The Cultural Socialization of Emotion Regulation During Infancy

Keller, Heidi; Otto, Hiltrud

doi:10.1177/0022022109348576

Cited by 221 publications

(189 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The few culture-informed studies that focused on parenting and children's emotions infer parental beliefs from observed behavior (e.g. Keller & Otto, 2009;Trommsdorff & Friedlmeier, 2010). One study, however, assessed cultural beliefs and observed cultural differences in caregivers' behavioral responses to children's emotions .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Variations in Mothers' Intuitive Theories: A Preliminary Report on Interviewing Mothers from Five Nations about Their Socialization of Children's Emotions

Trommsdorff

Cole

Heikamp

2012

Global Studies of Childhood

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Parental intuitive theories comprise values, goals, expectations, and cultural beliefs about the nature of parenting and its function for children's development of competence. This article introduces a research design to study mothers' intuitive theories about their socialization of children's emotions, as a means of understanding the cultural meaning of children's emotional development. The intention is not to present a traditional empirical report, but to provide a heuristic for future research. The authors illustrate the basic assumptions, methods, and approach to data analysis used in the research design, using a five-nation cross-cultural study as an example of this methodology. For purposes of illustration, examples of mothers' responses during interviews are included, about their intuitive theories of emotion socialization -that is, their attributions about child behavior, views about their parenting roles and socialization practices, and the salience of particular emotions relative to cultural models of independence and interdependence. This approach provides a more sophisticated sense of cultural similarities and variations within and between nations than has been available in prior research. The importance of parents' intuitive theories for the investigation of the cultural meaning of emotion socialization and future study directions are discussed.Intuitive 'theories' refer to implicit beliefs and assumptions about causal explanatory relations. 'They organize experience, generate inferences, guide learning, and influence behavior and social interactions ' (Gelman & Legare, 2011, p. 380). Though they are tacit and imprecise, they nonetheless influence behavior. We apply the concept of intuitive theories for a better understanding of parental socialization of children's emotions. We assume that one way that emotion socialization occurs in daily life is through parents' and other caregivers' practices, and that these practices are guided by their intuitive theories about child emotional competence, how different emotions are valued, and how they should be managed and expressed. We suggest that an intuitive theory approach can inform theories of emotional development, which have widely ignored the cultural variations in how children's emotions are socialized (Halberstadt & Lozada, 2011).Emotions are socialized in many contexts but in a child's early life parents are particularly important agents (Morris et al, 2007). From their birth, children are exposed to and slowly acquire culture-specific display rules for emotional expression, i.e. norms about when and where the expression of a specific emotion is socially accepted, through observational learning and modeling (Saarni et al, 2006). Moreover, in their dyadic interactions with their caregivers, children learn strategies to regulate emotions. In Western cultures, supportive parenting behaviors (e.g. expressive encouragement, problem-focused reactions) are associated with children's skills at regulating negative emotions (Davidov & Grusec, 2006) ...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Variations in Mothers' Intuitive Theories: A Preliminary Report on Interviewing Mothers from Five Nations about Their Socialization of Children's Emotions

Trommsdorff

Cole

Heikamp

2012

Global Studies of Childhood

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“…Within a vast range of knowledge, some trends appear to be pivotal to our discussion. A large researching stream is focused on parental socialization, including the identification of universal patterns, variations across cultural contexts and consequences to child development (Keller and Otto, 2009;Grusec, 2011). Inspired by Vigostsky"s foundational works, other set of inquiries addresses "social cognition" as the process of learning from others, including implicit and explicit "mentalizing" (Destrebecqz and Cleeremans, 2005;Gelman, 2009;Frith and Frith, 2012).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Narratives from those grown up apart from production activities do not include similar reflections on childhood socialization, although a systematic biographical account of "child-rearing practices" (Keller and Otto, 2009) and "socialization styles" (Pellerin, 2005) would implicate additional work with caregivers. Besides, it is important to stress that our research focused on a low-educated population, so results shall be different studying privileged classes" biographies.…”

Section: "I Already Remember the Traditional Songs Sung By Women Whilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opening the black box of socialization: Emotions, practices and (biographical) identities

Abrantes¹

2013

Int. J. Sociol. Anthropol.

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This article aims to improve both theoretically and empirically our understanding of the socialization process, a key topic in Social Sciences, but currently subject to scarce research. Firstly, the concept of socialization is discussed, drawing upon major sociological and anthropological traditions, contributions from emerging research streams, as well as relevant findings from Educational Sciences, Psychology and Neurosciences. Recognizing that all life experiences are meaningful to individuals' socialization, the author argues that not all of them hold the same value. Secondly, the biographical approach to socialization used in this study is outlined. Thirdly, the main results of the project on the socialization of the working class in Portugal are presented. Finally, in the discussion section, the project findings are confronted with the results of other recent studies, focusing on three major (interconnected) catalysts of the socialization process: emotions, practices and (biographical) identities.

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“…For this reason, people learn to soothe the expression of intense emotions. Keller and Otto (2009) also analyzed the cultural determinants of emotion regulation and emotion expression in two different social groups (urban context in Berlim, and rural context in Cameroon) and found contrasting results. What they considered to be an urban Western group prototype emphasizes the expression of emotions in children, while in rural context in Cameroon it is desired that children be calm and do not express their emotions.…”

Section: Emotional Expressionmentioning

confidence: 99%