Children’s expressions of positive emotion are sustained by smiling, touching, and playing with parents and siblings: A naturalistic observational study of family life.

Abstract

Research on family socialization of positive emotion has primarily focused on the infant and toddler stages of development, and relied on observations of parent-child interactions in highly structured laboratory environments. Little is known about how children's spontaneous expressions of positive emotion are maintained in the uncontrolled settings of daily life, particularly within the family and during the school-age years. This naturalistic observational study examines three family behaviors - mutual display of positive emotion, touch and joint leisure – that surround 8 to 12 year-old children's spontaneous expressions of positive emotion, and tests whether these behaviors help to sustain children's expressions. Recordings taken of 31 families in their homes and communities over two days were screened for moments when children spontaneously expressed positive emotion in the presence of at least one parent. Children were more likely to sustain their expressions of positive emotion when mothers, fathers or siblings showed positive emotion, touched, or participated in a leisure activity. There were few differences in the ways that mothers and fathers socialized their sons’ and daughters’ positive emotion expressions. This study takes a unique, ecologically valid approach to assess how family members connect to children's expressions of positive emotion in middle childhood. Future observational studies should continue to explore mechanisms of family socialization of positive emotion, in laboratory and naturalistic settings.

Short‐Term Resilience Processes in the Family

“…A naturalistic observational study suggests how family members can help to sustain children's positive emotion. Videorecordings of daily family life showed that children were more likely to maintain positive emotion over 30‐second periods whenever a family member also showed positive affect or touched the child (Bai, Repetti, & Sperling, ).…”

New version of the emotion socialization scale with the positive emotion of overjoy: initial validation evidence with Portuguese adolescents

“…Therefore, it is desirable that parents foster the expression of PE, in contrast with socialization practices for NE that should promote the mitigation of such emotions (Bai et al 2016;Gentzler et al 2015). Recent results seem to support this theoretical view by linking attachment insecurity and psychopathology to socialization practices that diminish PE expressions in youth (Gentzler et al 2015;Katz et al 2014;Yap et al 2008).…”

“…When parents join adolescents in their positive emotional expression, they reinforce the expression of that emotion in the adolescent, as expressing PE signals agreement with what others are doing (Clark & Monin, 2014). Also, by sharing PE with their youth, they also intensify the original pleasurable experience (Bai et al 2016). In summary, magnify fosters capitalizing, an adaptive emotion regulation strategy, that augments or prolongs PE through socialcontact-seeking behaviors such as communicating, sharing, or celebrating with others (Gentzler, Morey, Palmer, & Yi, 2013;Langston, 1994).…”

“…Even in studies using other instruments beside ESS, only a handful have directed their attention to socialization practices regarding positive emotion (PE; Bai, Repetti, & Sperling, 2016;Gentzler, Ramsey, & Black, 2015;Katz et al 2014;Yap, Allen, & Ladouceur, 2008). Thus, since this is a largely unexplored topic in the literature, we analyzed the factorial structure of the socialization practices regarding the positive emotional state of overjoy (excited) contained in an unpublished version of the ESS (Magai, C., & O'Neal, C. R.: Emotions as a child (child version).…”

Understanding Emotion Socialization Through Naturalistic Observations of Parent–Child Interactions

“…A research literature built on self-reports and observations of behavior in controlled situations has revealed much about children's emotions and parents' responses to them, but conclusions based solely on those approaches may not adequately reflect the behavior that children typically exhibit and, therefore, the responses they receive in their daily lives (Bai, Repetti, & Sperling, 2016). This naturalistic observational study helps to bridge a gap in our understanding of school-age children's spontaneous emotion expressions in family settings and parents' reactions to expressions of negative emotion.…”