Lempres Sarah M, Bailes Lauren G, Humphreys Kathryn L
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University.
Emotion. 2025 Aug 4. doi: 10.1037/emo0001567.
The emotion socialization behaviors that caregivers engage in with their own children are influenced, in part, by their own emotional responses to situations. One theory of why caregivers' behaviors differ in response to different child emotions centers on variability in caregiver discomfort around these emotions. Further, this discomfort is postulated to stem from a caregivers' experience during their emotional expressions in childhood with their own caregivers (hereinafter called "remembered" caregiving). However, limited research exists on the interplay between caregivers' remembered caregiving experiences and their own discomfort in response to children's emotions. This study aimed to explore (a) the association between valence of children's emotions and caregiver discomfort, (b) differences across discrete emotions and caregiver discomfort, and (c) the potential influence of recalled emotion socialization experiences on caregiver discomfort. In a sample of 234 caregivers (136 mothers; 98 fathers; = 35.62, = 4.14 years) of 146 preschool-aged children, child negative emotions were found to elicit more discomfort than positive emotions, but no emotion-level differences emerged within discrete negative emotions (i.e., anger, fear, and sadness). Caregivers who recalled that their own caregivers responded to their emotions in childhood with an outcome-oriented goal (e.g., walking away to stop the emotional display) reported more discomfort with their own children's negative emotions. These findings contribute to our understanding of intergenerational transmission of caregiving behaviors, emphasizing the role of negative caregiving experiences in shaping caregiver comfortability with their child's negative emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
照顾者与自己孩子进行情感社会化的行为，部分受到他们自身对各种情况的情绪反应的影响。关于照顾者行为为何因孩子的不同情绪而有所差异的一种理论，聚焦于照顾者在面对这些情绪时不适感的变化。此外，这种不适感被假定源于照顾者在童年时期与自己的照顾者进行情感表达时的经历（以下简称“记忆中的”照顾）。然而，关于照顾者记忆中的照顾经历与他们对孩子情绪的自身不适感之间的相互作用，现有研究有限。本研究旨在探讨：（a）孩子情绪的效价与照顾者不适感之间的关联；（b）不同离散情绪与照顾者不适感之间的差异；以及（c）回忆起的情感社会化经历对照顾者不适感的潜在影响。在一个由146名学龄前儿童的234名照顾者（136名母亲；98名父亲；平均年龄 = 35.62岁，孩子平均年龄 = 4.14岁）组成的样本中，发现孩子的负面情绪比正面情绪更容易引发照顾者的不适感，但在离散的负面情绪（即愤怒、恐惧和悲伤）中，未出现情绪水平上的差异。那些回忆起自己童年时照顾者以结果为导向回应他们情绪的照顾者（例如，走开以停止情绪表露），报告称对自己孩子的负面情绪有更多的不适感。这些发现有助于我们理解照顾行为的代际传递，强调负面照顾经历在塑造照顾者面对孩子负面情绪时的舒适度方面的作用。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2025美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
