Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Emotions and Parents’ Emotion-Related Conversations with Their Children

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Child and Family Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The goals of the current study were to describe parents’ emotion socialization patterns and to assess relations between parents’ emotion-related beliefs and socialization behaviors during conversations with their children. Participants were 125 parents and their 9- and 10-year-old children from three ethnic groups in the southeastern United States. Parents reported beliefs about children’s emotions. Parents and children were videotaped playing a board game to evoke emotion-related conversations, which were then coded for parents’ labeling, teaching, and encouragement of emotion. Parents used less labeling and teaching for positive than negative emotions, and greater encouragement for positive than negative emotions. Parents with stronger beliefs about the value of positive emotions engaged in less labeling of positive emotions, less teaching of all emotions, and less encouragement of negative emotions. Parents with stronger beliefs about the value of negative emotions engaged in more encouragement of negative emotions. Parents with stronger beliefs that all emotions are dangerous engaged in less labeling of negative emotions. The results of this study have potential clinical implications in helping clients to understand the foundational structures of their behaviors and how both beliefs and behaviors are distinct, yet interrelated constructs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baker, J. K., Fenning, R. M., & Crnic, K. A. (2011). Emotion socialization by mothers and fathers: Coherence among behaviors and associations with parent attitudes and children’s social functioning. Social Development, 20, 412–430. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2010.00585.x.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, G. L., Craig, A. B., & Halberstadt, A. G. (2015). Parent gender differences in emotion socialization behaviors vary by ethnicity and child gender. Parenting: Science and Practice, 15, 135–157. doi:10.1080/15295192.2015.1053312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cassano, M., Perry-Parrish, C., & Zeman, J. (2007). Influence of gender on parental socialization of children’s sadness regulation. Social Development, 16, 210–231. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00381.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castro, V. L., Halberstadt, A. G., Lozada, F. T., & Craig, A. B. (2015). Parents’ emotion-related beliefs, behaviours, and skills predict children’s recognition of emotion. Infant and Child Development, 24, 1–22. doi:10.1002/icd.1868.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, P. M., & Tan, P. Z. (2007). Emotion socialization from a cultural perspective. In J. E. Grusec, & P. D. Hastings (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research (pp. 516–542). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, P. M., Teti, L. O., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (2003). Mutual emotion regulation and the stability of conduct problems between preschool and early school age. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 1–18. doi:10.1017/S0954579403000014.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cox, M. J., & Paley, B. (2003). Understanding families as systems. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 193–196. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.01259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coxe, S., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2009). The analysis of count data: A gentle introduction to Poisson regression and its alternatives. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 121–136. doi:10.1080/00223890802634175.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, J. N., Kliewer, W., & Garner, P. W. (2009). Emotion socialization, child emotion understanding and regulation, and adjustment in urban African American families: Differential associations across child gender. Development and Psychopathology, 21, 261–283. doi:10.1017/S095457940900015.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Denham, S. A. (1998). Emotional development in young children. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denham, S. A., & Kochanoff, A. T. (2002). Parental contributions to preschoolers’ understanding of emotion. Marriage & Family Review, 34, 311–343. doi:10.1300/J002v34n03_06.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denham, S. A., Zoller, D., & Couchoud, E. A. (1994). Socialization of preschoolers’ emotion understanding. Developmental Psychology, 30, 928–936. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.30.6.928.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dix, T. (1991). The affective organization of parenting: Adaptive and maladaptive processes. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 3–25. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.110.1.3.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar, A. S., Perry, N. B., Cavanaugh, A. M., & Leerkes, E. M. (2015). African American parents’ racial and emotion socialization profiles and young adults’ emotional adaptation. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 21, 409–419. doi:10.1037/a0037546.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, J. (1996). Family conversations and the development of social understanding. In B. Bernstein & J. Brannen (Eds.), Children, research, and policy: Essays for Barbara Tizard (pp. 81–95). Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, J., Bretherton, I., & Munn, P. (1987). Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children. Developmental Psychology, 23, 132–139. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.23.1.132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, J., & Brown, J. (1994). Affect expression in the family, children's understanding of emotions, and their interactions with others. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 40(1), 120–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunsmore, J. C., & Halberstadt, A. G. (1997). How does family emotional expressiveness affect children’s schemas? In K. C. Barrett (Ed.), The communication of emotion: Current research from diverse perspectives (pp. 45–68). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunsmore, J. C., Her, P., Halberstadt, A. G., & Perez-Rivera, M. B. (2009). Parents’ beliefs about emotions and children’s recognition of parents’ emotions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 30, 121–140. doi:10.1007/s10919-008-0066-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., & Spinrad, T. L. (1998a). Parental socialization of emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 241–273. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0904_1.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Jones, S., & MacKinnon, D. P. (2002). Parents’ reactions to elementary school children’s negative emotions: relations to social and emotional functioning at school. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 48, 133–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., & Murphy, B. C. (1996). Parents’ reactions to children’s negative emotions: Relations to children’s social competence and comforting behavior. Child Development, 67, 2227–2247. doi:10.2307/1131620.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Murphy, B. C., Jones, S., & Guthrie, I. K. (1998b). Contemporaneous and longitudinal prediction of children’s sympathy from dispositional regulation and emotionality. Developmental Psychology, 34, 910–924. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.34.5.910.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fabes, R. A., Poulin, R. E., Eisenberg, N., & Madden-Derdich, D. A. (2002). The coping with children’s negative emotions scale (CCNES): Psychometric properties and relations with children’s emotional competence. Marriage and Family Review, 34, 285–310. doi:10.1300/J002v34n03_05.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fine, S. E., Izard, C. E., Mostow, A. J., Trentacosta, C. J., & Ackerman, B. P. (2003). First grade emotion knowledge as a predictor of fifth grade self-reported internalizing behaviors in children from economically disadvantaged families. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 331–342. doi:10.1017/S095457940300018X.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fivush, R., Marin, K. A., McWilliams, K., & Bohanek, J. G. (2009). Family reminiscing style: Parent gender and emotional focus in relation to child well-being. Journal of Cognition and Development, 10, 210–235. doi:10.1080/15248370903155866.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fivush, R., & Wang, Q. (2005). Emotion talk in mother–child conversations of the shared past: The effects of culture, gender, and event valence. Journal of Cognition and Development, 6, 489–506. doi:10.1207/s15327647jcd0604_3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frederickson, B. L. (1998). What are positive emotions good for? Review of General Psycholoy, 2, 300–319. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). Cultivated emotions: Parental socialization of positive emotions and self-conscious emotions. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 279–281. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0904_4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, W., Mulvey, E. P., & Shaw, E. C. (1995). Regression analyses of counts and rates: Poisson, overdispersed Poisson, and negative binomial models. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 392–404. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.118.3.392.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Garner, P. W. (1999). Continuity in emotion knowledge from preschool to middle-childhood and relation to emotion socialization. Motivation and Emotion, 23, 247–266. doi:10.1023/A:1021386725399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garner, P. W., Dunsmore, J. C., & Southam-Gerrow, M. (2008). Mother–child conversations about emotions: Linkages to child aggression and prosocial behavior. Social Development, 17, 259–277. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00424.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gonzales, N., Cauce, A. M., & Mason, C. (1997). Interobserver agreement in the assessment of parental behavior and parent-child conflict: African American mothers, daughters, and independent observers. Child Development, 67, 1483–1498. doi:10.2307/1131713.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1996). Parental meta-emotion philosophy and the emotional life of families: Theoretical models and preliminary data. Journal of Family Psychology, 10, 243–268. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.10.3.243.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, M. T., Kusché, C. A., Cook, E. T., & Quamma, J. P. (1995). Promoting emotional competence in school-aged children: The effects of the PATHS curriculum. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 117–136. doi:10.1017/S0954579400006374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haden, C. A., & Ornstein, P. A. (2009). Research on talking about the past: The past, present, and future. Journal of Cognition and Development, 10, 135–142. doi:10.1080/15248370903155718.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halberstadt, A. G., Dunsmore, J. C., Bryant, A, Jr, Parker, A. E., Beale, K. R., & Thompson, J. A. (2013). Development and validation of the Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Emotions Questionnaire. Psychological Assessment, 25, 1195–1210. doi:10.1037/a0033695.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Halberstadt, A. G., Dunsmore, J. C., Thompson, J. A., Beale, K. R., Parker, A. E., & Bryant, A., Jr. (2008). Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Emotions Questionnaire. Unpublished questionnaire.

  • Halberstadt, A. G., Thompson, J. A., Parker, A. E., & Dunsmore, J. C. (2008b). Parents’ emotion related beliefs and behaviours in relation to children’s coping with the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Infant and Child Development, 17, 557–580. doi:10.1002/icd.569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howe, N., Rinaldi, C. M., & Recchia, H. E. (2010). Patterns in mother–child internal state discourse across four contexts. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 56, 1–20. doi:10.1353/mpq.0.0042.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, C., & Dunn, J. (1998). Understanding mind and emotion understanding: Longitudinal associations with mental state talk between young friends. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1026–1037. doi:10.1037//0012-1649.34.5.1026.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kuebli, J., Butler, S., & Fivush, R. (1995). Mother–child talk about past events: Relations of maternal language and child gender over time. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 265–293. doi:10.1080/02699939508409011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lagattuta, K. H., & Wellman, H. M. (2002). Differences in early parent-child conversations about negative versus positive emotions: Implications for the development of psychological understanding. Developmental Psychology, 38, 564–580. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.38.4.564.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Laible, D. (2011). Does it matter if preschool children and mothers discuss positive versus negative events during reminiscing? Links with mother-reported attachment, family emotional climate, and socioemotional development. Social Development, 20, 394–411. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2010.00584.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laible, D., & Song, J. (2006). Constructing emotional and relational understanding: The role of affect and mother–child discourse. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52, 44–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lautenschlager, G. J., & Meade, A. W. (2008). AlphaTest: A windows program for tests of hypotheses about coefficient alpha. Applied Psychological Measurement, 32, 502–503. doi:10.1177/0146621607312307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lunkenheimer, E. S., Shields, A. M., & Cortina, K. S. (2007). Parental emotion coaching and dismissing in family interaction. Social Development, 16, 232–248. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00382.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madden-Derdich, D. A., & Leonard, S. A. (2002). Shared experiences, unique realities: Formerly married mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of parenting and custody after divorce. Family Relations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, 51L, 37–45. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2002.00037.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morelen, D., & Suveg, C. (2012). A real-time analysis of parent-child emotion discussions: The interaction is reciprocal. Journal of Family Psychology, 26, 998–1003. doi:10.1037/a0030148.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, J. A., Leerkes, E. M., O’Brien, M., Calkins, S. D., & Marcovitch, S. (2012). African American and European American mothers’ beliefs about negative emotions and emotion socialization practices. Parenting: Science and Practice, 12, 22–41. doi:10.1080/15295192.2012.638871.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, J. A., Leerkes, E. M., Perry, N. B., O’Brien, M., Calkins, S. D., & Marcovitch, S. (2013). European-American and African-American mothers’ emotion socialization practices relate differently to their children’s academic and social-emotional competence. Social Development, 22, 485–498. doi:10.1002/dev.21042.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Parker, A. E., Halberstadt, A. G., Dunsmore, J. C., Townley, G., Bryant, A, Jr, Beale, K. S., & Thompson, J. A. (2012). “Emotions are a window into one’s heart”: A qualitative analysis of parental beliefs about children’s emotions across three ethnic groups. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 77, 1–144. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.2012.00677.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perez-Rivera, M. B., & Dunsmore, J. C. (2011). Mothers’ acculturation and beliefs about emotions, mother–child emotion discourse, and children’s emotion understanding in Latino families. Early Education and Development, 22, 324–354. doi:10.1080/10409281003702000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Respler-Herman, M., Mowder, B. A., Yasik, A. E., & Shamah, R. (2012). Parenting beliefs, parental stress, and social support relationships. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21, 190–198. doi:10.1007/s10826-011-9462-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sales, J. M., & Fivush, R. (2005). Social and emotional functions of mother–child reminiscing about stressful events. Social Cognition, 23, 70–90. doi:10.1521/soco.23.1.70.59196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stelter, R. L., & Halberstadt, A. G. (2011). Children’s feelings of security as affected by parental beliefs about children’s emotions and parental stress. Infant and Child Development, 20, 272–287. doi:10.1002/icd.693.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Thomassin, K., & Suveg, C. (2014). Reciprocal positive affect and well-regulated, adjusted children: A unique contribution of fathers. Parenting, 14, 28–46. doi:10.1080/15295192.2014.880017.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, K. R., Havighurst, S. S., & Harley, A. E. (2012). Tuning into kids: An effectiveness trial of a parenting program targeting emotional socialization of preschoolers. Journal of Family Psychology, 26, 56–65. doi:10.1037/a0026480.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, K. R., Havighurst, S. S., & Harley, A. E. (2014). Dads tuning into kids: Piloting a new parenting program targeting fathers’ emotion coaching skills. Journal of Community Psychology, 42, 162–168. doi:10.1002/jcop.21601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, M. S., McElwain, N. L., & Halberstadt, A. G. (2009). Parent, family, and child characteristics: Associations with mother- and father-reported emotion socialization practices. Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 452–463. doi:10.1037/a0015552.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yap, M. B. H., Allen, N. B., Leve, C., & Katz, L. F. (2008). Maternal meta-emotion philosophy and socialization of adolescent affect: The moderating role of adolescent temperament. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 688–700. doi:10.1037/a0013104.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 610 E. University Ave., Suite 1323, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Fantasy T. Lozada

  2. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Amy G. Halberstadt

  3. 3C Institute, Durham, NC, USA

    Ashley B. Craig

  4. Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Paul A. Dennis

  5. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Julie C. Dunsmore

Authors
  1. Fantasy T. Lozada
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Amy G. Halberstadt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ashley B. Craig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Paul A. Dennis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Julie C. Dunsmore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fantasy T. Lozada.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interests

None of the authors have any conflict of interests that could be interpreted as influencing the research represented in this manuscript.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lozada, F.T., Halberstadt, A.G., Craig, A.B. et al. Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Emotions and Parents’ Emotion-Related Conversations with Their Children. J Child Fam Stud 25, 1525–1538 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0325-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0325-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation