Abstract
When adolescents have positive emotions, parents’ reactions that enhance or dampen the intensity or duration of adolescents’ emotions have been documented to play a critical role in adolescents’ emotional adjustment in Western societies. These parental reactions are theorized to be culturally embedded parenting practices in the emotion socialization process. However, research is limited in examining the implications of parents’ enhancing and dampening reactions for adolescents’ emotional adjustment in non-Western societies. Moreover, it remains to be explored how these parental reactions might be guided by parents’ culturally shaped socialization goals for adolescents, and further influence adolescents’ adjustment. To address these key issues, a two-wave longitudinal study spanning approximately 1.5 years was conducted among adolescents in China (N = 233; Mage = 12.19 years, SD = 0.60; 48% girls). Based on adolescents’ reports, it was found that Chinese mothers’ enhancing reactions to adolescents’ positive emotions, which were related to their greater endorsement of self-development socialization goals (i.e., wanting adolescents to develop confidence, autonomy, and uniqueness), predicted adolescents’ increased emotional well-being (i.e., self-esteem, vitality, and experience of positive emotions) and decreased emotional ill-being (i.e., depression, anxiety and experience of negative emotions) over time. Contrastingly, mothers’ dampening reactions to adolescents’ positive emotions, which were related to their less endorsement of self-development and greater endorsement of filial piety socialization goals (i.e., wanting adolescents to respect and obey parents), predicted adolescents’ decreased emotional well-being over time. The findings broaden the cultural understanding of parents’ emotion-related socialization practices, and provide insights into practical endeavors at optimizing parents’ reactions to adolescents’ positive emotions in culturally sensitive ways and ultimately promoting adolescents’ mental health.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the families participating in this study. This research is supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, General Research Fund # 14659716 (to Q.W.) and research fund from the Center for Culture, Brain, Biology, and Learning at Northwestern University (to Z.S. and Y.Q.).
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Z.S. performed data collection, performed the statistical analyses, interpreted the results, and drafted the manuscript; Y.Q. oversaw the data analysis, interpreted the results, and revised the manuscript. Y.Y. helped with data analysis, data interpretation, and manuscript draft based on some part of the data; Q.W. designed the study, oversaw the implementation of the study, guided the conceptualization of the research questions, supervised data analysis, and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Shi, Z., Qu, Y., Yan, Y. et al. Chinese Mothers’ Reactions to Adolescents’ Positive Emotions: Relations to Adolescents’ Emotional Adjustment and Mothers’ Socialization Goals. J. Youth Adolescence 53, 1214–1231 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01924-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01924-1