionality and the other parent's ESBs. Third, fathers' non-supportive ESBs to negative emotions at 18 months were directly and positively associated with greater SC at 30 months, but their emotion coaching was significantly and positively related to children's SC only when mothers did not provide any emotion coaching. The association between mothers' non-supportive ESBs to negative emotions at 24 months and 30-month SC was negative only for children high in emotionality. These findings show that both mothers' and fathers' ESBs shape their children's social competence in different ways, which needs to be considered when developing programs for children.

Mediating role of self-esteem in the relationship between parental disapproval of the child and alexithymic personality

BACKGROUND

Alexithymia is defined as difficulties in identifying, expressing, and understanding emotions. An unapproving environment during childhood is defined as the child not receiving emotional approval from their parents, being punished, or having their emotions devalued. The formation of self-esteem is shaped by the influence of parental behavior during childhood. The communication that the child establishes with their parents contributes to their increased self-esteem and sense of importance. The absence of this may play a role in developmental psychopathology.

AIM

To examine the mediating role of self-esteem in the relationship between a disapproving environment in childhood and alexithymia.

METHODS

The research in the relational screening model was conducted with 404 participants. Demographic Information Form, Disapproving Environment Scale in Childhood, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were used as data collection tools. Hayes' bootstrapping technique was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the research.

RESULTS

As a result of the analyses, parental disapproval positively predicted the level of alexithymia (rmother = 0.51, rfather = 0.52, P < 0.05) and negatively predicted self-esteem (rmother = -0.75, rfather = -0.67, P < 0.05). Additionally, self-esteem negatively predicted alexithymia (r = -0.58, P < 0.05). It was observed that self-esteem had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between parental disapproval and alexithymia. Family types were analyzed separately as chaotic, approving, perfect, and typical. Of these, the chaotic family type positively predicted alexithymia (r = 0.33, P < 0.05) and negatively predicted self-esteem (r = -0.60, P < 0.05). The approving family type negatively predicted alexithymia (r = -0.43, P < 0.05) and positively predicted self-esteem (r = 0.61, P < 0.05). The perfect family type negatively predicted alexithymia (r = -0.27, P < 0.05) and positively predicted self-esteem (r = -0.45, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The type of family in which the child grows up in and parental disapproval during childhood affected the child's self-esteem and caused alexithymic personality traits.

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.

Emotional Dysregulation Mediates the Association Between Unsupportive Maternal Socialization Strategies of Overjoy and Psychopathological Symptoms in Adolescent Boys but not Girls

Mothers play an important role in the emotion socialization of their teenage children, with implications for psychological adjustment. However, studies on maternal socialization of positive emotions in adolescence are still scarce and inconclusive. In this study, we aim to deepen our understanding on the association between unsupportive maternal socialization strategies of overjoy and internalization but also externalization symptoms as mediated by emotion dysregulation, and moderated by adolescents' gender. The study was conducted with 418 adolescents (M age = 14.75; 57.7% girls). Moderated mediation analysis indicated the effect of punishment and override of overjoy on internalization (punishment: b = 1.38, 95% CI [0.63, 2.31]; override: b = 1.36, 95% CI [0.59, 2.31]) and externalization (punishment: b = 0.71, 95% CI [0.20, 1.34]; override: b = 0.77, 95% CI [0.26, 1.46]) was mediated by emotional dysregulation in the case of boys. Contrary to expectations, for girls this effect was not found, indicating that further analysis are required.

Associations between childhood irritability and neural reactivity to maternal feedback in adolescence

Early irritability, a transdiagnostic vulnerability for psychopathology, is associated with alterations in neural reactivity to emotional stimuli and reward; however, associations between childhood irritability and neural markers of risk may be mitigated by the quality of caregiving youth receive. We examined longitudinal relationships between irritability in childhood and young adolescents' neural activity of regions typically associated with emotion regulation and reward processing during processing of maternal feedback and tested whether these associations were moderated by youth's perceptions of the parent-child relationship quality. Eighty-one adolescents (Mage = 11.1 years) listened to maternal critical and praising feedback while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Age 3 irritability, assessed observationally, was negatively associated with age 11 neural reactivity to maternal criticism in a cluster in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), particularly for youths who reported more positive maternal parenting. Given the role of the dlPFC activation in the effortful processing of emotional stimuli, decreased activation may reflect disengagement from negatively valenced interpersonal feedback in the context of a positive caregiving environment, thereby mitigating psychopathology risk associated with irritability.

Parental socialization of guilt and shame in early childhood

Self-conscious emotions emerge early in human development and they help children navigate social relationships. Little is known about the socialization of self-conscious emotions in early childhood. We theorized that parental mental state language use and warmth would be important for young children's self-conscious emotions and their consequent prosocial behaviors. Ninety-eight children residing in the Netherlands (52% girls) aged 2-5 (M = 48.66 months, SD = 13.50 months) visited the research lab with one parent. First, we observed parental mental state language and warmth. Afterward, children were led to believe that they caused a mishap (i.e., accidentally breaking the experimenter's favorite toy) to evoke their guilt and shame, which we micro-coded. In subsequent tasks, we observed children's helping behaviors toward the experimenter. We found that the combination of frequent parental mental state language and high warmth was associated with children's quicker helping to the previously harmed experimenter across toddlerhood and early childhood. More guilt was related to more helping whereas more shame-like avoidance was related to less helping. Our findings based on the sample of Dutch parents and children suggest that, parental frequent mental state talk, in combination with high warmth, may promote children's ability to repair social relationships and behave prosocially after mishaps.

Linking Affective and Hearing Sciences-Affective Audiology

A growing number of health-related sciences, including audiology, have increasingly recognized the importance of affective phenomena. However, in audiology, affective phenomena are mostly studied as a consequence of hearing status. This review first addresses anatomical and functional bidirectional connections between auditory and affective systems that support a reciprocal affect-hearing relationship. We then postulate, by focusing on four practical examples (hearing public campaigns, hearing intervention uptake, thorough hearing evaluation, and tinnitus), that some important challenges in audiology are likely affect-related and that potential solutions could be developed by inspiration from affective science advances. We continue by introducing useful resources from affective science that could help audiology professionals learn about the wide range of affective constructs and integrate them into hearing research and clinical practice in structured and applicable ways. Six important considerations for good quality affective audiology research are summarized. We conclude that it is worthwhile and feasible to explore the explanatory power of emotions, feelings, motivations, attitudes, moods, and other affective processes in depth when trying to understand and predict how people with hearing difficulties perceive, react, and adapt to their environment.

Emotion Regulation with Parents and Friends and Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior

This study examined adolescents’ self-reported use of emotion regulation strategies with parents and friends in relation to internalizing and externalizing behavior. A total of 185 children aged 13–14 years old (91 girls, 94 boys) completed three surveys to assess their emotion regulation strategies with mothers, fathers and best friends. Parents completed surveys assessing adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing behavior. Regression analysis revealed that adolescents’ self-reported ER with mothers and fathers and friends made independent contributions to parent reports of youth internalizing and externalizing behavior. Adolescents who reported engaging in more emotion suppression with friends had higher internalizing scores, whereas adolescents who reported more affective expression with friends had lower internalizing scores. Self-reported emotion regulation strategies with mothers and fathers were unrelated to internalizing behavior. Adolescents who reported engaging in higher levels of affective suppression and cognitive reappraisal with their mothers and fathers had lower parental ratings of externalizing behavior. Emotion regulation strategies with best friends were unrelated to externalizing behavior.

Depression Moderates Maternal Response to Preschoolers' Positive Affect

Maternal depression is associated with disrupted responsiveness during mother-infant dyadic interactions. Less research has evaluated whether responsivity between mother and offspring is altered in interactions during the preschool years, a period of vast socio-emotional development. In the current study, 72 mothers and preschoolers engaged in a positive emotion-eliciting task, in which they drew and talked about a recent fun experience, and independent coders separately rated mother and child emotion in 10-second intervals. Lagged multilevel models demonstrated that for dyads with currently depressed mothers, but not for healthy mothers or mothers with a past history of depression, greater child positive affect was associated with lower frequency and intensity of mother positive affect 10 seconds later. The effect of mother positive affect on child response was not significant. Findings suggest that the ability to acknowledge, imitate, and elaborate children's positive emotion during early childhood is altered in the context of depression, but that this altered responsiveness may improve with recovery from depression.

Emotion socialization in mothers with mood disorders: Affective modeling and recollected responses to childhood emotion

Growing evidence suggests that emotion socialization may be disrupted by maternal depression. However, little is known about emotion-related parenting by mothers with bipolar disorder or whether affective modeling in early childhood is linked to young adults' recollections of emotion socialization practices. The current study investigates emotion socialization by mothers with histories of major depression, bipolar disorder, or no mood disorder. Affective modeling was coded from parent-child interactions in early childhood and maternal responses to negative emotions were recollected by young adult offspring (n = 131, 59.5% female, M age = 22.16, SD = 2.58). Multilevel models revealed that maternal bipolar disorder was associated with more neglecting, punishing, and magnifying responses to children's emotions, whereas maternal major depression was associated with more magnifying responses; links between maternal diagnosis and magnifying responses were robust to covariates. Young adult recollections of maternal responses to emotion were predicted by affective modeling in early childhood, providing preliminary validity evidence for the Emotions as a Child Scale. Findings provide novel evidence that major depression and bipolar disorder are associated with altered emotion socialization and that maternal affective modeling in early childhood prospectively predicts young adults' recollections of emotion socialization in families with and without mood disorder.

Longitudinal Patterns in Parent and Friend Emotion Socialization: Associations With Adolescent Emotion Regulation

Adolescents learn about emotions through interacting with parents and friends, though there is limited longitudinal research on this topic. This study examined longitudinal patterns in parent and friend emotion socialization and adolescent emotion regulation. Eighty-seven adolescents reported on parent and friend emotion socialization. Parents reported on adolescent emotion regulation. Parents' responses were stable over time and across gender. Friends of girls reciprocated negative emotions more and were less punitive over time, whereas friends of boys increased in comforting and decreased in neglect of negative emotions. Parents and friends evidenced unique effects on adolescent emotion regulation, and the effect of friend socialization responses differed for girls and boys. Future research should examine combinatory influences of multiple socializers on adolescent adjustment.

Adolescents', mothers', and fathers' gendered coping strategies during conflict: Youth and parent influences on conflict resolution and psychopathology

We observed gendered coping strategies and conflict resolution outcomes used by adolescents and parents during a conflict discussion task to evaluate associations with current and later adolescent psychopathology. We studied 137 middle- to upper-middle-class, predominantly Caucasian families of adolescents (aged 11-16 years, 65 males) who represented a range of psychological functioning, including normative, subclinical, and clinical levels of problems. Adolescent coping strategies played key roles both in the extent to which parent-adolescent dyads resolved conflict and in the trajectory of psychopathology symptom severity over a 2-year period. Gender-prototypic adaptive coping strategies were observed in parents but not youth, (i.e., more problem solving by fathers than mothers and more regulated emotion-focused coping by mothers than fathers). Youth-mother dyads more often achieved full resolution of conflict than youth-father dyads. There were generally not bidirectional effects among youth and parents' coping across the discussion except boys' initial use of angry/hostile coping predicted fathers' angry/hostile coping. The child was more influential than the parent on conflict resolution. This extended to exacerbation/alleviation of psychopathology over 2 years: higher conflict resolution mediated the association of adolescents' use of problem-focused coping with decreases in symptom severity over time. Lower conflict resolution mediated the association of adolescents' use of angry/hostile emotion coping with increases in symptom severity over time. Implications of findings are considered within a broadened context of the nature of coping and conflict resolution in youth-parent interactions, as well as on how these processes impact youth well-being and dysfunction over time.

Children's expressions of positive emotion are sustained by smiling, touching, and playing with parents and siblings: A naturalistic observational study of family life

Research on family socialization of positive emotion has primarily focused on the infant and toddler stages of development, and relied on observations of parent-child interactions in highly structured laboratory environments. Little is known about how children's spontaneous expressions of positive emotion are maintained in the uncontrolled settings of daily life, particularly within the family and during the school-age years. This naturalistic observational study examines 3 family behaviors-mutual display of positive emotion, touch, and joint leisure-that surround 8- to 12-year-old children's spontaneous expressions of positive emotion, and tests whether these behaviors help to sustain children's expressions. Recordings taken of 31 families in their homes and communities over 2 days were screened for moments when children spontaneously expressed positive emotion in the presence of at least 1 parent. Children were more likely to sustain their expressions of positive emotion when mothers, fathers, or siblings showed positive emotion, touched, or participated in a leisure activity. There were few differences in the ways that mothers and fathers socialized their sons' and daughters' positive emotion expressions. This study takes a unique, ecologically valid approach to assess how family members connect to children's expressions of positive emotion in middle childhood. Future observational studies should continue to explore mechanisms of family socialization of positive emotion, in laboratory and naturalistic settings. (PsycINFO Database Record

Adolescents' emotional competence is associated with parents' neural sensitivity to emotions

An essential component of youths’ successful development is learning to appropriately respond to emotions, including the ability to recognize, identify, and describe one’s feelings. Such emotional competence is thought to arise through the parent–child relationship. Yet, the mechanisms by which parents transmit emotional competence to their children are difficult to measure because they are often implicit, idiosyncratic, and not easily articulated by parents or children. In the current study, we used a multifaceted approach that went beyond self-report measures and examined whether parental neural sensitivity to emotions predicted their child’s emotional competence. Twenty-two adolescent–parent dyads completed an fMRI scan during which they labeled the emotional expressions of negatively valenced faces. Results indicate that parents who recruited the amygdala, VLPFC, and brain regions involved in mentalizing (i.e., inferring others’ emotional states) had adolescent children with greater emotional competence. These results held after controlling for parents’ self-reports of emotional expressivity and adolescents’ self-reports of the warmth and support of their parent relationships. In addition, adolescents recruited neural regions involved in mentalizing during affect labeling, which significantly mediated the associated between parental neural sensitivity and adolescents’ emotional competence, suggesting that youth are modeling or referencing their parents’ emotional profiles, thereby contributing to better emotional competence.

Spanish parents' emotion talk and their children's understanding of emotion

Relations between parent-child emotion talk and children's emotion understanding were examined in 63 Spanish mothers and fathers and their 4- (M = 53.35 months, SD = 3.86) and 6-year-old (M = 76.62 months, SD = 3.91) children. Parent-child emotion talk was analyzed during two storytelling tasks: a play-related storytelling task and a reminiscence task (conversation about past experiences). Children's emotion understanding was assessed twice through a standardized test of emotion comprehension (TEC; Pons et al., 2004), once before one of the two parent-child storytelling sessions and again 6 months later. Mothers' use of emotion labels during the play-related storytelling task predicted children's emotion understanding after controlling for children's previous emotion understanding. Whereas fathers' use of emotion labels during the play-related storytelling task was correlated with children's emotion understanding, it did not predict children's emotion understanding after controlling for previous emotion understanding. Implications of these findings for future research on children's socioemotional development are discussed.

Group climate and empathy in a sample of incarcerated boys

This study examined the influence of group climate on empathy in a Dutch youth correctional facility in a sample of 59 incarcerated delinquent boys. Higher levels of empathy have been shown to be associated with less delinquent and more prosocial behaviour and may therefore be vital for successful rehabilitation and recidivism reduction. Although empathy was originally considered to be a trait, recent neurobiological research has shown that empathy has state-like properties in that levels of empathy change in response to the social environment. This study showed that differences in group climate were associated with cognitive empathy in juvenile delinquents but not with affective empathy. It is speculated that inmates' state-depressive feelings and anxiety could diminish the effects of prison group climate on affective empathy. The discussion focuses on group dynamics in youth correctional facilities. A positive prison group climate in a youth correctional facility could turn out to be a major factor contributing to effectiveness of secure institutional treatment.