The main purpose of this study was to examine the relations of maternal attitudes of children's emotional expressiveness and children's emotion regulation. The subjects of the study were 221 chlidren (age 4-7) and their mothers living in Seoul and Gyu...
The main purpose of this study was to examine the relations of maternal attitudes of children's emotional expressiveness and children's emotion regulation. The subjects of the study were 221 chlidren (age 4-7) and their mothers living in Seoul and Gyunggi province.
The data were collected using two kinds of questionnaires such as Saarni's(1989) Parent Attitudes toward Children's Expressiveness Scale and Shields and Cicchetti's (1995) Emotion Regulation Checklists. Data were analyzed by Pearson's correlations and regressions.
The major results of this study were summarized as follow:
First, children's emotion regulation was different from age 4 to age 6. This is mean that younger children used more maladaptive emotion regulation.
Second, maternal attitudes toward children's emotional expressiveness were related to children's emotion regulation. This is mean that the more permissive and acceptable attitudes of mothers toward children's emotional expressiveness for anger, fear, anxiety, and curiosity were, the more children's adaptive And the more permissive and acceptable attitudes of mothers toward children's emotional expressiveness for happiness and disgust were , the less children's adaptive emotion. Also the more permissive and acceptable attitudes of mothers toward children's nagative emotional expressiveness such as fear, anxiety, anger and sadness were, the less children's maladaptive emotion regulation.
Third, the most influential factor on children's emotion regulation was the maternal attitudes toward children's emotional expressiveness for fear.
In conclusion, the maternal attitudes toward children's emotional expressiveness influence children's emotion regulation. Specifically, the maternal attitude for children's fear is the most influential factor on children's emotion regulation.