Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T06:55:53.967Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emotion socialization, child emotion understanding and regulation, and adjustment in urban African American families: Differential associations across child gender

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

Jera Nelson Cunningham ,
Wendy Kliewer  and
Pamela W. Garner
Jera Nelson Cunningham*
Affiliation:
Commonwealth Counseling Associates
Wendy Kliewer
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University
Pamela W. Garner
Affiliation:
George Mason University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jera Nelson Cunningham, Commonwealth Counseling Associates, 9097 Atlee Station Road, Suite 219, Mechanicsville, VA 23116; E-mail: jncunningham@commonwealthcounseling.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The prospective relation of maternal emotion philosophy to children's emotion understanding and regulation and positive and negative adjustment was investigated. Sixty-nine African American youth (50% male; M age = 11.29 years) and their maternal caregivers living in high violence areas of a midsized city participated in this interview study. Caregivers' meta-emotion philosophy predicted child emotion understanding and emotion regulation, which also were associated with Time 2 grades, internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and social skills after controlling for Time 1 adjustment. Emotional understanding mediated the relationship between caregivers' emotional socialization and boys' internalizing behaviors and between caregivers' emotional socialization and girls' social skills. In addition, emotion regulation mediated the relationships between emotional socialization and all four outcomes for boys. Implications for future work on emotion socialization and clinical intervention, particularly related to emotion regulation, are discussed.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 261 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4–18 and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Ackerman, B. P., Brown, E., & Izard, C. E. (2003). Continuity and change in levels of externalizing behavior in school of children from economically disadvantaged families. Child Development, 74, 694–709.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Adams, S., Kuebli, J., Boyle, P., & Fivush, R. (1996). Gender differences in parents' conversations about past emotions: A longitudinal investigation. Sex Roles, 33, 309–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Murry, V. M., Kim, S., & Brown, A. C. (2002). Longitudinal pathways to competence and psychological adjustment among African American children living in rural single-parent households. Child Development, 73, 1505–1516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, L. R. (2000). The socialization of gender differences in emotional expression: Display rules, infant temperament, and differentiation. In Fischer, A. H. (Ed.), Gender and emotion: Social psychology perspectives. Studies in emotion and social interaction (2nd ed., pp. 24–47). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carson, J., & Parke, R. D. (1996). Reciprocal negative affect in parent–child interactions and children's peer competency. Child Development, 67, 2217–2226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cervantes, C., & Callanan, M. A. (1998). Labels and explanations in mother–child emotion talk: Age and gender differentiation. Developmental Psychology, 34, 88–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chaplin, T. M., Cole, P. M., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (2005). Parental socialization of emotion expression: Gender differences and relations to child adjustment. Emotion, 5, 80–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Contreras, J. M., Kerns, K. A., Weimer, B. L., Gentzler, A. L., & Tomich, P. L. (2000). Emotion regulation as a mediator of associations between mother–child attachment and peer relationships in middle childhood. Journal of Family Psychology, 14, 111–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cook, C. (1986). The Youth-Self Report Child Hostility Scale. Unpublished manuscript, Arizona State University, Tempe, Program for Prevention Research.Google Scholar
Cook, R. D., & Weisberg, S. (1982). Residuals and influence in regression. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Criss, M. M., Pettit, G., Bates, J., Dodge, K. A., & Lapp, A. L. (2002). Family adversity, positive peer relationships, and children's externalizing behavior: A longitudinal perspective on risk and resilience. Child Development, 73, 1220–1237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cummings, E. M., Iannotti, R. J., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1985). The influence of conflict between adults on the emotions and aggression of young children. Developmental Psychology, 21, 495–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunningham, J. N., & Kliewer, W. L. (2005). Validity of the meta-emotion philosophy interview for low-income African American caregivers. Unpublished manuscript, Virginia Commonwealth University.Google Scholar
Davis, T. (1995). Gender differences in masking negative emotions: Ability or motivation? Developmental Psychology, 31, 660–667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denham, S. A. (1997). “When I have a bad dream, mommy holds me”: Preschoolers' conceptions of emotions, parental socialization, and emotional competence. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 20, 301–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denham, S. A., Blair, K., Schmidt, M., & DeMulder, E. (2002). Compromised emotional competence: Seeds of violence sown early. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 72, 70–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denham, S. A., Cook, M., & Zoller, D. (1992). “Baby looks very sad”: Implications of conversations about feelings between mother and preschooler. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10, 301–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denham, S. A., & Grout, L. (1993). Socialization of emotion: Pathways to preschoolers' emotional and social competence. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 17, 205–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denham, S. A., McKinley, M., Couchoud, E. A., & Holt, R. (1990). Emotional and behavioral predictors of preschool peer ratings. Child Development, 61, 1145–1152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denham, S. A., Workman, E., Cole, P. M., Weissbrod, C., Kendziora, K. T., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (2000). Prediction of externalizing behavior problems from early to middle childhood: The role of parental socialization and emotion expression. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 23–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denham, S. A., Zoller, D., & Couchoud, E. A. (1994). Socialization of preschoolers' emotional understanding. Developmental Psychology, 30, 928–936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, J., Bretherton, I., & Munn, P. (1987). Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children. Developmental Psychology, 23, 132–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, J., & Brown, J. (1994). Affect expression in the family, children's understanding of emotions, and their interactions with others. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 40, 120–137.Google Scholar
Dunn, J., Brown, J., & Beardsall, L. (1991). Family talk about feeling states and children's later understanding of others' emotions. Developmental Psychology, 27, 448–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., & Spinrad, T. L. (1998). Parental socialization of emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 241–273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., Spinrad, T. L., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Reiser, M., et al. (2001). The relations of regulation and emotionality to children's externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. Child Development, 72, 1112–1134.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. A. (1994). Mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions: Relations to children's temperament and anger behavior. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 40, 138–156.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Gershoff, E. T., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Cumberland, A. J., Losoya, S. H., et al. (2001). Mothers' emotional expressivity and children's behavior problems and social competence: Mediation through children's regulation. Developmental Psychology, 37, 475–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenberg, N., Valiente, C., Morris, A. S., Fabes, R. A., Cumberland, A., Reiser, M., et al. (2003). Longitudinal relations among parental emotional expressivity, children's regulation, and quality of socioemotional functioning. Developmental Psychology, 39, 3–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fabes, R. A., Eisenberg, N., Karbon, M., Bernzweig, J., Speer, A. L., & Carlo, G. (1994). Socialization of children's vicarious emotional responding and prosocial behavior: Relations with mothers' perceptions of children emotional reactivity. Developmental Psychology, 30, 44–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannagan, D., & Perese, S. (1998). Emotional references in mother–daughter and mother–son dyads' conversations about school. Sex Roles, 39, 353–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forehand, R., Neighbors, B., & Wierson, M. (1991). The transition of adolescence: The role of gender and stress in problem behavior and competence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32, 929–937.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garner, P. W. (1996). The relations of emotional role-taking, affective/moral attributions, and emotional display rule knowledge to low-income school-age children's social competence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 17, 19–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garner, P. W., Jones, D. C., & Miner, J. L. (1994). Social competence among low-income preschoolers: Emotion socialization practices and social cognitive correlates. Child Development, 65, 622–637.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garner, P. W., Robertson, S., & Smith, G. (1997). Preschool children's emotional expressions with peers: The roles of gender and emotion socialization. Sex Roles, 36, 675–691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garside, R. B., & Klimes-Dougan, B. (2002). Socialization of discrete negative emotions: Gender differences and links with psychological distress. Sex Roles, 47, 115–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Georges, V. C. (2001). Emotion regulation strategies of children who are poor or competent regulators of emotions. Dissertation Abstracts International, 62, 1731.Google Scholar
Gilliom, M., Shaw, D., Beck, J. E., Schonberg, M. A., & Lukon, J. L. (2002). Anger regulation in disadvantaged preschool boys: Strategies, antecedents, and the development of self-control. Developmental Psychology, 38, 222–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gomel, J. N., Tinsley, B. J., Parke, R. D., & Clark, K. M. (1998). The effects of economic hardship on family relationships among African-American, Latino, and Euro-American families. Journal of Family Issues, 19, 436–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorman-Smith, D., Tolan, P., Henry, D. B., & Florsheim, P. (2000). Patterns of family functioning and adolescent outcomes among urban African American and Mexican American families. Journal of Family Psychology, 14, 436–457.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottman, J. M., & Katz, L. (1989). Effects of marital discord on young children's peer interaction and health. Developmental Psychology, 25, 373–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1996). Parental meta-emotion philosophy and the emotional life of families: Theoretical models and preliminary data. Journal of Family Psychology, 10, 243–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1997). Meta-emotion: How families communicate emotionally. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Gutman, L. M., & McLoyd, V. C. (2000). Parents' management of their children's education within the home, at school, and in the community: An examination of African American families living in poverty. Urban Review, 32, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakim-Larson, J., Dunham, K., Vellet, A., Murdaca, L., & Levenbach, J. (1999). Parental affect and coping. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 31, 5–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, J. (1978). Gender effects in decoding nonverbal cues. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 845–857.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harter, S., & Whitesell, N. R. (1989). Developmental changes in children's understanding of single, multiple, and blended emotion concepts. In Saarni, C. & Harris, P. L. (Eds.), Children's understanding of emotion. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hightower, A. D., Work, W. C., Cowen, E. L., Lotyczewski, B. S., Spinell, A. P., Guare, J. C., et al. (1986). The Teacher–Child Rating Scale: A brief objective measure of elementary children's school problem behaviors and competencies. School Psychology Review, 15, 393–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofferth, S. L., Smith, J., McLoyd, V. C., & Finkelstein, J. (2000). Achievement and behavior among children of welfare recipients, welfare leavers, and low-income single mothers. Journal of Social Issues, 56, 747–774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooven, C., Gottman, J. M., & Katz, L. F. (1995). Parental meta-emotion structure predicts family and child outcomes. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 229–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooven, C., Katz, L. F., & Mittman, A. (1996). The meta-emotion coding system: Parent meta-emotion philosophy and family of origin coding manual. Unpublished manuscript, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Hughes, C., & Dunn, J. (2002). “When I say a naughty word”: A longitudinal study of young children's accounts of anger and sadness young in themselves and close others. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20, 515–535.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, L. F., & Windecker-Nelson, B. (2004). Parental meta-emotion philosophy in families with conduct-problem children: Links with peer relations. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 32, 385–398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kliewer, W., Adams-Parrish, K., Taylor, K. W., Jackson, K., Walker, J. M., & Shivy, V. A. (2006). Socialization of coping with community violence: Influences of caregiver coaching, modeling, and family context. Child Development, 77, 605–623.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanska, G., Murray, K., & Coy, K. C. (1997). Inhibitory control as a contributor to conscience in childhood: From toddler to early school age. Child Development, 68, 263–277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kovacs, M. (1985). The Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 21, 995–998.Google ScholarPubMed
Kuersten-Hogan, R., & McHale, J. P. (2000). Stability of emotion talk in families from the toddler to the preschool years. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 161, 115–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumpulainen, K., Rasanen, E., & Henttonen, I. (1998). The persistence of teacher-reported behavioral problems among children aged 8 to 12. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 7, 225–234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LaFreniere, P. J., & Dumas, J. E. (1992). A transactional analysis of early childhood anxiety and social withdrawal. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 385–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahey, B. B., Loeber, R., Hart, E. L., Frick, P. J., Applegate, B., Zhang, Q., et al. , (1995). Four-year longitudinal study of conduct disorder in boys: Patterns and predictors of persistence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 83–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G., & Sheets, V. (2002). A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods, 7, 83–104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mandara, J., & Murray, C. B. (2000). Effects of parental marital status, income, and family functioning on African American adolescent self-esteem. Journal of Family Psychology, 14, 475–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maughan, A., & Cicchetti, D. (2002). Impact of child maltreatment and interadult violence on children's emotion regulation abilities and socioemotional adjustment. Child Development, 73, 1525–1542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McClowry, S. G. (1995). The development of the School-Age Temperament Inventory. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 41, 271–285.Google Scholar
McDowell, D. J., Kim, M., O'Neil, R., & Parke, R. D. (2002). Children's emotional regulation and social competence in middle childhood: The role of maternal and paternal interactive style. Marriage and Family Review, 34, 345–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, B. C., & Eisenberg, N. (2002). An integrative examination of peer conflict: Children's reported goals, emotions and behavior. Social Development, 11, 534–557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nannis, E. D., & Cowan, P. A. (1987). Emotional understanding: A matter of age, dimension, and point of view. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 8, 289–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Kearney, R., & Dadds, M. (2004). Developmental and gender differences in the language for emotions across the adolescent years. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 913–938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, C. J., Vaden, N. A., & Kupersmidt, J. (1991). Family background, recent life events and peer rejection during childhood. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 8, 347–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsden, S. R., & Hubbard, J. A. (2002). Family expressiveness and parental emotion coaching: Their role in children's emotion regulation and aggression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 657–667.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Randolph, S. M., Koblinsky, S. A., & Roberts, D. D. (1996). Studying the role of family and school in the development of African American preschoolers in violent neighborhoods. Journal of Negro Education, 65, 282–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, C. R., & Richmond, B. O. (1978). What I think and feel: A revised measure of children's manifest anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 6, 271–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rydell, A. M., Berlin, L., & Bohlin, G. (2003). Emotionality, emotion regulation, and adaptation among 5- to 8-year-old children. Emotion, 3, 30–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sackett, G. P. (1978). Observing behavior: Vol. II. Data collection and analysis methods. Baltimore, MD: University Park.Google Scholar
Schultz, D., Izard, C. E., & Ackerman, B. (2000). Children's anger attribution bias: Relations to family environment and social adjustment. Social Development, 9, 284–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, D., Izard, C. E., Ackerman, B. P., & Youngstrom, E. A. (2001). Emotion knowledge in economically disadvantaged children: Self-regulatory antecedents and relations to social difficulties and withdrawal. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 53–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shields, A., & Cicchetti, D. (1995, March). The development of an emotion regulation assessment battery: Reliability and validity among at-risk grade-school children. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child DevelopmentIndianapolis, IN.Google Scholar
Shields, A., & Cicchetti, D. (2001). Parental maltreatment and emotion dysregulation as risk factors for bullying and victimization in middle childhood. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30, 349–363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shields, A., Dickstein, S., Seifer, R., Giusti, L., Magee, K. D., & Spritz, B. (2001). Emotional competence and early school adjustment: A study of preschoolers at risk. Early Education and Development, 12, 73–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shipman, K. L., & Zeman, J. (2001). Socialization of children's emotion regulation in mother–child dyads: A developmental psychopathology perspective. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 317–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smetana, J. G., Abernethy, A., & Harris, A. (2000). Adolescent–parent interactions in middle-class African American families: Longitudinal change and contextual variations. Journal of Family Psychology, 14, 458–474.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, M. (2001). Social and emotional competencies: Contributions to young African-American children's peer acceptance. Early Education and Development, 12, 49–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southam-Gerow, M. A., & Kendall, P. C. (2000). A preliminary study of the emotional understanding of youths referred for treatment of anxiety disorders. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 29, 319–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strayer, J. (1987). Affective and cognitive perspectives on empathy. In Eisenberg, N. & Strayer, J. (Eds.), Empathy and its development (pp. 218–244). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tangney, J. P., Hill-Barlow, D., Wagner, P. E., Marschall, D. E., Bornstein, J. K., Sanftner, J., et al. (1996). Assessing individual differences in constructive versus destructive responses to anger across the lifespan. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 70, 780–796.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Underwood, M. (1997). Peer social status and children's understanding of the expression and control of positive and negative emotions. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 43, 610–634.Google Scholar
Wyman, P. A., Cowen, E. L., Work, W. C., Hoyt-Meyers, L., Magnus, K. B., & Fagen, D. B. (1999). Caregiving and developmental factors differentiating young at-risk urban children showing resilient versus stress-affected outcomes: A replication and extension. Child Development, 70, 645–659.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahn-Waxler, C. (2000). The development of empathy, guilt, and internalization of distress: Implications for gender differences in internalizing and externalizing problems. In Davidson, R. (Ed.), Anxiety, depression, and emotion: Wisconsin symposium on emotion (pp. 222–265). New York: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar