The Relationships Between Sociocultural Factors,Parental Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions,and Adolescent Outcomes in Chinese Urban and Rural Communities: A Network Approach

Abstract

There is a growing emphasis on the role of sociocultural factors in parental emotion socialization. Using a network approach, we examined the relationships between sociocultural factors, parental responses to children’s negative emotions (PRCNE), and adolescent maladaptive outcomes in urban (n = 674, M_age = 13.84, SD = 2.34; 44.9% female) and rural (n = 457, M_age = 13.09, SD = 2.37; 52.5% female) Chinese adolescents. The results indicated both regional similarities and differences in the links between PRCNE and maladaptive outcomes for adolescents, as well as in the associations between sociocultural factors and PRCNE. For bridge centrality, emotion-focused responses had the highest bridge strength in the urban network, while parental distress was most central in the rural network in connecting to adolescent outcomes. For sociocultural factors and their links to PRCNE, maternal education was most central in the urban network, and interdependent socialization goals were most central in the rural network. However, the bridge strengths of PRCNE types in connecting to adolescent outcomes and of sociocultural factors in connecting to PRCNE were not significantly different in urban and rural regions. In conclusion, the findings emphasize the need for more culturally nuanced research to better understand parental emotion socialization.