Parents play a significant role in how children learn to express their emotions as well as their child’s overall emotional well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of positive and negative emotion socialization experiences on internalizing disorders in young adult males and females. One-hundred and forty-two young adults between the ages of 18-28 years from a southwestern university participated in the current study. It was hypothesized that early negative emotion socialization experiences would be related to higher levels of anxiety and depression in young adulthood (and, conversely, early positive emotion socialization experiences would be related to lower levels of anxiety and depression). In addition, it was expected that fathers would engage more in negative emotion socialization behaviors than mothers, especially with sons. Participants completed the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale- Adolescents’ Perceptions (CCNES-AP; Fabes & Eisenberg,1998), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) (Beck, Epstein,Brown, & Steer, 1988), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) (Beck et al., 1961), and a demographics form. Results indicated that parental emotion socialization was significantly related to depression in males but not females. There were limited significant correlations between anxiety and emotion socialization for males, but not females. Findings supported the hypothesis that fathers tend to engage more in negative emotion socialization behaviors than mothers, especially with sons. The long-term impact for males but not females of early emotional socialization experiences is discussed within the context of gender differences in intimate peer relations throughout development. In addition, the long-term impact of mothers and fathers on how children learn to express their (negative) emotions, and the implications of such for males’ mental health, is also discussed.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are linked to risky health behaviors, and chronic disease. Children exposed to trauma are seven times more likely to develop a substance use disorder (SU) in adulthood. However, not all children who experience ACEs will grow up to have detrimental outcomes. Parental emotion socialization (ES) may be particularly relevant for promoting risk or resilience in the context of adversity. The present study aimed to examine ES as a moderator of the relationship between ACEs and SU. Participants were recruited from East Tennessee State University. Simple regression revealed that non-supportive ES significantly moderated the relationship between ACEs and drug use, r2 = .041, F (7, 456) = 2.772, p < 0.001. Supportive ES significantly moderated the relationship between ACEs and drug use, r2=.051, F (7, 456) = 3.473, p < 0.001. Overall, the results provide further understanding on the relationship between ACEs, ES, and SU.

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Emotion socialization influences adolescent emotional adjustment. Friendships provide a venue for emotion socialization, yet little research has compared emotion socialization processes with parents versus friends and how they correspond to adolescent outcomes. The present study examined parent and friend socialization of negative emotions in relation to adolescents' emotional coherence, emotion regulation, and internalizing symptoms. Thirty parent-adolescent-friend triads (13–18 years old; 60% female, 40% male) from the community participated. Study variables were measured with a multi-method approach, including observational data, heart rate variability, and self-report. Parents and friends evidenced disparate patterns of socialization responses and unique ties to adolescent outcomes, which has important clinical applications. Friends, as well as parents, are important and distinct socialization agents within the developmental context of adolescence.

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Parents teach their children about emotions through a process called emotion socialization and one way that they can do so is through shared discussions about emotions. Research in developmental psychology indicates that parental emotion socialization strategies through discourse such as elaboration and labels and explanations are related to children's emotion understanding and social competence. In the current study, I apply the concept of indirect communication, which has been used in linguistics since the 1970s, to parental emotion socialization with preschool-age children (n= 55; 31 females, 24 males). I define indirect communication as parental speech in which the form and function of a subject-verb phrase do not match and examined relations of parental indirect communication to the previously established strategies in developmental psychology of elaboration and use of labels and explanations. To understand whether this type of communication may influence children's development, I also examined relations of indirect communication to preschoolers' emotion understanding and social competence. Results indicate that parental indirect communication during positive events was related to parental explanations during negative events. Parental indirect communication did not significantly predict children's emotion understanding or social competence, but showed a trend for the association between indirect communication during negative event discussions and children's nonstereotypical emotion understanding. However, the direction for this association was opposite than hypothesized. These results do not suggest consistency of indirect communication across positive and negative event discussions as an emotion socialization strategy. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to better understand associations between acculturation, parental beliefs, mother-child emotion talk, and emotion understanding in Latino preschool-aged children. Research on Latino families may prove to be important given the little research that has focused on emotion understanding strictly in Latino cultures. Forty Latino mother-child dyads were observed throughout a series of naturalistic observations. Mothers self-reported their acculturation and their beliefs about the value and danger of children's emotions, children's emotional development processes, and their role in guiding their children's emotions. Mother-child emotion talk and framing was measured during a 15 minute story-telling task using a Lego house and through a wordless picture book. Children's emotion understanding was measured using two standard tasks. Results showed that mothers' acculturation was related to their beliefs about the danger of emotions, their role in guiding their child's emotions, and their child's readiness to learn about emotions. Mothers' acculturation was also related to children's emotion understanding. Mothers' beliefs about guiding children's emotions were related to mothers' labeling of emotions and to children's emotion understanding. This study confirms and expands several previous findings relating to emotion socialization of children. Overall, results highlight the importance of acculturation for parents' beliefs about emotions and children's emotion understanding. / Master of Science