Parental socialization of emotion

Recently, there has been a resurgence of research on emotion, including the socialization of emotion. In this article, a heuristic model of factors co ntributing to the socialization of emotion is presented. Then literature re levant to the socialization of children's emotion and emotion-related behav ior by parents is reviewed, including (a) parental reactions to children's emotions, (b) socializers' discussion of emotion, and (c) socializers' expr ession of emotion. The relevant literature is not conclusive and most of th e research is correlational. However, the existing body of data provides in itial support for the view that parental socialization practices have effec ts on children's emotional and social competence and that the socialization process is bidirectional. In particular, parental negative emotionality an d negative reactions to children's expression of emotion are associated wit h children's negative emotionality and low social competence. In addition, possible moderators of effects such as level of emotional arousal are discu ssed.