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A Real-Time Analysis of Parent-Child Emotion Discussions: The Interaction Is Reciprocal

  • University of Georgia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The current study examined reciprocal parent–child emotion-related behaviors and links to child emotional and psychological functioning. Fifty-four mothers, fathers, and children (7 to 12 years old) participated in four emotion discussions about a time when the child felt angry, happy, sad, and anxious. Supportive emotion parenting (SEP), unsupportive emotion parenting (UEP), and child adaptive/maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) behaviors were coded using Noldus behavioral research software (Noldus Information Technology, 2007). Parents were more likely to follow children's adaptive emotion regulation with supportive versus unsupportive emotional responses and children were more likely to show adaptive versus maladaptive emotion regulation in response to supportive emotion parenting. Interaction patterns involving unsupportive emotion parenting related to child psychological and emotional outcomes. The results provide empirical support for an evocative person–environment framework of emotion socialization and identify the ways in which particular patterns of interaction relate to psychological functioning in youth.
Original languageAmerican English
JournalJournal of Family Psychology
Volume26
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • computer software
  • emotional regulation
  • observation methods
  • parent child relations
  • parenting
  • socialization

Disciplines

  • Psychiatric and Mental Health
  • Child Psychology
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology

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