Poster #209 - Parents' Goals Drive Daily Socialization of Children's Gratitude & Social Competence

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Scholars of emotion socialization posit that parenting goals guide behaviors that influence child emotion outcomes, and, in turn, social competence (Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Cumberland, 1998). In the current study, we apply this model to the socialization of children’s gratitude. We argue that parents hold a variety of goals for cultivating gratitude in their children (i.e., to promote mindfulness, as part of religious practices, to encourage social responsibility, or to reinforce social norms) and that these goals differentially impact parents’ socialization behaviors. Specifically, we hypothesize that mindfulness, religious, and social responsibility goals will predict more frequent parenting practices that foster gratitude. The goal of reinforcing social norms and manners, however, may relate to more controlling parenting behaviors and predict less frequent parenting practices that foster children’s gratitude (versus manners more specifically). We hypothesize that gratitude socialization behaviors will predict more frequent gratitude and, subsequently social competence, in children.

Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of the development of children’s gratitude. At baseline, parents rated the importance of various goals for cultivating gratitude in their children (i.e., mindfulness, religion, social responsibility, and social norms). Across a period of seven days, parents also rated the frequency of their gratitude socialization behaviors (i.e., modeling, parent-child conversations, positive responses to children’s gratitude displays, niche selection; Hussong et al., 2018). Parents reported on children’s gratitude displays and their social competence (Harter, 1982) 1.5 and 3 years later, respectively.

Hypotheses were tested in a series of path models. The first mediation model (Figure 1) fit the data well (CFI = 0.929, TLI = 0.864, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.05). Specific indirect effects showed that parents who rated mindfulness and religion as important goals for cultivating gratitude in their children were more likely to engage in gratitude socialization behaviors across a seven-day period, which in turn predicted greater child gratitude 1.5 years later (β = 0.13, p=0.05; β = 0.11, p<0.05, respectively). In contrast, parents who rated social norms as an important goal for gratitude socialization were less likely to engage in socialization behaviors, which predicted lower levels of child gratitude (β = -0.12 p<0.05). Children’s gratitude, in turn, was associated with their later social competence (β = 0.19, p<0.05). However, results of the second model (Figure 2) (CFI = 0.999, TLI = 0.999, RMSEA = 0.008, SRMR = 0.038) showed that the effect of child gratitude on social competence did not remain after controlling for children’s earlier social skills (β = 0.09, p=0.16).

Our findings illustrate the importance of parental goals that extend beyond social norms for the development of children’s gratitude. They also raise question as to the developmental relations among gratitude and social competence across childhood. Overall, they suggest that models of socioemotional development, like those of Eisenberg and colleagues, may provide insights into the development of gratitude in children.

Authors

• Taylor E Thomas, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Andrea M Hussong, UNC-CH
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer L Coffman, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author