Emotion Socialization by Chinese Parents: Roles of Parents’ Beliefs about Emotions and Self-Construals

• In Event: Emotion Socialization in China: The Influence of Culture on Beliefs, Emotion, and Behavior

Abstract

Parents shape children’s emotional development through emotion socialization (ES; Eisenberg et al., 1998). Research supports beneficial effects of supportive ES behaviors, such as encouraging expression or training responses, and detrimental effects of nonsupportive ES behaviors, such as ignoring or punishing emotions (Spinrad et al., 2020). Despite advances in ES literature, gaps remain regarding potential influences on parental ES, particularly in understudied cultural contexts (Eisenberg, 2020). We worked with Chinese families and focused on two sets of such influences – parents’ beliefs about emotions and self-construals – that are pertinent to the values of collectivism and restraint common in Chinese culture (Hofstede Insights, 2022). We examined three beliefs: autonomy (children can manage emotions on their own); manipulation (children use emotions to manipulate others); and control (children can control their emotions and expression; Halberstadt et al., 2013). There are two types of self-construals: independent (self as an autonomous and unique entity) and interdependent (self as interconnected with others; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).
Participants were 75 parents of children aged 7 to 11 years (Meanage = 9.19 years, SD = 1.29; 57.3% daughters, 42.7% sons). Sixty-five (86.7%) were mothers, and 10 (13.3%) were fathers. Parents completed Chinese versions of the following questionnaires online: Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Emotions questionnaire (Halberstadt et al., 2013, Chinese translation Tan et al., 2022); Self-Construal Scale (Singelis, 1994; Chinese translation Hsu, 2002); Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (Fabes et el., 1990, Chinese translation Tao et al., 2010); and Parental Reactions to Children’s Positive Emotions Scale (Ladouceur et al., 2002; translation and back-translation into Chinese conducted for the current study). Internal consistency for all subscales used in analyses was acceptable to good (Cronbach’s α range = .672–.913).
T-tests indicated that mothers endorsed more autonomy belief than fathers (t(73) = 2.10, p = .039). There were no parent gender differences in ES responses, ps > .150. To test associations of parents’ beliefs and self-construals with ES, we conducted a multivariate regression with ES response type (supportive vs. nonsupportive) and emotion valence (positive vs. negative) as within-subjects factors, the three beliefs and two self-construals as between-subjects predictors, and child gender controlled as a between-subjects factor. See Table 1. There were significant between-subjects effects for manipulation and control, with higher endorsement of each related to more supportive and nonsupportive responses across emotions. The effect of autonomy interacted with ES response type such that higher endorsement related to lower nonsupportive (but not supportive) responses across emotions. The effects of parents’ independent and interdependent self-construals interacted with type and valence of ES response. See Figure 1. Parents’ lower independent self-construal related to higher supportive and lower nonsupportive responses to negative compared with positive emotions. Parents’ higher interdependent self-construal related to higher supportive and lower nonsupportive responses to negative compared with positive emotions. Overall, results show the intricacy of Chinese parents’ emotion-related beliefs and self-construals as two potential antecedents of parents’ ES behaviors. Results also suggest distinct roles of positive versus negative emotions and supportive versus nonsupportive responses in ES processes within Chinese families.

Group Authors

Julie C. Dunsmore

Authors

• Danhua Zhu, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Julie C Dunsmore, University of Houston