Do Emotion Regulation Strategies Mediate the Relationship of Parental Emotion Socialization with Adolescent and Emerging Adult Psychological Distress?

Abstract

A child’s ability to cope with stress is shaped by experiences in a parent–child relationship. In this study, the direct effect of a parent’s response to anger and happiness in childhood on adolescents’ and emerging adults’ psychological distress and the indirect effect through the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies—specifically, cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression—were measured. To achieve our research aim, we tested four parallel mediation models using the bootstrapping method. A group of 497 participants aged between 14 and 35 years (M = 18.62; SD = 3.32), 66% female (n = 332) and 34% male (n = 165), completed a questionnaire comprising self-reporting measures. The results indicate direct effects between emotion socialization and distress for seven independent variables. The mother’s and father’s positive responses to anger and happiness are significant negative predictors of distress; the negative responses of both parents to happiness, and the mother’s negative response to anger—but not the father’s—are significant positive predictors of distress. The findings also provide support for the mediating role of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal for the mother’s positive response to both anger and happiness, as well as for the mother’s negative response to the child’s expression of happiness. None of the father’s responses—positive or negative, in relation to anger or happiness—are mediated by emotion regulation strategies in relation to distress. Our findings have practical implication for a preventative intervention program focused on the psychological growth of adolescents by adaptative emotional responses.