The Dynamic Context of Emotion Socialization

The Dynamic Context of Emotion Socialization
Julie C. Dunsmore and Amy G. Halberstadt
Presented at the 2008 ISCE Summit, Riva san Vitale, Switzerland
Funded by AdvanceVT and R03 53572 from NICHD

Overview I
• Our goal is to consider how culture and
parents’ emotion-related socialization beliefs
and behaviors relate with each other.
• More specifically:
• how parents’ individual beliefs about emotion may
be affected by culture, and, in turn,
• how parents’ beliefs may impact parents’
socialization ation behaviors, thus, mediating relations
between culture and parental behavior.
• Along the way, I will discuss:
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Overview II
• Significance of parents’ emotion
socialization
• What counts as “culture”
• Conceptual foundations
• Heuristic models
• Socioecological approach
• Measurement of ethnicity and class
• Our work on culture, parental beliefs, and
parental socialization of emotion
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Significance:
Emotion socialization influences . . .
• Experience of emotion
• Arousal
• Understanding of one’s own emotions
• Regulation of one’s own emotions
• Expression of emotion
• Regulation of one’s expression of emotion
• Understanding of others’ emotions
• Skill in judging other’s emotions
• Interpretation of other’s emotions
Dunsmore & Halberstadt, 1997; Eisenberg et al, 1998
4

In short, emotion socialization impacts
children’s affective social competence
5

What counts as “culture”
• Culture = shared values, beliefs, customs
passed down from generation to generation
• Culture ≠ identity
• Nationality, race, ethnicity, social class may
be related to culture, but not necessarily
• “Culture is to a human collectivity what
personality is to an individual (Hofstede, 2001, p. 10).”
Cole & Tan, 2007; Hofstede, 2001; Parke & Buriel, 2006
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Eisenberg, Spinrad, &
Cumberland, 1998
Child
characteristics
Parent
characteristics
Emotionrelated
parenting
practices
Child
arousal
Child socioemotional
outcomes
Cultural factors
Situational
context
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Garcia-Coll Coll, et al., 1996
Racism,
prejudice,
oppression
Child
characteristics
Social
position
variables
Promoting/
inhibiting
environments
Adaptive
culture
Developm mental
competen ncies
Segregation
Family
8

Dunsmore & Halberstadt, 1997
Family’s attributions about
emotions and emotional
expressiveness
Family’s typical pattern of
emotional expressiveness
Child’s Schemas: Emotions,
Self, World
Child characteristics
Culture (e.g., appraisal of
situations, ti cultural l scripts)
These four factors are highly interactive with one another; also match between
child, family, and culture is important in children’s formation of schemas.
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Cole & Tan, 2007
• Child temperament
• Attachment
• Parents’ emotional expression
• Positive emotions
• Negative emotions
• Parents’ communication about children’s
emotions
• Encouragement of child’s expression
• Conversations related to emotions
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Universal and culture-specific
emotion socialization
• Universal:
• Goals:
• Emotional well-being
• Self-regulation; socially appropriate behavior
• As a child, feeling of security
• As an adult, emotional competence
• Sequence of developing emotional skills
• Cultural variation:
• How universal goals are achieved
• Specific socialization goals
• Interpretation of children’s behaviors
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Cole & Tan, 2007

Socioecological approach
• Bruner, Harkness & Super, LeVine,
Rogoff, Valsiner, Whiting & Whiting
• Emphases on:
• Active role of child
• Nested settings
• Meaning of fbehavior
Rothbaum & Trommsdorff (2007)
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General issues
• Ethnocentrism; “derived etic” approach
• Other factors influence emotional experiences
• Within-group variation
• Different specific criteria may relate to child
outcomes across groups, whereas broad
criteria may relate similarly to child outcomes
across groups
• Indices may interact in unexpected ways
Berry, 1990; Bradley & Corwyn, 2006; Cole & Tan, 2007; Parke & Buriel, 2006
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Measurement of social class
• Three common indicators:
• Education
• Income
• Occupational status
• More nuanced indicators:
• Net assets (wealth)
• Perceived status & income inequality
• Neighborhood conditions: violence, perceived
school quality, neighborhood income,
person:household space density, police records
Adler, Castellazzo, & Ickovics, 2000; Ceballo & McLoyd, 2002; Conger & Dogan,
2007; Conley, 1999; Darity & Nicholson, 2005; Duncan & Magnuson, 2003
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Culture within nationality
• Acculturation and assimilation
• Ethnic identity
• Centrality of ethnic identity
• Ethnic pride
• Experiences with discrimination
• Racial/ethnic i socialization
• Ethnic pride
• Preparation for bias
• Promoting mistrust vs promoting egalitarianism
• Group density
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Individualism & Collectivism
• Also independence/interdependence, egofocused
vs other-focused, needs of self vs
needs of group
• Some measures assume opposition (e.g.,
Hofstede, 2001)
• Loose ties to others vs strong ties to others
• Associated with national wealth, cooler climate
• Orthogonal dimensions of self-construal
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Hofstede’s s other 4 dimensions
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• Power distance
• Hierarchical organization, acceptance of inequality
• Predicted by warmer climate, greater population, lower
national wealth
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Feeling threatened by unpredictable, ambiguous situations
• Modestly related to lower national wealth
• Masculinity/femininity
• Distinct gender roles (assertiveness in opposition to
nurturance) vs overlapping gender roles
• Modestly related to greater population
• Long-term vs short-term orientation
• Virtues that promote future rewards vs virtues oriented
towards past and present
• Predicts nation’s future economic growth

Our national scores on
Hofstede’s (2001) 5 dimensions
100
90 Canada
80
(English)
70 Canada
60
50
(French)
Great Britain
40
30
Ireland
20
10
USA
0
PD UA I/C M/F LT/ST
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Parents’ beliefs
• Participants:
• 385 African-American parents (58% female)
• 398 European-American parents (54% female)
• 297 Lumbee Native American parents (56% female)
• Measures:
• Education, Occupational status
• Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Emotions (PBACE,
Halberstadt et al., 2008)
• Two questionnaires assessing parent socialization
behavior
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Development of PBACE
• Dimensions derived from theory
• Control of emotion
• Parents’ role as socializers
• Value/danger of emotion
• 12 focus group sessions with mothers and
fathers from our three target ethnicities
• Additional dimensions
• Developmental processes
• Relational aspects
• Item revision; back-translation
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PBACE subscales
• Contempt
• LA > AA > EA
• Lower education > higher education
• Emotions are dangerous
• LA > AA > EA
• Lower education > higher education
• Positive emotions are valuable
• EA > AA & LA
• Higher education > lower education
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Parenting behavior measures
• Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions
Scale (CCNES, Fabes et al., 2002)
• Supportive: Emotion-focused, problemfocused
• Discouraging: Minimization, punitive
• Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ,
Gross & John, 2003)
• Appraisal
• Suppression
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Cultural Context and Parent
Behaviors
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• First, did cultural context predict parent
behaviors
• Yes for parents’ discouraging responses to
children’s negative emotions
• No for parents’ supportive responses to children’s
negative emotions
• No for parents’ own use of appraisal to regulate
emotions
• Yes for parents’ own suppression of emotions
• Second, when cultural context did predict
parent behaviors, did beliefs mediate the
effects

Discouraging g
responses:
1. Predicted by Ethnicity:
• F (2, 245) = 7.94, p < .001, R 2 = .06
• AA > LA > EA
2. Predicted by Education:
• F (3, 242) = 10.40, p < .0001, R 2 = .11
• Lower Education > Higher Education
3. With beliefs, Ethnicity & Education drop out:
• F (6, 118) = 10.05, p < .0001, R 2 = .34
• Contempt β = .28, p < .01
• Danger β = .16, p < .10
• Positive good β = -.29, p < .001
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Suppression:
1. Predicted by Ethnicity:
• F (2, 134) = 4.21, p < .05, R 2 = .06
• EA < AA; LA = EA and AA
2. No additional effect of Education:
• F (3, 131) = 3.53, p < .05, R 2 = .07
3. With beliefs, effect for Ethnicity drops out:
• F (6, 61) = 2.57, p < .05, R 2 = .20
• Contempt t ns
• Danger β = .27, p < .01
• Positive good ns
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The Dynamic Context
• Children change over time: stage-salient
salient
developmental tasks, competencies
• Parents and families change over time and
across situations
• Social class and culture are dynamic
• Salience of culture, social class, identity vary
across situations
Calkins & Bell, 1999; Cole & Tan, 2007; Parke & Buriel, 2006
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Acknowledgements
• Alfred J. Bryant, Jr.
• Graduate students:
• Karen Beale
• Pa Her
• Alison Parker
• Marie Perez-Rivera
• Rebecca Stelter
• Julie Thompson
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