Emotional expression styles and friendship quality as mediators of the relation between adults' remembrances of parental acceptance-rejection in childhood and loneliness

The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the serial multiple mediator roles of emotion expression styles, friendship quality in the relationship between adults' remembrances of parental acceptance in childhood and loneliness. In this study, 876 individuals (62% female) and the mean age was 26.55 years (S.D. = 7.59) completed measures of adult versions of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for Mothers and Fathers, Emotional Expression Styles Inventory, McGill Friendship Scale-Friendship Functions, UCLA Loneliness Scale and a Demographic Information Form. Direct and indirect effects between the relevant variables were assessed with bootstrapping method by using the PROCESS (n = 5000 bootstrapping iterations). The results of the seven serial multiple mediation models revealed that (a) self-focused expression of happiness (b) verbal expression of both sadness and anger (c) friendship quality partially mediated the relations between adults' remembrances of mother-father acceptance in childhood and loneliness. Overall, as the parental acceptance increases, the level of self-focused expression of happiness; verbal expression of sadness and anger increases and the increase in emotional expression relevant emotional expression styles, in turn, predicted higher friendship quality which then predicted lower loneliness. In addition, other-focused expression of happiness and friendship quality partially mediated the relations between adults' remembrances of mother acceptance and loneliness. In other words, as the remembrances of mother acceptance increases, the higher level of other-focused expression of happiness predicted higher friendship quality which then predicted lower loneliness. The findings of the current study were discussed in the light of Parental Acceptance-Rejection Theory and related literature. Keywords: Parental Acceptance-Rejection, Emotional Expression, Friendship Quality, Loneliness.