Profiles of parent emotion socialization: Longitudinal associations with child emotional outcomes

Abstract

Background

Few studies within the field of emotion socialization have used a person-centered approach to investigate how supportive or unsupportive parent subpopulations influence child development over time. Furthermore, the role of parents’ emotion socialization processes at different child developmental stages remains understudied.

Objectives

The current study tests whether parent profiles of emotion socialization are associated with concurrent and long-term child mental health problems and emotion competence, and whether associations differ for parents of children in early (4-6 years) versus middle childhood (7-10 years).

Method

Three waves of annual data were drawn from the Child and Parent Emotion Study, a longitudinal study of multinational families (n = 869). We drew on previously derived profiles from a latent profile analysis describing ‘emotion coaching’, ‘emotion dismissing’, and ‘emotion disengaged’ profiles of parent emotion socialization. Linear regression models tested associations between parent profiles (assessed in 2019) and child internalizing and externalizing problems, negative affect, and child emotion regulation, assessed 0, 1, and 2 years later (2019-21).

Results

Emotion dismissing (versus emotion coaching) was associated with higher concurrent child internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and negative affect; and longitudinally with higher internalizing problems and negative affect, and lower emotion regulation. Emotion disengaged (versus emotion coaching) was associated with higher concurrent and longitudinal child negative affect, and lower longitudinal emotion regulation. Split by child age, we found stronger associations in early compared to middle childhood for emotion dismissing and child externalizing problems. The reverse was evident for emotion disengaged, where associations were stronger/more evident in middle compared to early childhood for child negative affect and emotion regulation. Other associations were no longer evident or were consistent across child ages.

Conclusion

Children of parents who have a pattern of emotion dismissing or emotion disengaged emotion socialization are at greater risk for mental health problems and lower emotion competence.