Parental Emotion Socialization of Seventh and Eighth Graders: Gender Differences in Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals

The primary goal of the present study was to assess linkages between parents' beliefs about children's emotions, parent-child discourse, and children's independent and interdependent self-construals with sixty 7th and 8th grade children. Children were interviewed with the Self-Guide Questionnaire (Higgins, Klein, & Strauman, 1985) and completed an independent and interdependent reaction time measure (Watson & Quatman, 2005). Children's self-guide responses were coded for independent and interdependent traits and behaviors. Parents completed the Parents' Beliefs about Children's Emotions Questionnaire (Halberstadt et al., 2008) to assess their beliefs about the danger of emotions and parents' and children's roles in emotion socialization. Parents' elaborative reminiscing style and both parent and child emotion labeling were measured through a cooperative game designed to elicit emotion-related discourse. Results showed that girls responded faster to interdependent traits and included more interdependent and connected self attributes than did boys, whereas boys included more independent and unique self attributes than did girls. Parents who believe children can guide their own emotion socialization elaborated less about their children's independent and interdependent memories. Their children who responded more slowly to both independent and interdependent traits, with a stronger effect for independent compared with interdependent traits. The interaction between parents' beliefs about the danger of emotions and about their guidance of their child's emotions was related to girls', but not boys', balance of independent and interdependent traits in their self-construal. Results have implications for identifying beneficial developmental trajectories of positive adjustment and mental health.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Her, Pa

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Dunsmore, Julie C.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Cooper, Robin K. Panneton
• Kim, Kee Jeong
• Bell, Martha Ann

• discourse
• gender differences
• emotion socialization
• self-construal

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-08032008-220804

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/28506