What about Emotion-Related Beliefs? Understanding Two-Years Old’ Emotion Self-Regulation in the Context of Parental Emotion Socialization

Abstract

A normal development of emotion self-regulation in early childhood has been deemed as a relevant aspect of children’s emotional competence given its role in enhancing development in other important areas and the consequent prevention of maladjustment. Research often focuses on the role of parenting aspects when understanding emotion self-regulation among toddlers. The present study aimed at investigating the association between parental beliefs about emotion talk and toddlers’ emotion self-regulation, and the mediating role of parents’ emotion talk (N = 75). Beliefs about emotion talk were measured using the Parent’s Belief About Feelings Questionnaire (PBAF), whereas emotion self-regulation was assessed via the Infant-Toddler Symptom Checklist (ITSC). Furthermore, parents’ emotion talk was measured using the “Elk Plaatje een Praatje” online task. Results showed that parents who hold more positive beliefs regarding emotion talk were more likely to use emotion words in their discourse with their child and had toddlers with better emotion self-regulation. Surprisingly, parents who employed emotion words more frequently did not have toddlers with better emotion self-regulation. Finally, no mediating role of parents’ emotion talk was found. Parental aspects of emotion socialization, including emotion-related beliefs seem to play a prominent role in the development of toddlers’ emotional competence, and may thus be targeted within prevention and intervention parenting programs. However, the interaction between these various aspects appears to be more complex than expected. Untangling how different aspects of parent-child dynamics work to enhance or hinder the development of emotion regulation in toddlerhood is an important step towards a better understanding of the field.