Abstract
The heuristic model of emotion socialization (Eisenberg et al., 1998; Eisenberg, 2020) identifies predictors of emotion-related parenting practices, such as children’s temperament, parent personality and emotion-related beliefs, and cultural factors. Though relations between the temperaments of mothers and their children have been studied, little is known about the interaction of child and parent temperaments and how this relates to children’s emotional development (Lewis, 2014). We examined how patterns of mother-child temperament were related to mothers’ emotion-related socialization (e.g., coaching, rejecting). We hypothesized that the relation between these mother-child temperament patterns and children’s emotion regulation would be mediated by maternal emotion-related socialization. Participants included an ethnically diverse sample of mothers (N = 168) living with young children (4-7 years old; 86 boys, 82 girls). Through a cluster analysis, dyadic mother-child temperament patterns were identified. Maternal emotion coaching and emotion rejecting were assessed using a self-report questionnaire of emotion-related socialization. Although maternal emotion coaching was not a significant mediator in models predicting emotion regulation, there was an indirect effect of temperament pattern on children’s emotion regulation through mothers’ emotion rejecting. Mother-child temperament patterns low in negative affectivity predicted lower emotion rejecting, and lower emotion rejecting predicted greater emotion regulation in children, even after accounting for covariates. In addition, mother-child temperament patterns had a direct effect on children’s emotion regulation. This study highlights associations between maternal emotion-related socialization, mother-child temperament patterns, and children’s emotion regulation.
Highlights
-
Mother-child temperament patterns were interactional and data-driven, derived from a cluster analysis.
-
When mother-child dyads were higher in negative affectivity, mothers were more likely to report rejecting their children’s emotions. Lower emotion rejecting in mothers predicted greater emotion regulation in children.
-
By taking a person-centered approach that examines dyadic temperament patterns, this paper adds to the growing literature on the importance of looking at the whole person in context and in relation to interaction with others.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ajrouch, K. A., & Antonucci, T. C. (2014). Using convoys of social relations to understand culture and forgiveness from an Arab American perspective. In S. C. Nassar-McMillan, K. J. Ajrouch, & J. Hakim-Larson (Eds.), Biopsychosocial perspectives on Arab Americans: Culture, development and health (pp. 127–146). Springer
Bates, J. E., Goodnight, J. A., & Fite, J. E. (2008). Temperament and emotion. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, & L. Feldman Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (3rd ed., pp. 485–496). Guilford Press
Bridgett, D. J., Laake, L. M., Gartstein, M. A., & Dorn, D. (2013). Development of infant positive emotionality: The contribution of maternal characteristics and effects on subsequent parenting. Infant and Child Development, 22(4), 362–382. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.1795
Boström, P. K., Broberg, M., & Bodin, L. (2011). Child’s positive and negative impacts on parents—A person-oriented approach to understanding temperament in preschool children with intellectual disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 32, 1860–1871. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2011.03.017
Bowie, B. H., Carrère, S., Cooke, C., Valdivia, G., McAllister, B., & Doohan, E. (2013). The role of culture in parents’ socialization of children’s emotional development. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 35(4), 514–533. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945911411494
Buhler, C. (1971). Basic theoretical concepts of humanistic psychology. American Psychologist, 26(4), 378
Chen, X. (2018). Culture, temperament, and social and psychological adjustment. Developmental Review, 50(Part A), 42–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2018.03.004
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. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579409000157
Daga, S. S., Raval, V. V., & Raj, S. P. (2015). Maternal meta-emotion and child socioemotional functioning in immigrant Indian and White American families. Asian. American Journal of Psychology, 6(3), 233–241. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000906
Dunstan, D. A., Anderson, D. L., & Marks, A. D. G. (2015). Reliability of the emotion-related parenting styles scale across gender and parent status groups. Early Education and Development, 26, 1234–1250. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2015.1039435
Eisenberg, N. (2020). Findings, issues, and new directions for research on emotion socialization. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 664–670. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000906
Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Cumberland, A. (1998). The socialization of emotion: Reply to commentaries. Psychological Inquiry, 9(4), 317–333. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0904_17
England-Mason, G., & Gonzalez, A. (2020). Intervening to shape children’s emotion regulation: A review of emotion socialization parenting programs for young children. Emotion, 20(1), 98–104. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000638
Evans, D. E., & Rothbart, M. K. (2007). Developing a model for adult temperament. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(4), 868–888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2006.11.002
Favez, N. (2011). Elaboration and regulation of lived emotion in preschoolers’ autobiographical narratives: The role of maternal conversational cooperation. Journal of Narrative Inquiry, 21, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.21.1.01fav
Field, A. P. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (4th ed.). Sage
Fishman, J. L., Raval, V. V., Daga, S. S., & Raj, S. P. (2014). Meta-emotion philosophy among Asian Indian immigrant mothers in the United States. Qualitative Health Research, 24(7), 875–889. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732314537403
Friedlmeier, W., Corapci, F., & Cole, P. M. (2011). Emotion socialization in cross-cultural perspective. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(7), 410–427. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00362.x
Gerhardt, M., Feng, X., Wu, Q., Hooper, E. G., Ku, S., & Chan, M. H. (2020). A naturalistic study of parental emotion socialization: Unique contributions of fathers. Journal of Family Psychology, 34(2), 204–214. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000602
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(3), 243–268. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.10.3.243
Gottman, J. M., & DeClaire, J. (1997). Raising an emotionally intelligent child: The heart of parenting. Simon & Schuster
Grusec, J. E. (2011). Socialization processes in the family: Social and emotional development. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 243–269. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.121208.131650
Hakim-Larson, J. (2018). Emotional development & families: Socialization across the lifespan. Palgrave Macmillan Education
Hakim-Larson, J., Parker, A., Lee, C., Goodwin, J., & Voelker, S. (2006). Measuring parental meta-emotion: Psychometric properties of the emotion-related parenting styles self-test. Early Education and Development, 17(2), 229–251. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15566935eed1702_2
Havighurst, S. S., Wilson, K. R., Harley, A. E., Kehoe, C., Efron, D., & Prior, M. R. (2013). “Tuning into Kids”: Reducing young children’s behavior problems using an emotion coaching parenting program. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 44(2), 247–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-012-0322-1
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guildford Press
Hernandez, E., Smith, C. L., Day, K. L., Neal, A., & Dunsmore, J. C. (2018). Patterns of parental emotion-related discourse and links with children’s problem behaviors: A person-centered approach. Developmental Psychology, 54(11), 2077–2089. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000602
Hurrell, H. E., Houwing, F. L., & Hudson, J. L. (2017). Parental meta-emotion philosophy and emotion coaching in families of children and adolescents with an anxiety disorder. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 45, 569–582. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0180-6
Kagan, J. (1994). Galen’s prophecy: Temperament in human nature. Basic Books
Katz, L., Maliken, A., & Stettler, N. (2012). Parental meta-emotion philosophy: A review of research and theoretical framework. Child Development Perspectives, 6(4), 417–422. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00244.x
Karkhanis, D. G., & Winsler, A. (2016). Temperament, gender, and cultural differences in maternal emotion socialization of anxiety, somatization, and anger. Psychological Studies, 61(3), 137–158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-016-0360-z
Laible, D. (2004). Mother-child discourse in two contexts: Links with child temperament, attachment security, and socioemotional competence. Developmental Psychology, 40(6), 979–992. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.6.979
Laible, D., Carlo, G., Murphy, T., Augustine, M., & Roesch, S. (2014). Predicting children’s prosocial and co-operative behavior from their temperamental profiles: A person-centered approach. Social Development, 23(4), 734–752. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12072
Laible, D., & Panfile, T. (2009). Mother-child reminiscing in the context of secure attachment relationships: Lessons in understanding and coping with negative emotions. In J. A. Quas, & R. Fivush (Eds.), Emotion and memory in development: Biological, cognitive, and social considerations (pp. 166–195). Oxford University Press
Lagacé‐Séguin, D., & Coplan, R. (2005). Maternal emotional styles and child social adjustment: Assessment, correlates, outcomes and goodness of fit in early childhood. Social Development, 14(4), 613–636. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2005.00320.x
Laukkanen, J., Ojansuu, U., Tolvanen, A., Alatupa, S., & Aunola, K. (2014). Child’s difficult temperament and mothers’ parenting styles. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23, 312–323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9747-9
Lewis, M. (2014). The rise of consciousness and the development of emotional life. Guilford Press
Mesquita, B., De Leersnyder, J., & Boiger, M. (2016). The cultural psychology of emotions. In L. Feldman Barrett, M. Lewis, & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (4th ed., pp. 674–705). Guilford Press
Miller, R. L., Dunsmore, J. C., & Smith, C. L. (2015). Effortful control and parents’ emotion socialization patterns predict children’s positive social behavior: A person-centered approach. Early Education and Development, 26(2), 167–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2015.975034
Neppl, T. K., Jeon, S., Diggs, O., & Donnellan, M. B. (2020). Positive parenting, effortful control, and developmental outcomes across early childhood. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 444–457. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000874
Paterson, A. D., Babb, K. A., Camodeca, A., Goodwin, J., Hakim-Larson, J., Voelker, S., & Gragg, M. (2012). Emotion-related parenting styles (ERPS): A short form for measuring parental meta-emotion philosophy. Early Education and Development, 23, 583–602. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2011.569316
Perry, N. B., Dollar, J. M., Calkins, S. D., Keane, S. P., & Shanahan, L. (2020). Maternal socialization of child emotion and adolescent adjustment: Indirect effects through emotion regulation. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 541–552. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000815
Putnam, S. P., & Rothbart, M. K. (2006). Development of short and very short forms of the children’s behavior questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 87, 103–113. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa8701_09
Qiu, C., & Shum, K. K. (2021). Emotion coaching intervention for Chinese mothers of preschoolers: A randomized controlled trial. Child Psychiatry and Human Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01101-6
Raval, V. V., & Martini, T. S. (2011). “Making the child understand:” Socialization of emotion in urban India. Journal of Family Psychology, 25(6), 847–856. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025240
Raval, V. V., & Walker, B. L. (2019). Unpacking ‘culture’: Caregiver socialization of emotion and child functioning in diverse families. Developmental Review, 51, 146–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2018.11.001
Rothbart, M. K. (2007). Temperament, development, and personality. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(4), 207–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00505.x
Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., & Hershey, K. L. (1994). Temperament and social behavior in childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 40, 21–39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23087906
Schlomer, G. L., Bauman, S., & Card, N. A. (2010). Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018082
Shields, A. M., & Cicchetti, D. (1997). Emotion regulation among school-age children: The development and validation of a new criterion q-sort scale. Developmental Psychology, 33(6), 906–916. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.33.6.906
Spinrad, T. L., Morris, A. S., & Luthar, S. S. (2020). Introduction to the special issue: Socialization of emotion and self-regulation: Understanding processes and application. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 385–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000904
Stöber, J. (1999). The Social Desirability Scale-17 (SDS-17): Development and first results on reliability and validity. Diagnostica, 45, 173–177. https://doi.org/10.1026//0012-1924.45.4.173
Thompson, R. (1994). Emotion regulation: A theme in search of definition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3). https://doi.org/10.2307/1166137
Acknowledgements
Support for this study was provided by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship awarded to S.A.S. The authors wish to thank the research assistants who assisted in data collection and coding, as well as the families who participated in this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scott, S.A., Hakim-Larson, J. Temperament, Emotion Regulation, and Emotion-Related Parenting: Maternal Emotion Socialization during Early Childhood. J Child Fam Stud 30, 2353–2366 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02016-z
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02016-z