Cross- and Within-Culture Comparison of Maternal Emotion Socialization in China and the USA: A Mixed Methods Study

• In Event: Parental Emotion Socialization Around the World: A Close Look at Culturally Embedded Guiding Factors

Abstract

A substantial body of research has shown that maternal emotion socialization is critical for development of emotional competence in early childhood, including emotion regulation and understanding (Morris et al., 2017). However, how mothers socialize children’s emotions differs depending on their cultures. Recent reviews of parental emotion socialization research theorized that these differences could be related to culturally embedded factors such as mothers’ emotion competence goals and meta-emotion philosophy – beliefs about their own and their children’s emotions (Eisenberg, 2020; Raval et al., 2020;). More research is needed to unpack the driving factors of cultural variations in maternal emotion socialization, which help lay the important foundation of understanding what practices are considered adaptive and appropriate in a given cultural context.
The current paper utilized a mixed methods approach to investigate cultural variations in emotion socialization practices in three cultural groups (European American, Beijing Chinese, and Hong Kong Chinese) and explored culturally embedded factors contributing to these variations, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Participants were 94 mothers with 4 to 5-year-old children recruited from the United States (n = 30), Beijing, China (n = 32) and Hong Kong, China (n = 32). By including two Chinese samples, we can delve into how parents with shared cultural roots, but different sociopolitical backgrounds, may differ and potential mechanisms behind these differences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain in-depth understanding of mothers’ beliefs about emotions including their meta-emotion philosophy. Mothers also completed surveys on their emotion socialization practices (Chan et al., 2009; Fabes et al., 1990) and emotion competence goals (Chan et al., 2009). All interviews and surveys were conducted in the native language of the participants.
Analysis of covariance showed significant differences in emotion competence goals, meta-emotion philosophy, and practices across and within culture (see Table 1 for details). Our findings suggested that Chinese and European American mothers indeed held differing emotion socialization goals and beliefs and tended to respond to children’s negative emotions differently; however, the cultural differences might not always follow the general assumptions of ones’ cultural model. Using thematic analysis (Nowell et al., 2017), we identified culturally relevant qualitative themes that help explain the cultural variations, including the shame and concerns associated with negative emotions: “It is Ugly to Cry in Front of Others.”, training and reflection enhancing: “Remember this feeling; don’t make the same mistake.”, and unsupportive parenting practices: passing on or rectifying. The present study gave voice to mothers from multiple Chinese groups to understand the reasons behind their emotion socialization goals and practices by incorporating qualitative inquiry.

Authors

• Meingold Hiu-Ming Chan, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Presenting Author

• Xin Feng, The Ohio State University

• Zhenlin Wang, The Education University of Hong Kong

• Li Wang