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Linking Maternal Socialization of Positive Emotions to Children’s Behavioral Problems: The Moderating Role of Self-Control

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Abstract

Little is known about how parents socialize children’s positive affect regulation during late childhood. Consequently, we examined how mothers’ reported responses to their children’s (aged 7–12 years) positive emotions were linked to children’s behavioral problems and how children’s self-control moderated these associations. Our results indicated that maternal encouragement of positive emotions predicted fewer externalizing behaviors, but only for youth with lower self-control. Maternal explanation about their children’s positive emotions was unrelated to youth’s behavioral problems. Lastly, maternal dismissing responses to their children’s positive emotions (i.e., reprimanding responses and discomfort) were related to more externalizing and internalizing in youth, and these effects were not dependent on the children’s self-control. The current study adds to the limited research on positive affect socialization and offers some evidence that youth’s self-control may serve as a vantage-sensitivity factor in the association between maternal positive affect socialization and youth adjustment.

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Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank the participating families who generously donated their time to help with our research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA

    Chit Yuen Yi, Amy L. Gentzler & Meagan A. Ramsey

  2. Department of Learning Sciences and Human Development, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA

    Amy E. Root

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  1. Chit Yuen Yi
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  2. Amy L. Gentzler
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  4. Amy E. Root
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Correspondence to Chit Yuen Yi or Amy L. Gentzler.

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Yi, C.Y., Gentzler, A.L., Ramsey, M.A. et al. Linking Maternal Socialization of Positive Emotions to Children’s Behavioral Problems: The Moderating Role of Self-Control. J Child Fam Stud 25, 1550–1558 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0329-x

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