The role of culture and language in parent-child emotional communication: From storybooks to disease management

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Constructionist models of emotion suggest that words people use to describe emotional states shape how one experiences emotion. Further, language is viewed as a tool that both reflects and reinforces cultural practices and values. Thus, examining the language(s) of emotion children are exposed to and use is critical in understanding socioemotional development of youth across diverse cultural contexts. In a series of cross-linguistic and bilingual studies, we test the role of culture and language in parent-child emotional communication. The papers in the symposium draw together diverse samples (children’s storybooks in Japanese and English, Chinese immigrant parents, Latinx adolescents) to examine how sociocultural factors influence emotional communication, and in turn, children’s emotional development.

The first paper focuses on somatic emotion words and phrases in the largest corpora of Japanese and English children’s storybooks. Higher frequency of body-part terms were used to express emotion in Japanese storybooks in contrast to English storybooks. The second paper examines how income and cultural orientation influence the types of verbal strategies used during conflict discussion by parents in Chinese American families. Higher Chinese and American cultural orientations predicted the use of verbal praise, which was associated with open communication. Finally, the third paper investigates emotional disclosure during discussion on diabetes management in Latinx families. The authors found that level of emotional disclosure, predicted by parent-adolescent language discrepancy, had implications on adolescent mental health. Together, the discussant will focus on the importance of cultural and linguistic factors in parent-child emotional communication with implications for healthy development.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chair

• Aya Williams, University of California - Berkeley

Discussant

• Susanne Ayers Denham, George Mason University

Individual Presentations

• Children’s storybooks as a tool for socialization: Comparing somatic emotion words in Japanese and English - Presenting Author: Naomi Watanabe, NTT Communication Science Laboratories; Non-Presenting Author: Aya Williams, University of California - Berkeley; Non-Presenting Author: Takashi Hattori; Non-Presenting Author: Sanae Fujita; Non-Presenting Author: Tessei Kobayashi

• Parent-child conflict in Chinese American families: Parental conflict communication strategies, related sociocultural factors, and outcomes - Presenting Author: Sara Chung, University of California, San Francisco; Non-Presenting Author: Qing Zhou, University of California - Berkeley; Non-Presenting Author: Carmen Kho, North Dakota State University; Non-Presenting Author: Tsz Chun Chung, University of California, Berkeley; Non-Presenting Author: Kristy Lai, University of California, Berkeley; Non-Presenting Author: Alexandra Main, University of California, Merced

• Language and Culture: Associations with Disclosure and Mental Health in Latinx Adolescents with Type-1 Diabetes - Presenting Author: Janice Disla, University of California; Non-Presenting Author: Alexandra Main, University of California, Merced; Non-Presenting Author: Carmen Kho, North Dakota State University; Non-Presenting Author: Maritza Miramontes, University of California - Davis; Non-Presenting Author: Deborah Wiebe, University of California, Merced; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Raymond, Children's Hospital Los Angeles