Empathy in Toddlers: The Role of Emotion Regulation, Language Ability, and Maternal Emotion Socialization Style

We examined the associations among parental emotion socialization, and children's emotion regulation and attachment to parents. In particular, we examined the moderating role of parental emotion socialization in the relationship between children's emotion regulation and attachment to parents. Participants were 78 Turkish children (49 boys) aged from 60 to 77 months and their parents. Parents reported on the socialization strategies they used for their children's emotions and on their children's emotion regulation, and we assessed children's attachment to parents via the Doll Story Completion Task. Results revealed that parents' minimization reaction to children's emotions moderated the association between children's emotion regulation and attachment to parents. When parents' response was punitive, children with poor emotion regulation displayed stronger attachment to parents than children with robust emotion regulation did. In addition, girls had a more secure attachment to parents than boys did. Our results highlight the importance of children's emotion regulation and parental emotion socialization for children's secure early attachment to parents.

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Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: The Role of Parent Emotion Socialization and Children's Emotion Regulation Abilities

Social Development ◽

10.1111/sode.12151 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 47-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Lynn Fainsilber Katz ◽

Nicole Stettler ◽

Kyrill Gurtovenko

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Traumatic Stress ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Emotion Socialization ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Stress Symptoms ◽

Children's Emotion ◽

Parent Emotion Socialization

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The relationships among language ability, emotion regulation and social competence in second-grade students

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/0165025412446394 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 36 (5) ◽

pp. 398-405 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

W. John Monopoli ◽

Sharon Kingston

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Social Competence ◽

Language Ability ◽

Receptive Vocabulary ◽

Second Grade ◽

Future Research ◽

Second Grade Students ◽

The Relationship

Relationships exist between language ability, emotion regulation, and social competence in preschool children. This study examines how these relationships function in elementary school children, and explores whether language ability partially mediates the relationship between emotion regulation and social competence. Second-grade students ( N = 67) completed an assessment of receptive vocabulary, and teachers rated emotional and social skills. Results show relationships between emotion regulation and social competence, and between language and aspects of social competence. There were compelling sex differences in the strength of the relationships between these variables. However, language did not act as a mediator. Future research should further investigate the role of language skills in social competence as children mature, and further investigate sex differences in these constructs.

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