Poster #149 - Maternal Warmth and Adolescents' Socio-Emotional Outcomes: The Mediating Role of the Use of Emotion Words

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Adolescents who perceive their parents as warm and loving believe that their parents genuinely care about their well-being and interests (Eisenberg et al., 2003). They become more willing to disclose their feelings and experiences during parent-adolescent conversations (Yun, Cui & Blair, 2016), reflected through the use of emotion words. Social skills are enhanced and negative expectations about social interactions are reduced (Eisenberg et al., 2003). Because peer relationships become more salient during adolescence, this investigation examined two questions. Is the relation between maternal warmth and depression, loneliness, prosocial behavior, and self-esteem mediated by adolescents’ use of positive emotion (PE) words in their conversations with their mothers about peer relationships? Second, is the relation between maternal warmth and the outcome variables mediated by negative emotion (NE) words?
Seventy mothers and early adolescents (Mage=12.39; Girls=51%, Boys=49%) participated in the study. Mother-adolescent dyads completed questionnaires independently and participated in video-recorded interaction tasks where they conversed about hypothetical situations involving typical peer-related issues. Conversations were first transcribed verbatim and subsequently analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 2015 software (Pennebaker, Boyd, Jordan & Blackburn, 2015) for PE (α=.64) and NE (α=.65) words. Warmth was assessed using the Child Report of Parent Behavior Inventory (Schaefer, 1965; α=.94). Depression was assessed with the Children’s Depressive Inventory - 2 Self-Report-Short (Kovacs, 2011; α=.82). Loneliness was assessed using the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Scale (Asher and Wheeler, 1985; α=.91). Prosocial behavior was assessed using the Child Social Behavior Scale (Crick and Grotpeter, 1995; α=.77). Self-esteem was assessed using the Adolescent Self-Perception Scale (Harter, 1988; α=.86).
Mediated models were assessed using PROCESS (Hayes, 2013). Gender was included as a covariate in all of the analyses. The use of PE words did not mediate the relationship between warmth and any of the outcome variables. However, warmth had a direct effect on depression (b=-2.21, p=.0002), loneliness (b=-.522, p=.0061), prosocial behavior (b=.506, p=.0368) and self-esteem (b=.859, p=.0005). Variations in warmth significantly accounted for variance in the use of NE words (b=-.629, p=.0253). Variations in the use of NE words significantly accounted for variance in depression (b=-.737, p=.0036). When the mediator (use of NE words) is controlled, the relationship between warmth and depression remained significant (b=-2.69, p<.001), indicating that partial mediation had occurred (ab=.463, SE=.255, CI95=[.0879, 1.13]; Figure 1).
Variations in warmth significantly accounted for variance in the use of NE words (b=-.616, p=.0251). Variations in the use of NE words significantly accounted for variance in loneliness (b=-.175, p=.0413). When the mediator (use of NE words) is controlled, the relationship between warmth and loneliness remained significant (b=-.640, p=.0009), indicating that partial mediation had occurred (ab=.108, SE=.0804, CI95=[.0076, .352]; Figure 2). However, the use of NE words did not mediate the relationship between warmth and prosocial behavior or self-esteem. Perhaps, only when adolescents share a close relationship with their mother, are they more willing and comfortable to use NE words in their discussions about peer-related issues, and ultimately, this would help alleviate any feelings associated with having a low affective mood state.

Authors

• Natalie Low, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author

• Rachel Jollie, Northern Illinois University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mark Oliveras, Northern Illinois University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nina S Mounts, Northern Illinois University
  Non-Presenting Author