The determinants of the emotion socialization practices: The factors related to context, parent and child

The main aim of this study was to investigate the determinants of the socialization behaviors of mothers with preschool and school age children regarding positive and negative emotions. For this purpose, factors related to context (socioeconomic level, perceived social support), mother (emotion regulation, psychological symptom level, parenting self-efficacy) and child (age, gender, temperament) were tested with holistic model. In the study, factors related to contextual, maternal, and child were examined based on maternal reporting, emotional socialization behaviors were examined based on both maternal reporting and tasks. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 188 participants who had children in pre-school or school age. Analyzes based on maternal reporting were conducted on data obtained from 93 mothers (Mage = 34.41; SD = 4.71) who had children in the preschool period and 95 mothers (Mage = 38.02; SD = 5.12) mothers who had children at school age. Analyzes based on the Reminiscing Task were conducted on data obtained from 133 mother-child dyads (Mage-mother = 35.14; SD = 5.51; Mage-child = 6.52; SD = 1.78). Analyzes based on the Disappointment Task were conducted on data obtained from 70 mother-child dyads (Mage-mother = 34.49; SD = 4.93; Mage-child = 5.11; SD = .93). In the preschool period, emotion socialization behaviors based on mothers reporting were directly predicted by the mother's education level, satisfaction with perceived social support, social support network size, reappraisal of emotions, and parenting self-efficacy. Reappraisal of emotions indirectly predicted these behaviors via parenting self-efficacy. At the school age, emotion socialization behaviors were directly predicted by the mother's education level, and parenting self-efficacy. Mother's education level and satisfaction with perceived social support indirectly predicted these behaviors via factors related to the mother. The temperament moderated the relationship between parenting self-efficacy and behaviors against negative emotions in the preschool period and positive emotions at the school age. Emotion socialization behaviors based on the Reminiscing Task were directly predicted by the child's age, mother's education level, and parenting self-efficacy. Satisfaction with perceived social support indirectly predicted these behaviors via psychological symptom level. Emotion socialization behaviors based on the Disappointment Task were directly predicted by the social support network size, satisfaction with perceived social support, and emotion regulation. Emotion regulation strategies indirectly predicted these behaviors via parenting self-efficacy. The temperament moderated the relationship between parenting self-efficacy and socialization behaviors against both positive and negative emotions. The present study contributed to broaden our understanding of the factors that explain parenting by examining emotion socialization behaviors against positive and negative emotions evaluated based on both maternal reporting and tasks in early and middle childhood.