Emotion Socialization in Maltreating and Nonmaltreating Mother-Child Dyads: Implications for Children's Adjustment.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Shipman, Kimberly; Schneider, Renee; Sims, Chandler
- Source
- Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology; September 2005, Vol. 34 Issue 3, p590-596, 7p
- Subject
- Psychological adaptation
Emotions
Personality & emotions
Mother-child relationship
Socialization
Emotions in children
Parent-child relationships
Behavioral assessment
Child psychology
Clinical psychology
- Language
- ISSN
- 15374416
This study investigated maternal emotion socialization in physically maltreating and nonmaltreating mother-child dyads (N = 63 dyads) to examine the relation between maternal support in response to children's emotional displays and children's psychological adjustment (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems). Child participants consisted of both boys (64%) and girls (36%) and ranged from 6 to 12 years of age. Findings indicated maltreatment negatively predicted maternal support and positively predicted children's internalizing and externalizing problems. Further, maternal support negatively predicted children's internalizing and externalizing problems. Finally, maternal support partially mediated the relation between maltreatment and internalizing problems. No mediation was indicated for externalizing difficulties. Findings suggest that a lack of maternal support in response to children's emotion is particularly important to the development of children's internalizing behavior problems. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.