Early Environmental Correlates of Maternal Emotion Talk

Abstract

Objective-The primary goal of this study was to examine contextual, child, and maternal factors that are associated with mothers' early emotion talk in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample.Design-Emotion talk (positive and negative labels) was coded for 1111 mothers while engaged with their 7-month-olds in viewing an emotion-faces picture book. Infant attention during the interaction was also coded. Mothers' parenting style (positive engagement and negative intrusiveness) was coded during a dyadic free-play interaction. Demographic information was obtained, as well as maternal ratings of child temperament and mother's knowledge of infant development.Results-Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that social context and maternal qualities are significant predictors of mothers' early positive and negative emotion talk. In particular, mothers who were African American, had higher income, and who showed more positive engagement when interacting with their infants demonstrated increased rates of positive and negative emotion talk with their infants. For negative emotion talk, social context variables moderated other predictors. Specifically, infant attention was positively associated with negative emotion talk only for African American mothers, and knowledge of infant development was positively associated with negative emotion talk only for non-African American mothers. The positive association between maternal URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15295190802058900Publisher's Disclaimer: Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptParent Sci Pract. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2009 November 26. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript positive engagement and negative emotion talk was greater for lower-income families than for higher-income families.Conclusions-Mothers' emotion language with infants is not sensitive to child factors but is associated with social contextual factors and characteristics of the mothers themselves. INTRODUCTIONResearchers in the area of socioemotional development have long emphasized the parents' critical role in the socialization of emotions in their children. As socializing agents, parents influence children's conceptions of emoti...

Toddlers' context-varying emotions, maternal responses to emotions, and internalizing behaviors.

“…Testing similar models with larger samples in the future is warranted. Finally, despite efforts to recruit an ethnically-diverse sample, we did not have the power to test ethnicity as a moderator, despite existing evidence that African-American parents and European-American parents may respond to emotions differently (Garrett-Peters et al, 2008). …”

“…For example, preschoolers’ negative reactivity was positively associated with mothers’ elaborative discussions of past negative emotion, suggesting that mothers may respond by encouraging emotion expression when they perceive their children as higher in negative affect (Laible, 2004). Yet, no relation was found between infants’ negative affect and mothers’ responding with emotion talk, suggesting that an evocative process may not develop until the toddler/preschool years (Garrett-Peters et al, 2008). Regarding context effects, Eisenberg and colleagues’ (1998) theorize that the context of children’s displayed emotion influences broader emotion socialization practices, but few empirical studies exist (particularly in toddlerhood) of how the context of negative affect relates to RTE.…”

Demographic and familial predictors of early executive function development: Contribution of a person-centered perspective

“…Previous reports indicated that the coding captures two broad parenting constructs: positive engagement and negative intrusiveness (Garrett-Peters, Mills-Koonce, Adkins, Vernon-Feagans, & Cox, 2008). Maternal positive engagement (α=.89) was the mean of mothers’ scores for four characteristics: detachment (reverse-scored; level of emotional uninvolvement or disengagement), positive regard (level of positive feelings expressed toward child), animation (level of energy), and stimulation for development (appropriate level of scaffolding of activities with child).…”

Ethnic Differences in Women's Emotional Reactions to Parental Nonsupportive Emotion Socialization

“…They proposed that the appropriateness and hence effect of parents’ non-supportive emotion socialization on children's subsequent emotional adjustment varies by ethnicity because of different socio-cultural experiences and expectations (Cole & Tan, 2007; Ogbu, 1981). Specifically, non-supportive emotion socialization is more normative in African American families (Halberstadt, Craig, Lozada, & Brown, 2011; Leerkes & Siepak, 2006; Montague et al, 2003; Nelson et al, 2012) and may be a deliberate effort to teach children to minimize their emotions in an effort to protect them from racism (Garrett-Peters et al, 2008, 2011; Nelson et al, 2012). If African American children accurately perceive that their parents engage in non-supportive responses to their negative emotions in an effort to protect them from discrimination (by recognizing that the expression of negative emotions may be interpreted negatively by European Americans), they may view this as evidence of their parents’ love and concern; a feeling that should be reinforced by the within-group normativeness of this behavior.…”