Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208-3540, USA.
Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 5;13(1):12719. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-39947-0.
Cultures vary in beliefs about appropriate display of emotion. Children rely on adults to help them understand emotional experiences and display emotions in a culturally appropriate manner. The present study compared how emotion display differs between Thai and American mother-child interactions during preschool. Language samples from 21 Thai and 21 American mother-child dyads were elicited using prompted reminiscing, book reading, toy play, and child personal narrative tasks. Results revealed group differences in emotion talk and behavior. American dyads expressed more intense emotions during interactions compared to Thai dyads. American dyads also displayed more emotion behaviors than Thai dyads, whereas Thai dyads used more emotion words compared to American dyads. Additionally, there were gender differences in the expression of emotion, with boy dyads more emotionally intense than girl dyads in both groups. Boys displayed more negative emotion behaviors compared to girls during prompted reminiscing, whereas girls used more negative emotion words than boys during the personal narrative task. These findings demonstrate cultural and gender differences in socialization goals and practices regarding emotion display and underscore the influence of mothers' scaffolding on children's emotional development. This research reveals the variability in beliefs and values that underlie emotional development across sociocultural contexts.
文化在情感表达的适当性方面存在差异。儿童依靠成年人来帮助他们理解情感体验，并以文化上适当的方式表达情感。本研究比较了泰国和美国学前儿童的母亲-儿童互动中情感表达的差异。使用提示性回忆、阅读书籍、玩具游戏和儿童个人叙事任务从 21 对泰国和 21 对美国母子对中引出语言样本。结果显示，情感表达和行为存在群体差异。与泰国母子对相比，美国母子对在互动中表达的情绪更强烈。与泰国母子对相比，美国母子对表现出更多的情绪行为，而泰国母子对使用的情绪词汇比美国母子对更多。此外，在情感表达方面存在性别差异，两组男孩比女孩的情绪更强烈。在提示性回忆中，男孩比女孩表现出更多的负面情绪行为，而在个人叙事任务中，女孩比男孩使用更多的负面情绪词汇。这些发现表明，在情感表达方面存在文化和性别差异，以及母亲对孩子情感发展的支持方式存在差异。这项研究揭示了情感发展在社会文化背景下的信念和价值观的可变性。
