Emotion Regulation As Mediators Between Parenting Styles,Meta-Emotion Philosophy And Other-Regarding Preferences Of Middle School Student

Other-regarding preferences refer to the consideration for the welfare of others.Other-regarding preferences are decisive for the human ability to achieve and maintain cooperation among a large group of strangers, If an individual cares for the welfare of other group members, he or she is more likely to refrain from free-riding in cooperative projects. Similarly, if an individual dislikes the free-riding of others, the individual is more likely to punish free riders. Beyond influencing behavior in small-scale groups, other-regarding preferences may also decisively shape a society by affecting social welfare or taxation policies. Family is an important place for early socialization of the child, and parents are first teachers of children. So parenting ideas and behavior are important factors for the acquisition of social competence of young children. Previous research on parental rearing patterns primarily focused on parental rearing behavior, while little attention has been paid to emotion of parents. Parental“meta-emotion philosophy” refers to an organized set of feelings and thoughts of parents about their own and their children’s emotions. It means the metacognitive of emotion, which discusses the effect of parenting from a new perspective. It’s a new concept of parenting and a supplement to the current concepts in the parenting literature.By reviewing previous researches we found that researchers employed questionnaires, others-rating, self-rating to test other-regarding preferences, which led to lower ecological validity. In recent years, foreign researchers used game theory experimental methods learned from Carneron’s experimental economics research paradigm to solve this problem. The game theory experimental paradigm tests individuals’ behavior in authentic situation, which removes the effects of social approval and generates higher ecological validity.In the present study, we investigated the differences of other-regarding preferences among 500 middle school students with game theory experimental paradigm and explored the relationships between parenting styles, emotion regulation and other-regarding preferences.The major results indicated as follows:(1) Middle school students’ jealous behavior and unfair behavior decrease with the growth of grade, but altruistic behavior increase with the growth of grade. They pay more attention to fairness for in-group members, but to altruism for out-groupmembers.(2) Parents rejection negatively predicts altruism behavior and positively predicts envy behavior; Mother emotional warmth positively predicts altruism behavior and negatively predicts envy behavior. Father emotional warmth positively predicts altruism behavior and negatively predicts fair behavior. What’s more, emotion instability negatively relates to altruism behavior and positively relates to envy behavior. By contrast, emotion regulation positively relates to altruism behavior and negatively related to envy behavior.(3) Middle school students’ emotion regulation plays a mediate role between the relationship of parenting style and other-regarding preference. Emotion instability partly mediates the relationships between parents’ emotional warmth and altruism behavior, emotion instability completely mediates the relationships between parents’ emotional warmth and envy behavior. Emotion instability completely mediates the relationship between mother rejection, over-protection, altruism behavior and envy behavior. Emotion instability partly mediates the relationship between mother emotional warmth and altruism. And emotion instability completely mediates the relationship between father emotional warmth and envy behavior.(4) Mother emotion coaching positively predicts altruism and negatively predicts envy behavior. Mother emotion dismissing positively predicts envy behavior and negatively predicts altruism. Father meta-emotion philosophy doesn’t predicts other-regarding preference. Parenting emotion coaching negatively predicts emotioninstability, and positively predicts emotional regulation. Parent emotional noninvolvement, emotional dysfunction and emotional dismissing positively predicts emotional instability. Mother emotional noninvolvement and emotional dysfunction negatively predicts emotional regulation. Father emotional noninvolvement negatively predicts emotional regulation.(5) Middle school students’ emotion regulation mediates the relationship between parenting meta-emotion philosophy and other-regarding preference. For Mother’s meta-emotion philosophy, emotion instability completely mediates the relationships among mother emotional coaching, emotional noninvolvement, emotional dysfunction, altruism behavior and envy behavior; emotion instability completely mediates the relationships between mother emotional dismissing and envy behavior;but emotion instability partly mediates the relationships between mother emotional dismissing and altruism behavior; emotional regulation completely mediates the relationships among mother emotional noninvolvement, altruism and envy behavior.For father’s meta-emotion philosophy, emotional instability completely mediates the relationship among father emotional coaching, emotional noninvolvement, emotional dysfunction, emotional dismissing, envy and altruism behavior.In summary, parenting styles and meta-emotion philosophy influence middle school students’ other-regarding preference to varying degrees. Emotion regulation plays a mediate role in the relationship of parenting styles, meta-emotion philosophy and other-regarding preference.