Investigation of the relationship between mothers' emotion socialization, dysfunctional parental modes, meta-mood traits and empathy

This study aims to examine the factors that predict mothers' emotion socialization. For this purpose, it was investigated whether the following variables predicted mothers' emotional socialization responses: dysfunctional parental modes, which is a sub-dimension of schema modes; meta-mood traits consisting of emotional attention, emotional clarity, and emotional repair and empathy. The sample of the study consists of 216 mothers with children aged 3-7. Personal Information Form, Dysfunctional Parental Modes Sub-Dimension of the Schema Modes Scale, The Coping With Children's Negative Emotions Scale, the Meta-Mood Trait Scale, the Interpersonal Responsiveness Index, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Measurement was taken to eliminate the possible effect of alexithymia level) were used as data collection tools used in the study. Data were analyzed using independent sample t-test, correlation and regression. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the punitive parent mode predicted negative emotion socialization reactions. However, there is no significant relationship between dysfunctional parental modes and positive emotion socialization responses. According to this finding, as the severity of mothers' parental modes increases, the frequency of negative emotional socialization reactions also increases. In support of the hypotheses, meta-mood traits predict both positive emotion socialization and negative emotion socialization responses. As meta-mood traits increase, their positive emotion socialization responses increase, while their frequency of negative emotion socialization responses decreases. Finally, empathy skills were also found to predict both positive and negative emotion socialization responses. As empathy skills increase, the frequency of positive emotion socialization reactions of mothers increases, while the frequency of negative emotion socialization responses decreases. Statistical (stepwise) regression analysis was performed in order to evaluate all three variables together and to test which variable predicted in which order. According to the results of this analysis, the variable that has the highest predictive power of negative emotional socialization reactions is the punitive parent mode, followed by empathy. Meta-mood traits did not predict negative emotion socialization responses in this model. The reason may be the high correlation between alexithymia and meta-emotional traits. The findings obtained from the research were evaluated in the light of the literature, discussed and suggestions were made. Keywords: Emotion socialization, dysfunctional parental modes, meta-mood traits, empathy