Differentiële attributies en ouderlijke reacties op internaliserende emoties van zoons en dochters

Abstract

There are differences in emotion socialisation strategies of parents towards sons and daughters. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this different treatment. This study investigated whether internal parental attributions about children’s internalising emotions (fear and sadness), whereby parents view their children’s emotional behaviour as intentional, stable and typical, mediate the relationship between child gender and supportive parental responses to internalising emotions. US parents (N = 241) of children aged 5, 6 or 7 years (42% girls) were presented with scenarios illustrating children's internalising emotions and were asked to imagine their own child in the scenarios. Parents were then asked about their attributions of the causes of the child's emotions and their hypothetical response (normalising their child’s reaction or providing emotional support) in each situation. The results show that there are no gender differences in parental attributions and supportive responses of parents. However, when parents made more internal attributions about their children’s internalising emotions, this was associated with more supportive reactions. This result shows the role that attributions play in parents' responses. It is important to make parents aware of this attribution process to encourage parental support, regardless of the child's gender.