School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA.
No.1 High School Affiliated to East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
J Youth Adolesc. 2024 May;53(5):1214-1231. doi: 10.1007/s10964-023-01924-1. Epub 2023 Dec 26.
When adolescents have positive emotions, parents' reactions that enhance or dampen the intensity or duration of adolescents' emotions have been documented to play a critical role in adolescents' emotional adjustment in Western societies. These parental reactions are theorized to be culturally embedded parenting practices in the emotion socialization process. However, research is limited in examining the implications of parents' enhancing and dampening reactions for adolescents' emotional adjustment in non-Western societies. Moreover, it remains to be explored how these parental reactions might be guided by parents' culturally shaped socialization goals for adolescents, and further influence adolescents' adjustment. To address these key issues, a two-wave longitudinal study spanning approximately 1.5 years was conducted among adolescents in China (N = 233; M = 12.19 years, SD = 0.60; 48% girls). Based on adolescents' reports, it was found that Chinese mothers' enhancing reactions to adolescents' positive emotions, which were related to their greater endorsement of self-development socialization goals (i.e., wanting adolescents to develop confidence, autonomy, and uniqueness), predicted adolescents' increased emotional well-being (i.e., self-esteem, vitality, and experience of positive emotions) and decreased emotional ill-being (i.e., depression, anxiety and experience of negative emotions) over time. Contrastingly, mothers' dampening reactions to adolescents' positive emotions, which were related to their less endorsement of self-development and greater endorsement of filial piety socialization goals (i.e., wanting adolescents to respect and obey parents), predicted adolescents' decreased emotional well-being over time. The findings broaden the cultural understanding of parents' emotion-related socialization practices, and provide insights into practical endeavors at optimizing parents' reactions to adolescents' positive emotions in culturally sensitive ways and ultimately promoting adolescents' mental health.
当青少年有积极情绪时，父母增强或减弱青少年情绪强度或持续时间的反应被证明在西方社会中对青少年的情绪适应起着关键作用。这些父母的反应被认为是情感社会化过程中文化嵌入的养育实践。然而，研究在考察父母增强和减弱反应对非西方社会青少年情绪适应的影响方面是有限的。此外，父母的这些反应如何受到父母为青少年塑造的文化社会化目标的指导，以及进一步影响青少年的调整，仍有待探索。为了解决这些关键问题，在中国的青少年中进行了一项为期约 1.5 年的两波纵向研究（N=233；M=12.19 岁，SD=0.60；48%为女孩）。基于青少年的报告，发现中国母亲对青少年积极情绪的增强反应与她们更支持自我发展社会化目标（即希望青少年培养自信、自主性和独特性）有关，这预测了青少年情绪幸福感（即自尊、活力和积极情绪体验）的增加和情绪不适（即抑郁、焦虑和消极情绪体验）的减少。相比之下，母亲对青少年积极情绪的减弱反应与她们较少支持自我发展和更多支持孝道社会化目标（即希望青少年尊重和服从父母）有关，这预测了青少年情绪幸福感的下降。这些发现拓宽了对父母与情绪相关的社会化实践的文化理解，并为以文化敏感的方式优化父母对青少年积极情绪的反应以及最终促进青少年心理健康的实际努力提供了见解。
