Child, Youth, and Family Studies, Department of

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 46 (2018). doi: 10.2224/sbp.6795

Comments

© 2018 Scientific Journal Publishers Limited.

Abstract

We examined the associations among parental emotion socialization, and children’s emotion regulation and attachment to parents. In particular, we examined the moderating role of parental emotion socialization in the relationship between children’s emotion regulation and attachment to parents. Participants were 78 Turkish children (49 boys) aged from 60 to 77 months and their parents. Parents reported on the socialization strategies they used for their children’s emotions and on their children’s emotion regulation, and we assessed children’s attachment to parents via the Doll Story Completion Task. Results revealed that parents’ minimization reaction to children’s emotions moderated the association between children’s emotion regulation and attachment to parents. When parents’ response was punitive, children with poor emotion regulation displayed stronger attachment to parents than children with robust emotion regulation. In addition, girls had a more secure attachment than boys to parents. Our results highlight the importance of children’s emotion regulation and parental emotion socialization for children’s secure early attachment to parents.

Share

COinS