Emotion Regulation and Personality as Predictors of Mothers' Emotion Socialization Practices

Background Parental emotion regulation (ER) and emotion socialization have been identified as key factors contributing to children's emotional competence; however, only a handful of studies have assessed the relationship between these constructs. Objective The goal of the present study was to determine whether parental ER would predict parents' self-reported emotion socialization practices above and beyond the influence of personality. Method Parents completed a series of self-report measures online. After data cleaning, 104 mothers of children between the ages of 8 and 12 years were retained for analyses. Results Hierarchal regressions revealed that mothers who reported higher levels of ER skills and more frequent use of cognitive reappraisal were more likely to report engaging in supportive response behaviors when controlling for personality. Moreover, maternal reappraisal was significantly and inversely associated with reports of unsupportive emotion socialization. Conclusion Findings provide evidence to support the association between maternal ER and emotion socialization behaviors. Implications Results are discussed with respect to their implications for emotion-focused interventions aimed at promoting supportive parenting practices.