14-04-2023 | Original Paper
Maternal and Paternal Emotion Socialization and Children’s Physiological Stress Regulation
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Child and Family Studies | Uitgave 7/2023
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Parental emotion socialization (ES) has been correlated with children’s adaptive emotion regulation. However, few studies have examined simultaneously the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ supportive ES practices on children’s physiological stress regulation, as indexed by cortisol—and the potential moderating role of child gender. In the present study, participants were 42 mothers, fathers, and their preschool-aged children (Mage = 42.36 months; 24 girls). Emotion socialization was assessed via observational coding and child stress regulation was measured through salivary cortisol samples taken throughout a series of stressor tasks. We found that greater maternal supportive ES significantly predicted children’s lower total cortisol output, while greater paternal supportive ES significantly predicted children’s higher total cortisol output. Child gender did not moderate the relations. Our findings underscore the important preventative opportunity for parents to teach children how to adaptively cope with emotions, which could influence their physiological ability to regulate the stress response.