Maternal Emotion Coaching and Academic Skills During Middle Childhood

• In Event: Pregnancy and Childhood Determinants of Parent Emotion Socialization and Child Outcomes

Abstract

Background: Emotion coaching (EC) is characterized by parents’ accepting stance towards children’s emotions. EC behaviors may include validating children’s emotions and problem-solving ways to manage emotions and situations leading to them (Gottman et al., 1996). Research shows associations of EC with children’s socioemotional competence (see Katz et al., 2012 for a review). Little research has examined associations of EC behaviors with children’s academic skills and achievement (ACAD). However, one study showed longitudinal relations of EC meta-emotion philosophy with ACAD, and research on ACAD shows relations to general parenting practices such as learning support and praise (see Boonk et al., 2018 for a review; Gunderson et al., 2018). Furthermore, initial conceptualization of EC focused on negative emotions (Gottman et al., 1996). Parents may also engage in EC of positive emotions (Lunkenheimer et al., 2007). In the present study we observed EC during parent-child interactions to further investigate associations of EC behaviors regarding both positive and negative emotions with ACAD.

Methods: Participants were 236 mother-child dyads from the southeastern United States who participated in interaction tasks when children were aged 6 and 9 years as part of a larger study (51% boys, 49% girls; 78% White, 14% Black, 8% multi-racial). At 6 years, dyads completed two tasks (etch-a-sketch, marble maze) that required mothers and children to work together to complete challenging goals. We coded video recordings of these interactions for EC of positive and negative emotions (coding scheme adapted from Dunsmore et al., 2013; ICC range = .64–.95). At both timepoints, children completed reading fluency and math fluency subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (Woodcock et al., 2001). We used children’s age-equivalent scores in analyses.

Results: We collapsed dyads into four groups based on presence/absence and valence of maternal EC across both tasks (no EC; EC only of positive emotions [pos only]; EC only of negative emotions [neg only]; EC of both positive and negative emotions [both]). To examine whether sociodemographic characteristics were related to EC group, we conducted chi-square analyses. Proportionally fewer White mothers were in the “no EC” group and proportionally more were in the “both” group compared with mothers of color, χ2(3, N = 236) = 18.85, p = .000; Figure 1). Child gender and maternal education were not related to EC group (ps ≥ .074). We conducted a MANOVA examining effects of timepoint (within-subjects: 6-year-old, 9-year-old), subtest (within-subjects: reading, math), and EC group (between-subjects) on reading and math fluency scores. Race, maternal education (college, no college degree), and child gender were controlled as between-subjects factors. We found a significant between-subjects effect for EC group, F(3, 229)=3.11, p=.027. Post-hoc contrasts showed that children’s reading and math fluency scores were highest when mothers were in the “both” EC group and lowest when mothers were in the “neg only” EC group (Figure 2).

Conclusions: Current findings further the literature on EC of positive and negative emotions and longitudinal benefits of EC regarding children’s academic skills during middle childhood. Future studies will explore mechanisms and moderators.

Authors

• Adam C Garcia, University of Houston
  Presenting Author

• Danhua Zhu, University of California - Irvine

• Martha Ann Bell, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• Julie C Dunsmore, University of Houston