Parental Socialization of Sadness Regulation in Middle Childhood: The Role of Expectations and Gender

• Published in: Developmental psychology 2010-09, Vol.46 (5), p.1214-1226
• Main Authors: Cassano, Michael C, Zeman, Janice L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child Behavior; Child Behavior - psychology; Child development; Child Psychiatry; Child psychology; Childhood; Childhood Development; Children; Children & youth; Control Groups; Developmental psychology; Emotional Regulation; Emotions; Expectations; Family Characteristics; Fathers; Feedback (Response); Feedback, Psychological; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gender Differences; Gender Identity; Human; Humans; Intergenerational relationships; Male; Maternal Behavior; Middle Aged; Middle class people; Mothers; Multivariate Analysis; Parent Child Relationship; Parent-Child Relations; Parenthood; Parenting; Parents; Parents & parenting; Parents - psychology; Psychological Patterns; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Regulation; Sadness; Self Control; Sex roles; Sex Stereotypes; Socialization; Studies; Task Analysis
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/a0019851

The authors of this study investigated mothers' and fathers' socialization of their children's sadness. The particular focus was an examination of how socialization practices changed when parents' expectancies concerning their child's sadness management abilities were violated. Methods included an experimental manipulation and direct observation of parent-child interactions in 62 families of White, middle-class children in 3rd and 4th grades. Families were randomly assigned to 1of 2 conditions. After parents were provided with a description of normative child behavior on a sadness-induction task, feedback was manipulated such that parents in the control condition were told their child had demonstrated typical regulation while parents in the violated-expectancy condition were informed their child did not manage sadness as well as peers. The hypothesis that violated expectancies influence socialization processes was supported, with greater evidence emerging for fathers than mothers. In certain circumstances within the violated-expectancy condition, there was more parental similarity in socialization practices than in the control condition. Further, mother-father comparisons indicated differences in socialization as a function of parent and child gender that were generally consistent with gender stereotypes.