Despite many positive outcomes associated with emotion coaching, factors related to individual differences in emotion coaching have yet to be explored. The current study examined cultural differences in the role of maternal characteristics, specifically emotional awareness and emotion regulation, as determinants of emotion coaching. These findings will facilitate culturally desired emotion socialization practices leading to optimal emotional development of children.
In the current study, I translated two English-based questionnaires into Chinese to assess maternal emotional awareness and emotion coaching. Next, I examined relations of reappraisal, suppression, and emotional awareness to maternal emotion coaching. I also investigated the role of maternal emotional awareness as a mediator in the relation of maternal use of reappraisal and suppression to maternal emotion coaching in both Chinese and American cultures.
Participants included American (n=164) and 163 Chinese (n=163) mothers. Maternal emotional awareness was measured using subscales of Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Emotion regulation strategies were assessed using Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. To measure emotion coaching, mothers completed Parents' Beliefs about Children's Emotions questionnaire. Structural equation models were estimated to examine how maternal emotional awareness and emotion regulation related to emotion coaching.
Results confirmed the reliability and validity of the Chinese questionnaires. Maternal emotion coaching did not include mothers' views about negative emotions because equivalence could not be established across Chinese and American cultures; therefore, the emotion coaching discussed in this study is different from previous research on emotion coaching that typically involves responses to negative emotions. Maternal emotional awareness was associated with their emotion coaching in both samples and the strength of the association was not different across cultures. However, relations of reappraisal and suppression to emotional awareness and emotion coaching were different across Chinese and American samples. Emotional awareness mediated the relation of reappraisal to emotion coaching only in the American sample. Additionally, emotional awareness was a mediator of the relation of suppression to emotion coaching in both samples. Overall, the findings of this study supported that maternal emotional awareness and use of emotion regulation strategies are important determinants of maternal emotion coaching in both cultures. / Ph. D. / This study examined the cultural differences in the role of maternal characteristics as components of emotion coaching which provides parents with practical guidelines on how to teach their children about emotions. The two maternal characteristics studied were if mothers were aware of their emotions (emotional awareness) and were able to control their emotions (emotion regulation). Two widely used emotion regulation strategies are reappraisal and suppression. Reappraisal refers to changing the interpretation of an emotional situation. Suppression refers to inhibition of emotion expressions.
First, I translated two English-based questionnaires into Chinese to assess maternal emotional awareness and emotion coaching. Next, I examined how the emotion regulation and emotional awareness were related to emotion coaching. Cross-cultural differences in these relations across Chinese and American cultures were tested.
Participants included 164 American mothers and 163 Chinese mothers. Maternal emotional awareness was found to be associated with emotion coaching in both samples. Emotion coaching typically includes mothers’ beliefs about children’s positive emotions, negative emotions, and parents’ roles in guiding children’s emotions. In my results, negative emotions were not included because negative emotions could not be equally compared across Chinese and American samples. Additionally, suppression was related to emotion coaching indirectly in both cultures. The relations of reappraisal to emotion coaching were different across Chinese and American samples. American mothers who used reappraisal frequently also valued positive emotions and guiding children about emotions. Conversely, the use of reappraisal was unrelated to emotion coaching for Chinese mothers.
Overall, the findings of this study supported the idea that maternal emotional awareness and use of emotion regulation strategies are important determinants of maternal emotion coaching. Mothers who believed in the value of positive emotions and the value of teaching children about emotions were more aware of their emotions and better at regulating their own emotions. In general, these associations were similar for American and Chinese samples, even though each culture has a unique perspective and value related to children’s emotions. These findings will promote our understanding of factors related to emotion coaching and further facilitate culturally desired emotion socialization practices leading to the optimal emotional development of children.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/77541 |
| Date | 28 April 2017 |
| Creators | Tan, Lin |
| Contributors | Human Development, Smith, Cynthia L., Fu, Victoria R., Bradburn, Isabel S., Dunsmore, Julie C. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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