Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling & Counseling Psychology

Committee Chair

Amy Root

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relation between child temperament and maternal emotion socialization practices (e.g., supportive/non-supportive). Data were gathered from mothers of 3- and 4-year-olds; 51 mothers participated anonymously via Facebook, and 33 were drawn from a larger study on emotion socialization. Mothers completed a series of questionnaires, including a demographics questionnaire; the Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Putnam & Rothbart, 2000) to assess maternal perception of child temperament, and the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES; Fabes, Poulin, Eisenberg, & Madden-Derdich, 2002) to examine maternal responsiveness to children's emotions. Pearson r correlation tests were conducted and yielded no significant findings. However, post-hoc analyses revealed when the data were examined separately for boys and girls; mothers' ratings of soothability was significantly and positively related to (a) ratings of CCNES supportive -- anger and (b) ratings of CCNES supportive -- fear for boys, but not for girls. In addition, mothers' rating of anger was significantly and positively related to CCNES non-supportive -- fear for girls but not for boys. The tests examining 3- and 4-year-olds separately revealed one significant finding: CBQ soothability was significantly and positively related to CCNES supportive -- fear for 3-year-olds, but the same significant result did not hold true for 4-year-olds. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that child age and gender serve as influential factors of maternal emotion socialization practices (e.g., supportive/non-supportive).

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