A Mixed-method Analysis of Parents’ Gendered Beliefs About Emotion in Middle Childhood Boys and Girls

• In Event: 2-205 - Gender Roles and Expectancies in Parenting Research Involving Both Mothers and Fathers

Integrative Statement

Parents are often considered the primary agents of socialization in children’s lives (McDowell, Kim, O’Neil, & Parke, 2002), and thus an important avenue of research has been on parenting and children’s emotion-related outcomes. A rich body of literature has since emerged on parental emotion socialization (i.e., the ways in which parents teach children about emotions), with greater attention being dedicated to culture, developmental stage, and gender in recent years. Previous research has found child gender differences in the expression of emotion (Brody & Hall, 2008; Chaplin & Aldao, 2013) as well as parent gender differences in socialization (Cassano, Perry-Parrish, & Zeman, 2007; Fivush, Brotman, Buckner, & Goodman, 2000; McDowell et al., 2002). To explain these differences, investigators have turned to broader socio-cultural contexts, including gender roles and expectancies. From a Meta-Emotion perspective, parents’ engagement in specific socialization practices, such as gendered socialization, likely stems from their meta-emotion beliefs about emotion and gender (Gottman, Katz, & Hooven, 1996). Nonetheless, the specific gendered beliefs mothers and fathers might hold about emotion expression in children remain to be understood. In two studies, we applied qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore mothers’ and fathers’ gendered beliefs about emotion and links to socialization.

In Study 1, 102 mothers and fathers of at least one child aged 8 to 12 years participated in focus group sessions about gender and emotion expression. A thematic analysis of the group transcripts resulted in six themes: value in the experience and expression of emotion, vulnerability in the experience and expression of emotion, multiple influences on children’s learning about emotion, distinct expectations for emotion displays at home versus in public, gender roles influence emotion expectations, and generational shift in emotion-related expectations. Unique themes emerged relevant to gender and gender roles within society, which will be discussed more extensively during the symposium. A theme frequency analysis tested for mother- versus father-group differences; results indicated that mother groups discussed Theme 3 (multiple influences on children’s learning about emotion) to a greater degree than father groups. No other differences emerged.

In Study 2, we applied gender-related themes from Study 1 to develop a parent-report questionnaire to measure parents’ gendered beliefs about emotion. The 11-item Parents’ Gendered Beliefs about Emotion Scale (PGEB) was validated though Classical Test Theory and Item-response Theory analyses. The PGEB’s two factors measuring gendered emotion expression and socialization (see Figure 1) were associated with implicit beliefs about gender and emotion, parent-reported emotion socialization, and family expressiveness (see Table 1).

Taken together, findings revealed specific emotion beliefs that are relevant to the current social climate in terms of gender and gender roles. While there may have been changes over recent generations in how these gender roles are defined, our findings suggest that traditional, Western ideals still have a strong influence over emotion-related beliefs. This study has the potential to make a significant contribution to ongoing research on parental emotion socialization by outlining specific beliefs parents might hold about gender and emotion and offering insights into motivations for specific parenting practices.

Authors

• Kristel Thomassin, University of Guelph
  Presenting Author

• Jessica A Seddon, University of Guelph
  Non-Presenting Author

• Oana Bucsea, York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• K Jacky Chan, University of Ottawa
  Non-Presenting Author