Poster #95 - The Roles of Maternal Positive and Negative Emotional Expressiveness in Chinese American Preschoolers’ Adjustment

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Parental emotional expressiveness (EE; Eisenberg et al., 1998), or parents’ pattern of exhibiting verbal and nonverbal expressions (Halberstadt et al., 1999), is an emotion-related socialization practice (ERSP) that plays an important role in children’s socio-emotional and behavioral adjustment. Also, past research has implicated dispositional effortful control (Curtis et al., 2020), or the top-down process of emotion-related self-regulation (Eisenberg et al., 2010), as an underlying mechanism linking parents’ EE and children’s socio-emotional and behavioral outcomes (Eisenberg et al., 2001). Although parental ERSP, including EE, is shaped by the cultural context (Eisenberg et al., 1998), there is limited research on the associations between maternal EE and children’s effortful control, and whether effortful control might be a mechanism through which maternal EE contributes to children’s adjustment in non-Western families. Moreover, while positive parental EE has been shown to be related to better emotion regulation and adjustment in children, the association between negative EE and child outcomes is less consistent. The present study addressed these gaps by investigating the roles of Chinese American mothers’ positive and negative EE in their preschool children’s school-based socio-emotional and behavioral adjustment, and the mediating role of children’s effortful control.

First-generation Chinese American mothers (N=225, Mage=37.8 years, SD=4.3) of preschoolers (Mage=4.5 years, SD=0.9 years, 51% boys) completed parenting practices questionnaires (Furman & Buhrmester, 2001; Olsen et al., 2002). Most mothers (92%) had at least a college degree and were married (98%). Using exploratory factor analysis, we created two latent factors for positive (24 items; α=.88) and negative (9 items; α=.80) EE, respectively. Mothers reported on children’s effortful control (Rothbart et al., 2001; α=.83), and teachers reported on children’s socio-emotional and behavioral difficulties (Goodman, 1997; α=.81).

Descriptive statistics and correlations are provided in Table 1. We conducted a mediation analysis using structural equation modeling (Figure 1). Results revealed that both maternal positive EE (ab=-0.82, SE=0.45, 95% CI [-1.90, -0.16]) and negative EE were indirectly (ab=0.38, SE=0.29, 95% CI [0.04, 1.29]) associated with child adjustment problems via child effortful control. Higher maternal positive EE and lower negative EE were each uniquely associated with higher child effortful control, which, in turn, was associated with fewer adjustment problems.

Our findings indicated that Chinese American mothers’ positive EE was beneficial for their children’s development of effortful control, consistent with previous research in White American families. Mothers’ lower negative EE was also associated with their children’s better effortful control, and both higher maternal positive EE and lower negative EE uniquely contributed to fewer adjustment problems in preschoolers through their higher effortful control. Chinese American mothers’ provision of positive emotional support and emotion modeling opportunities to preschoolers can shape children’s effortful control (Eisenberg et al., 2001; Morris et al., 2017), a fundamental capacity that facilitates these preschoolers’ social and behavioral functioning in social contexts.

Authors

• Suqing Wang, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  Presenting Author

• Charissa S. L. Cheah, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Yao Sun, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Craig H Hart, Brigham Young University