Meta-Emotion and Emotion Socialization by Mothers of Preschoolers During Storytelling Tasks

In the present study, we employed a multi-method approach to study the process by which mothers of preschool-aged children actively socialize complex emotions. Within the context of a dynamic systems framework, we examined the associations between maternal meta-emotion philosophies, via an interview-based assessment (the Meta-Emotion Interview, MEI), and the use of emotion words mapped onto a state-space grid during a narrative storytelling task. Mothers were asked to read an emotionally evocative, wordless picture-story book in a comfortable setting in their homes to their preschool-aged child. All interactions were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and categories of negative and positive emotion words, and their behavioural expressions were coded from a rubric by independent raters with a 96% agreement rate. We found that higher levels of maternal awareness of emotion and emotion coaching strategies on the MEI were correlated with a wide array of positive and negative emotion word usage and behavioral expressions of emotion during the storytelling task, as well as with more flexible, fluid, and diverse state-space grid profiles. These results are consistent with meta-emotion theory and suggest that meta-emotion philosophies have an implicit influence on the ways in which caregivers socialize emotions in natural settings. We argue that an SSG methodology adds an innovative dimension to the study of meta-emotion and emotion socialization.