Parental Emotion Socialization and Children’s Emotional Skills and Socio-Emotional Functioning in Early Childhood in Türkiye and the United States

This study addressed associations of parents’ socialization of children’s positive and negative emotions with children’s emotional skills and socio-emotional functioning in early childhood with families in Türkiye and the United States (U.S.). One hundred five parents (50 Turkish, 55 U.S.) and their 4- to 5-year-old children reminisced about family events. Videos were coded for parents’ emotion coaching and dismissing. Parents self-reported expressiveness and reactions to children’s emotions. Experimenters administered tasks assessing children’s emotion masking and emotion understanding. Teachers reported children’s social competence and behavior problems. Emotion socialization by Turkish and U.S. parents differed according to valence (positive, negative) and mode (expressiveness, reactions, discourse). For both Turkish and U.S. families, encouraging socialization of negative emotions related to children’s better masking of negative emotions and poorer masking of positive emotions. For U.S. families, encouraging negative emotions related to children’s poorer socio-emotional functioning. When parents encouraged positive emotions, Turkish children scored higher in masking negative emotions, whereas U.S. children scored higher in masking positive emotions and had better socio-emotional functioning. Results suggest that cultural values may influence emotion socialization and its relations to children’s socio-emotional development. Particular attention should be paid to socialization modes and positive emotions.