Zhao Junxuan, Pozzi Elena, Lin Sylvia Chu, Kehoe Christiane E, Havighurst Sophie S, Whittle Sarah
Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Orygen, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Front Psychiatry. 2025 Mar 5;16:1497007. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1497007. eCollection 2025.
Although the relationship between parental emotion socialization and emotional competence, including emotion regulation, in children and adolescents has been extensively explored, there is a lack of research investigating this association in adolescents at high risk for mental health problems. The present study examined the association between maternal emotion socialization and emotion regulation in adolescents with high levels of internalizing symptoms, using multi-informant measurements (mother-reported, adolescent-reported, observer-reported). The study also explored whether discrepancies in the report of parental emotion socialization by different informants were related to adolescent emotion regulation, in addition to factors that may contribute to informant discrepancies.
Participants were 70 female adolescents (mean age = 11.46 years, SD = 0.77) with high levels of internalizing symptoms and their mothers. Maternal emotion socialization (i.e., emotion dismissing and emotion coaching) was assessed using mother- and adolescent-reported questionnaires, and via observation during an emotion discussion task. Adolescent emotion regulation was reported by mothers and adolescents, while maternal emotion regulation was self-reported.
Adolescent-reported maternal emotion coaching and dismissing were significantly related to adolescent-reported adolescent emotion regulation. Informant discrepancies were not related to adolescent emotion regulation. Mothers higher in emotion regulation difficulties reported that their emotion coaching was more congruent with adolescent- and observer-reported emotion coaching, although this effect did not reach statistical significance.
Our findings highlight the value of adolescent-reported variables in parenting and adolescent emotion research. Additionally, mothers' emotion regulation may influence their assessments of their emotion socialization behaviors.
尽管父母情感社会化与儿童及青少年的情绪能力（包括情绪调节）之间的关系已得到广泛研究，但针对存在心理健康问题高风险的青少年群体中这一关联的研究却较为匮乏。本研究采用多渠道测量方法（母亲报告、青少年报告、观察者报告），考察了内化症状水平较高的青少年中，母亲情感社会化与情绪调节之间的关联。此外，除了可能导致报告差异的因素外，本研究还探讨了不同信息提供者对父母情感社会化报告的差异是否与青少年情绪调节有关。
研究参与者为70名内化症状水平较高的女性青少年（平均年龄 = 11.46岁，标准差 = 0.77）及其母亲。母亲的情感社会化（即情绪忽视和情绪指导）通过母亲和青少年报告的问卷进行评估，并在情绪讨论任务中通过观察进行评估。青少年的情绪调节由母亲和青少年报告，而母亲的情绪调节则通过自我报告。
青少年报告的母亲情绪指导和忽视与青少年报告的青少年情绪调节显著相关。信息提供者之间的差异与青少年情绪调节无关。情绪调节困难较高的母亲报告称，她们的情绪指导与青少年和观察者报告的情绪指导更为一致，尽管这一效应未达到统计学意义。
我们的研究结果凸显了青少年报告变量在养育和青少年情绪研究中的价值。此外，母亲的情绪调节可能会影响她们对自身情感社会化行为的评估。
