Elsevier

Clinical Psychology Review

Volume 54, June 2017, Pages 65-80
Clinical Psychology Review

Review
Emotion socialization and child conduct problems: A comprehensive review and meta-analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.04.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • ESBs are significantly associated with both concurrent and prospective child conduct problems.

  • These associations are in the order of small effect sizes.

  • These associations are stronger among younger versus older children.

  • These associations are stronger when ESBs concern negative versus positive emotions.

Abstract

Decades of research have emphasized the role that coercive and ineffective discipline plays in shaping child and adolescent conduct problems, yet an emerging body of evidence has suggested that parents' emotion socialization behaviors (ESBs) (e.g., reactions to emotions, discussion of emotions, and emotion coaching) may also be implicated. This meta-analysis examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between parental ESBs and conduct problems, and tested for moderators of these associations. A systematic search identified 49 studies for which data on concurrent associations between ESBs and conduct problems were available (n = 6270), and 14 studies reporting on prospective associations (n = 1899). Parental ESBs were found to be significantly associated with concurrent (r =  0.08) and prospective (r =  0.11) conduct problems, in the order of small effect sizes. Key findings of moderator analyses were that ESBs were more strongly associated with conduct problems at younger ages and when ESBs were focused on the socialization of negative rather than positive emotions. Findings support the integration of ESBs into family-based models of antisocial behavior, and have the potential to inform the design of parent training interventions for the prevention and treatment of child conduct problems.

Section snippets

Child conduct problems and the importance of emotion

The role of emotion in child conduct problems has been subject to growing attention in recent years, as increasing evidence has indicated that emotion-related features may be more core to such problems than has often been assumed, and that distinct forms of emotion-related deficits may characterize heterogeneous pathways to these problems (see Frick & Nigg, 2012). As reflected in current diagnostic criteria for the disruptive behavior disorders, the majority of children with conduct problems

Conceptualizations of emotion socialization

Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad (1998) proposed there are at least three key processes through which parents socialize their children to the world of emotions: a) reactions to their child's emotional displays; b) discussion of emotion; and c) emotional expressiveness within the family. These parental emotion socialization behaviors (ESBs) have generally been identified as either supportive (e.g., discussion of the causes and meaning of emotions, reactions that are emotion-focused,

Theories of emotion socialization and conduct problems

Theoretical perspectives on the potential importance of emotion socialization to conduct problems have focused on the emotion processing and regulatory deficits thought to underlie these problems. In recent years these regulatory deficits have often been conceptualized in terms of degree of effortful control, which includes abilities to shift and focus attention as needed, and to inhibit a dominant response and/or to activate a subdominant response (Rothbart, Sheese, Rueda, & Posner, 2011).

Aims and hypotheses

The primary aim of this paper was to examine current evidence regarding the association between active parental ESBs and child conduct problems, and to quantify this association using the meta-analytic method. As such, our focus was on emotion coaching, discussion of emotions, and reactions to emotions, rather than broader aspects of PMEP (e.g., parents' awareness and acceptance of emotions in themselves and others). Such a meta-analysis is timely and stands to inform emerging prevention and

Literature search

A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify studies examining the relation between parental ESBs and child conduct problems. For this purpose, we defined conduct problems broadly in terms of the features of oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, American Psychiatric Association, 2013). That is, developmentally excessive and persistent behavior that is oppositional, defiant, aggressive, or involves serious rule violations, which

Characteristics of total sample

The final sample consisted of 51 articles, representing 52 studies. The references of all included studies are provided in Appendix B. Thirty of the studies utilized a cross-sectional design, 14 were longitudinal, and eight were intervention studies that also measured relevant variables prior to treatment. A total of 49 studies assessed concurrent associations between ESBs and conduct problems. A total of 14 studies assessed longitudinal associations between ESBs and conduct problems - 11 of

Discussion

ESBs were found to demonstrate a small but significant negative association with severity of concurrent conduct problems, and an association of the same magnitude was seen longitudinally. Also consistent with predictions, when ESBs were separated into supportive versus nonsupportive forms, both were significantly associated with concurrent conduct problems, but the effect for nonsupportive ESBs in the cross-sectional data was significantly larger in size. This reflects evidence regarding more

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