The Role of Culture in Parents’ Socialization of Children’s Emotional Development

Abstract

Parents’ emotion coaching of children and modeling of effective emotional responses are associated with children’s positive emotional development. However, much of the research in this area has been with European American families. This study examined parents’ self-reports about their emotion regulation patterns and coaching their children about emotions, across three racial and ethnic groups (African American, European American, and Multiracial), to determine how well these parental behaviors predicted their children’s self-reports of depressive and anxiety symptoms 18 to 24 months later (N = 99). For the African American families, a higher level of coaching about anger and sadness by mothers was linked with lower depressive symptoms in their children. A higher level of anger coaching by fathers within the Multiracial group was also associated with lower anxiety and depressive symptoms. This study supports the importance of cultural values, within racial and ethnic groups, in parenting approaches associated with children’s mental health outcomes.