Emotion Socialization in Anxious Youth: Parenting Buffers Emotional Reactivity to Peer Negative Events

Abstract

Anxious youth exhibit heightened emotional reactivity, particularly to social-evaluative threat, such as peer evaluation and feedback, compared to non-anxious youth. Moreover, normative developmental changes during the transition into adolescence may exacerbate emotional reactivity to peer negative events, particularly for anxious youth. Therefore, it is important to investigate factors that may buffer emotional reactivity within peer contexts among anxious youth. The current study examined the role of parenting behaviors in child emotional reactivity to peer and non-peer negative events among 86 anxious youth in middle childhood to adolescence (Mean age = 11.29, 54% girls). Parenting behavior and affect was observed during a social-evaluative laboratory speech task for youth, and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods were used to examine youth emotional reactivity to typical daily negative events within peer and non-peer contexts. Results showed that parent positive behaviors, and low levels of parent anxious affect, during the stressful laboratory task for youth buffered youth negative emotional reactivity to real-world negative peer events, but not non-peer events. Findings inform our understanding of parenting influences on anxious youth's emotional reactivity to developmentally salient negative events during the transition into adolescence.

The effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on children’s behavior and parents’ mental health in China: A research study

“…School-age children were more likely to have bad behavior during the epidemic. Previous study have indicated that school-age children have a certain ability to judge crisis and can use electronic products proficiently, and are susceptible to the negative information of the media network (White, 2017;Oppenheimer et al, 2016). Non-only children are more prone to bad behavior during the epidemic.…”

Stress and parenting predict changes in adolescent respiratory sinus arrhythmia

“…This development starts early, with parents helping younger children regulate their emotions through support and scaffolding (Kopp, 1989;Morris et al, 2007). As development progresses, parents continue to support and shape adolescent emotion regulation and foster emotional competencies (Morris et al, 2007;Oppenheimer et al, 2016), thus allowing adolescents to become better at regulating their/emotions independently (Morris et al, 2007). Morris et al (2007) suggested that there are three primary ways that parents shape adolescents' emotion regulation abilities: (a) emotion modeling, (b) specific parenting practices, and (c) family emotional climate.…”

“…Additionally, responsive, structured, and supportive parent socialization has been found to be related to better self-regulation and lower internalizing and externalizing problems in children and adolescents (e.g., Klimes-Dougan et al, 2007;Oppenheimer et al, 2016;Rubin, Burgess, Dwyer, & Hastings, 2003). In contrast, research suggests that emotion dysregulation is shaped by a lack of supportive responses to adolescents' positive and negative emotions (e.g., Granic, 2005;Yap et al, 2007;Yap et al, 2008).…”

“…This development starts early, with parents helping younger children regulate their emotions through support and scaffolding (Kopp, ; Morris et al, ). As development progresses, parents continue to support and shape adolescent emotion regulation and foster emotional competencies (Morris et al, ; Oppenheimer et al, ), thus allowing adolescents to become better at regulating their/emotions independently (Morris et al, ).…”

“…Supportive parenting may increase the overall amount of positive experiences an adolescent has, help children develop emotion regulation skills, and encourage adaptive expressions of both positive and negative emotions (Silk et al, ). Additionally, responsive, structured, and supportive parent socialization has been found to be related to better self‐regulation and lower internalizing and externalizing problems in children and adolescents (e.g., Klimes‐Dougan et al, ; Oppenheimer et al, ; Rubin, Burgess, Dwyer, & Hastings, ). In contrast, research suggests that emotion dysregulation is shaped by a lack of supportive responses to adolescents’ positive and negative emotions (e.g., Granic, ; Yap et al, ; Yap et al, ).…”