The Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) is a widely used measure of parent emotion socialization; however, it is a lengthy measure and it is unclear whether all items are appropriately aligned with, and fully capture, the underlying constructs. We aimed to examine content validity of the CCNES, evaluate the theoretical alignment between the CCNES and Gottman, Katz and Hooven’s meta-emotion theory, and develop two short-forms. Participants were parents of children aged 4 to 10 years (N = 937) from the longitudinal study the Child and Parent Emotion Study (https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e038124). Content experts qualitatively evaluated parent-report items of the CCNES and additional items that measured empathy. Nineteen of the 84 items were found to not align with the meta-emotion theory. The latent structures of the CCNES and empathy subscales were quantitatively evaluated via confirmatory factor analysis. Items with poor psychometric properties were subsequently removed. An 18-item short-form (three emotion coaching subscales, three emotion dismissing subscales) and 6-item brief short-form (one emotion coaching subscale, one emotion dismissing subscale) with strong psychometric properties were created using a calibration sample (n = 468, that is, 50% of N = 937) and cross-validated with a validation sample. The short-form CCNES measures provide viable, theoretically consistent alternatives to the original CCNES measure.
AalbergM. (2019-). Tuning in to Kids: an Effectiveness Evaluation of Emotion Coaching to Parents and Daycare Teachers of At- risk Young Children. Identifier NCT04108949. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04108949.
2.
Altan-AytunÖ.YagmurluB.YavuzH. M. (2013). Turkish mothers’ coping with children’s negative emotions: A brief report. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 22, 437–443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-012-9597-x
3.
AltshulerJ. L.RubleD. N. (1989). Developmental changes in children’s awareness of strategies for coping with uncontrollable stress. Child Development, 60(6), 1337–1349. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130925
4.
BandalosD. L.Boehm-KaufmanM. R. (2009). Four common misconceptions in exploratory factor analysis. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
5.
BanduraA. (1977). Social learning theory. Prentice Hall.
6.
BariolaE.GulloneE.HughesE. K. (2011). Child and adolescent emotion regulation: The role of parental emotion regulation and expression. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 14(2), 198–212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-011-0092-5
7.
BentlerP. M.BonettD. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88(3), 588–606. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.88.3.588
8.
BertieL.-A.JohnstonK.LillS. (2021). Parental emotion socialisation of young children and the mediating role of emotion regulation. Australian Journal of Psychology, 73(3), 293–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2021.1884001
9.
BjørkR. F.HavighurstS. S.PonsF.KarevoldE. B. (2020). Pathways to behavior problems in Norwegian kindergarten children: The role of parent emotion socialization and child emotion understanding. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 61, 751–762. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12652
10.
BjurebergJ.LjótssonB.TullM. T.HedmanE.SahlinH.LundhL.-G.BjärehedJ.DiLilloD.Messman-MooreT.GumpertC. H.GratzK. L. (2016). Development and validation of a brief version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale: The DERS-16. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 38(2), 284–296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-015-9514-x
11.
BollenK. A. (1989). Structural equations with latent variables. Wiley.
12.
BrownG. L.CraigA. B.HalberstadtA. G. (2015). Parent gender differences in emotion socialization behaviors vary by ethnicity and child gender. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2015.1053312
13.
BuckR. (1984). The communication of emotion. Guilford Press.
14.
BuckholdtK. E.KitzmannK. M.CohenR. (2016). Parent emotion coaching buffers the psychological effects of poor peer relations in the classroom. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 33(1), 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407514562560
15.
BugentalD.GoodnowJ. (1998). Socialization processes. In EisenbergN. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (Vol. 3, 5th ed., pp. 389–462). John Wiley.
16.
CarrollL. (2013). Problem-focused coping. In GellmanM. D.TurnerJ. R. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of behavioral medicine (pp. 1540–1541). Springer.
17.
CicchettiD. V. (1994). Guidelines, criteria, and rules of thumb for evaluating normed and standardized assessment instruments in psychology. Psychological Assessment, 6(4), 284–290.
18.
CompasB. E.JaserS. S.DunbarJ. P.WatsonK. H.BettisA. H.GruhnM. A.WilliamsE. K. (2014). Coping and emotion regulation from childhood to early adulthood: Points of convergence and divergence. Australian Journal of Psychology, 66(2), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12043
19.
CrandallA.Deater-DeckardK.RileyA. W. (2015). Maternal emotion and cognitive control capacities and parenting: A conceptual framework. Developmental Review, 36, 105–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2015.01.004
20.
DavidovM.GrusecJ. E. (2006). Untangling the links of parental responsiveness to distress and warmth to child outcomes. Child Development, 77(1), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00855.x
21.
DavisE. L.LevineL. J.LenchH. C.QuasJ. A. (2010). Metacognitive emotion regulation: Children’s awareness that changing thoughts and goals can alleviate negative emotions. Emotion, 10(4), 498–510. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018428
22.
DavisE. L.Quiñones-CamachoL. E.BussK. A. (2016). The effects of distraction and reappraisal on children’s parasympathetic regulation of sadness and fear. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 142, 344–358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.020
23.
DenhamS. A.BassettH. H.WyattT. (2007). The socialization of emotional competence. In GrusecJ. EHastingsP. D.HastingsP. D. (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research (pp. 614–637). Guilford Press.
EisenbergN. (1996). Meta-emotion and socialization of emotion in the family—A topic whose time has come: Comment on Gottman et al (1996). Journal of Family Psychology, 10(3), 269–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.10.3.269
FabesR. A.PoulinR. E.EisenbergN.Madden-DerdichD. A. (2002). The Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES): Psychometric properties and relations with children’s emotional competence. Marriage & Family Review, 34, 285–310. https://doi.org/10.1300/J002v34n03_05
28.
FordB. Q.GrossJ. J. (2018). Why beliefs about emotion matter: An emotion-regulation perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(1), 74–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418806697
GambleW. C.RamakumarS.DiazA. (2007). Maternal and paternal similarities and differences in parenting: An examination of Mexican-American parents of young children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 22(1), 72–88. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2006.11.004
31.
GottmanJ. M. (2001). Meta-emotion, children’s emotional intelligence, and buffering children from marital conflict. In RyffC. D.SingerB. (Eds.), Emotion, social relationships, and health (pp. 23–40). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195145410.003.0002
32.
GottmanJ. M.DeClaireJ. (1997). The heart of parenting: How to raise an emotionally intelligent child. Simon & Schuster.
33.
GottmanJ. M.KatzL. F.HoovenC. (1996). Parental meta-emotion philosophy and the emotional life of families: Theoretical models and preliminary data. Journal of Family Psychology, 10(3), 243–268. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.10.3.243
34.
GottmanJ. M.KatzL. F.HoovenC. (1997). Meta-emotion: How families communicate emotionally. Lawrence Erlbaum.
35.
HajalN. J.PaleyB. (2020). Parental emotion and emotion regulation: A critical target of study for research and intervention to promote child emotion socialization. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 403–417. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000864
36.
HalberstadtA. G.CassidyJ.StifterC. A.ParkeR. D.FoxN. A. (1995). Self-expressiveness within the family context: Psychometric support for a new measure. Psychological Assessment, 7(1), 93–103. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.1.93
37.
HalberstadtA. G.DunsmoreJ. C.BryantA.ParkerA. E.BealeK. S.ThompsonJ. A. (2013). Development and validation of the Parents’ Beliefs About Children’s Emotions Questionnaire. Psychological Assessment, 25(4), 1195–1210. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033695
38.
HalberstadtA. G.ThompsonJ. A.ParkerA. E.DunsmoreJ. C. (2008). Parents’ emotion-related beliefs and behaviours in relation to children’s coping with the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Infant and Child Development, 17(6), 557–580. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.569
39.
HavighurstS. S.KehoeC. K. (2017). Tuning in to Kids - Three methods of delivery of an emotion-focused parenting program for parents of 3-10 year old children with behavior problems: Study protocol. Unpublished Protocol. University of Melbourne.
40.
HavighurstS. S.WilsonK. R.HarleyA. E.KehoeC.EfronD.PriorM. R. (2013) “Tuning in to Kids”: Reducing young Children’s behavior problems using an emotion coaching parenting program. Child Psychiatry Human Development, 44(2), 247–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-012-0322-1
41.
JohnsonA. M.HawesD. J.EisenbergN.KohlhoffJ.DudeneyJ. (2017). Emotion socialization and child conduct problems: A comprehensive review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 54, 65–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.04.001
42.
JohnstonM.DixonD.HartJ.GlidewellL.SchröderC.PollardB. (2014). Discriminant content validity: A quantitative methodology for assessing content of theory-based measures, with illustrative applications. British Journal of Health Psychology, 19(2), 240–257. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12095
43.
KatzL.MalikenA.StettlerN. (2012). Parental meta-emotion philosophy: A review of research and theoretical framework. Child Development Perspectives, 6, 417–422. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00244.x
44.
KehoeC.HavighurstS. (2018). Treating emotion dysregulation in internalizing disorders. In The Oxford Handbook of Emotion Dysregulation. Oxford.
45.
KehoeC. E.HavighurstS. S.HarleyA. E. (2020). Tuning in to Teens: Investigating moderators of program effects and mechanisms of change of an emotion focused group parenting program [doi:10.1037/dev0000875].American Psychological Association.
46.
KollerI.LevensonM. R.GlückJ. (2017). What do you think you are measuring? A mixed-methods procedure for assessing the content validity of test items and theory-based scaling. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 126. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00126
47.
LazarusR. S.FolkmanS. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.
48.
LeavittR.PowerM. (1989). Emotional socialization in the postmodern era: Children in day care. Social Psychology Quarterly, 52, 35–43. https://doi.org/10.2307/2786902
49.
LinglerJ. H.SchmidtK. L.GentryA. L.HuL.TerhorstL. A. (2014). A new measure of research participant burden: Brief report. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics: JERHRE, 9(4), 46–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/1556264614545037
50.
LinsT.AlvarengaP.MendesD. M. L. F.PessôaL. F. (2017). Adaptação brasileira da Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) [Brazilian adaptation of the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES).]. Avaliação Psicológica, 16(2), 196–204. https://doi.org/10.15689/AP.2017.1602.10
MagaiC.O’NealC. R. (1997). Emotions as a child self-rating scale [Unpublished manuscript]. New York, NY: Long Island University.
54.
MarshH. W.EllisL. A.ParadaR. H.RichardsG.HeubeckB. G. (2005). A short version of the Self Description Questionnaire II: Operationalizing criteria for short-form evaluation with new applications of confirmatory factor analyses. Psychological Assessment, 17(1), 81–102. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.17.1.81
55.
MasudaA.TwohigM. P.StormoA. R.FeinsteinA. B.ChouY.-Y.WendellJ. W. (2010). The effects of cognitive defusion and thought distraction on emotional discomfort and believability of negative self-referential thoughts. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 41(1), 11–17. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2009.08.006
56.
McEachernA.DishionT.WeaverC.ShawD.WilsonM.GardnerF. (2012). Parenting Young Children (PARYC): Validation of a self-report parenting measure. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21, 498–511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-011-9503-y
57.
MengK.YuanY.WangY.LiangJ.WangL.ShenJ.WangY. (2020). Effects of parental empathy and emotion regulation on social competence and emotional/behavioral problems of school-age children. Pediatric Investigation, 4(2), 91–98. https://doi.org/10.1002/ped4.12197
58.
MorelenD.ShafferA.SuvegC. (2016). Maternal emotion regulation: Links to emotion parenting and child emotion regulation. Journal of Family Issues, 37(13), 1891–1916. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X14546720
59.
MorrisA. S.CrissM. M.SilkJ. S.HoultbergB. J. (2017). The impact of parenting on emotion regulation during childhood and adolescence. Child Development Perspectives, 11(4), 233–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12238
60.
MorrisA. S.SilkJ. S.SteinbergL.MyersS. S.RobinsonL. R. (2007). The role of the family context in the development of emotion regulation. Social Development, 16(2), 361–388. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00389.x
PerryN. B.CalkinsS. D.NelsonJ. A.LeerkesE. M.MarcovitchS. (2012). Mothers’ responses to children’s negative emotions and child emotion regulation: The moderating role of vagal suppression. Developmental Psychobiology, 54(5), 503–513. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.20608
63.
Pintar BreenA. (2018). Measurement and model equivalence of the “Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale” within low-income, European and African American mothers and children living in rural areas [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Virginia.
64.
PolitD. F.BeckC. T. (2006). The content validity index: Are you sure you know what’s being reported? Critique and recommendations. Research in Nursing & Health, 29(5), 489–497. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.20147
65.
PremoJ. E.KielE. J. (2016). Maternal depressive symptoms, toddler emotion regulation, and subsequent emotion socialization. Journal of Family Psychology, 30(2), 276–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000165
66.
RodriguesI. B.AdachiJ. D.BeattieK. A.MacDermidJ. C. (2017). Development and validation of a new tool to measure the facilitators, barriers and preferences to exercise in people with osteoporosis. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 18(1), Article 540. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-017-1914-5
67.
RossiterJ. R. (2008). Content validity of measures of abstract constructs in management and organizational research. British Journal of Management, 19(4), 380–388. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2008.00587.x
68.
SaarniC. (1999). The development of emotional competence. Guilford Press.
69.
SassD. A. (2011). Testing measurement invariance and comparing latent factor means within a confirmatory factor analysis framework. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 29(4), 347–363.
70.
SatorraA.BentlerP. M. (2010). Ensuring positiveness of the scaled difference chi-square test statistic. Psychometrika, 75(2), 243–248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-009-9135-y
71.
SavaleiV.BentlerP. M. (2005). A statistically justified pairwise ml method for incomplete nonnormal data: A comparison with direct ML and pairwise ADF. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 12(2), 183–214. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1202_1
72.
SchoberP.BoerC.SchwarteL. A. (2018). Correlation coefficients: Appropriate use and interpretation. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 126(5), 1763–1768. https://doi.org/10.1213/ane.0000000000002864
73.
ScottS.BriskmanJ.DaddsM. R. (2011). Measuring parenting in community and public health research using brief child and parent reports. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 20(3), 343–352. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-010-9398-z
74.
ShenkC. E.FruzzettiA. E. (2014). Parental validating and invalidating responses and adolescent psychological functioning: An observational study. The Family Journal, 22(1), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480713490900
75.
SivoS. A.FanX.WittaE. L.WillseJ. T. (2006). The search for “optimal” cutoff properties: Fit index criteria in structural equation modeling. The Journal of Experimental Education, 74(3), 267–288. https://doi.org/10.3200/JEXE.74.3.267-288
76.
SpinradT.EisenbergN.KupferA.GaertnerB.MichalikN. (2004, May). The coping with negative emotions scale [Conference session]. International Conference for Infant Studies, Chicago, United States of America.
77.
SteigerJ. H. (2007). Understanding the limitations of global fit assessment in structural equation modeling. Personality and Individual Differences, 42(5), 893–898. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.09.017
78.
SteinerP.AtzmüllerC.SuD. (2016). Designing valid and reliable vignette experiments for survey research: A case study on the fair gender income gap. Journal of Methods and Measurement in the Social Sciences, 7, 52–94. https://doi.org/10.2458/v7i2.20321
79.
SternJ. A.BorelliJ. L.SmileyP. A. (2015). Assessing parental empathy: A role for empathy in child attachment. Attachment & Human Development, 17(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2014.969749
80.
TaberK. S. (2018). The use of Cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education. Research in Science Education, 48(6), 1273–1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2
81.
WatsonD.ClarkL. A.TellegenA. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063
WestruppE. M.MacdonaldJ. A.BennettC.HavighurstS.KehoeC. E.FoleyD.BerkowitzT. S.KingG. L.YoussefG. J. (2020). The Child and Parent Emotion Study: Protocol for a longitudinal study of parent emotion socialisation and child socioemotional development. BMJ Open, 10(10), e038124. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038124
84.
YagmurluB.AltanO. (2009). Maternal socialization and child temperament as predictors of emotion regulation in Turkish Preschoolers. Infant and Child Development, 19, 275–296. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.646
85.
YuanK.-H.BentlerP. (2008). Three likelihood-based methods for mean and covariance structure analysis with nonnormal missing data. Sociological Methodology, 30, 165–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/0081-1750.00078
86.
ZamanzadehV.GhahramanianA.RassouliM.AbbaszadehA.Alavi-MajdH.NikanfarA. R. (2015). Design and implementation content validity study: Development of an instrument for measuring patient-centered communication. Journal of Caring Sciences, 4(2), 165–178. https://doi.org/10.15171/jcs.2015.017
87.
ZubrickS.LucasN.WestruppE.NicholsonJ. (2014). Parenting measures in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children: Construct validity and measurement quality, Waves 1 to 4. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.1125.6967
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
