Current Effect of Mother-Child Memory Talk on Emotion Regulation, Self-Esteem, and Memory

Abstract

Children talking to their parents more frequently about past experiences tend to have higher emotion regulation skills and self-esteem in their future lives, which may lead to higher volume and richer emotional content in future memories. Previous research also indicated that self-esteem has a strong bond with emotion regulation skills. This study’s aim is to measure the mediator roles of emotion regulation difficulty and self-esteem on the relationship between childhood maternal reminiscing frequency and the volume and emotional content of the current memory experienced with the mother. Additionally, mediator roles of self-esteem in the connection between past maternal reminiscing and emotion regulation difficulty, and emotion regulation difficulty in the relationship between self-esteem and the current memory variables (i.e., total words, total emotion and unique emotion words) are examined. Participants (N=124, the age range was 22-39) filled out Rosenberg Self-Esteem, Emotion Regulation Difficulty, and Family Reminiscence Scales and wrote down one negatively-charged recent memory about their mothers. Path analysis revealed significant positive associations between past maternal reminiscing and self-esteem, emotion regulation difficulty, and total and unique emotion words in recent memory, and negative association between self-esteem and emotion regulation difficulty, supporting half of the mediation hypotheses. Results supported the notion that the frequency of parent-child reminiscing conversations in childhood is a parameter of child development since it can show its prospective effect via improving self-esteem and emotional functioning. Gender differences were not evident for current memory variables but more research on this issue is needed to reach more precise conclusions.