Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Learning Sciences and Human Development

Committee Chair

Amy E. Root

Committee Co-Chair

Kristin Moilanen

Committee Member

Jessica Troilo

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the way that parenting styles (e.g., authoritative and authoritarian parenting) and parents' emotion socialization strategies (e.g., supportive and non-supportive reactions to emotions) collectively impact children's emotion regulation. Data was collected from 51 mothers (mean age = 34.4 years) and their preschool-aged children (mean age = 3.76 years). The majority of the mothers (93.8%) and children (89.6%) were Caucasian. Mothers completed a demographic questionnaire composed of demographic questions about the mother, the father, and the preschool-aged child. Mothers also completed the Parenting Practices Questionnaire (PPQ; Robinson, Mandleco, Frost Olsen, & Hart, 2005) as a measure of parenting style, the Coping with Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES; Fabes, Poulin, Eisenberg, & Madden-Derdich, 2002) as a measure of emotion socialization strategies, and the Children's Behavior Questionnaire Short Form Version I (CBQ; Putnam & Rothbart, 2006) to examine children's emotion regulation. Initially, two multiple regressions were conducted but the regression models did not yield significant results. Therefore, post hoc analyses were conducted; specifically, four regression analyses were conducted. Supportive reactions to emotions approached significance in the prediction of emotion regulation. In addition, a simple slope analysis indicated a significant relationship between authoritarian parenting and emotion regulation for low supportive reactions to emotions. Limitations are noted and suggestions for future research examining the collective impact of parenting styles and parents' emotion socialization strategies are provided.

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