Dispositional Characteristics and Maternal Emotion Socialization Practices: An Examination of the Role of Emotion Regulation and Shyness in Middle Childhood

The development of emotionally competent behavior is a central task of childhood. Parents are primary in this socialization process, particularly in the socialization of emotionally competent behavior (see Denham, Bassett, & Wyatt, for a review). In addition, the dispositional characteristics that children contribute to the parenting process are also crucial (Bell, 1986). Two dispositional characteristics that are important to examine are emotion regulation and shyness, and these characteristics may be profound influences on parental emotion socialization during the period of middle childhood (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1994; Rubin, Nelson, Hastings, & Asendorpf, 1999). Using a sample of 76 mothers of school-aged children (ages 7-11), children were grouped according to maternal-reported levels of emotion regulation and shyness. Four groups were created: high shyness/high regulation, high shyness/low regulation, low shyness/high regulation, and low shyness/low regulation. Mothers reported on their emotion socialization strategies using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (Fabes, Eisenberg, & Bernzweig, 1990). Of the six emotion socialization practices, finings for distress and punitive reactions were statistically significant. Findings suggest that shyness and emotion regulation work together to impact maternal emotion socialization practices during the period of middle childhood.