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

Abstract

Abstract:There are few studies on parental socialization of positive emotions in adolescents and few instruments that measure these parental reactions. Therefore, we developed a new version of the Emotion Socialization Scale (ESS) for the positive emotion of overjoy. We further provided some evidence of validity and reliability of the Portuguese ESS, featuring overjoy, fear, anger, and sadness. Adolescents (N = 418) answered questionnaires on maternal emotion socialization and maternal rearing practices. Confirmatory factor analysis achieved good (reward, neglect, override, magnify) to acceptable (punish) levels of fit, and scales had good levels of internal consistency, except for punish (all emotions) and neglect (overjoy). Association with maternal rearing practices supported the adaptive role of reward and magnify and the less adaptive role of punish, override, neglect of positive emotion, with some exceptions. This investigation demonstrated the importance of assessing parents' reactions to adolescents' positive emotion as these may be important indicators of the parent-adolescent relationship quality.

Development and initial validation of the parental response to adolescents' emotions scale: A mixed methods approach

“…Considering the disruption of positive affect regulation is related to the maladaptive development of adolescents' mental health (Fredrick et al., 2019), it is crucial to investigate parental responses to children's happiness and their potential effects. While previous studies have attempted to measure parental responses to children's positive emotions using items adapted from the CCNES or EAC (Costa Martins et al., 2018; Katz et al., 2013), grounded theory approaches have not been used within the Chinese cultural context to explore parental responses related to adolescents' positive emotions, and the absence of a specific instrument hinders research on the effects of parental responses to positive emotions in Chinese society.…”