(PS8-D95) Recalled Parental Emotion Socialization to Happiness Predicts Positive Emerging Adult Outcomes

Background:

Caregiver emotion socialization (ES) and parenting strategies have been linked to positive outcomes in children, including empathy (Ornaghi et al., 2020) and self-esteem (Queiroz et al., 2020); however, ES responses to the discrete emotion of happiness have not been directly associated with compassion or self-esteem. Interestingly, prior research suggests that neither encouraging nor discouraging maternal responses to their child’s positive emotions were significantly associated with child savoring of positive events (Moran et al., 2017); however, investigating specific maternal and paternal ES responses (e.g., rewarding, magnifying, overriding, neglectful, or punishing) to happiness may reveal discrete associations with savoring practices. The present study explores direct associations between ES, including maternal Neglect/Override/Punish (NOP), paternal Neglect/Override (NO), paternal Punish, and maternal and paternal Reward/Magnify (RM) responses to happiness with emerging adult (EA) compassion, self-esteem, and savoring.

Method: Participants (N=256; 76% female; Mage=19.85; 8.2% Latino, 75.8% White, 3.1% Black, 10.6% East Asian, 5.1% South Asian, 4.7% Other) were enrolled in higher education and recruited from a metropolitan area in the United States. Participants self-reported recalled ES responses (Emotions as a Child Scale), compassion (Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale), savoring (Savoring Beliefs Inventory), and self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale).

Results: The maternal ES model showed good fit, χ2(120)=199.01, p< 0.001, CFI=.96. Both maternal NOP and RM were positively associated with compassion (β=0.21, p= .04; β=0.30, p< .01). Maternal RM was positively associated with self-esteem (β=0.19, p=.04). Neither maternal NOP nor RM were significantly associated with savoring (p >.05). The paternal ES model also showed good fit, χ2(116)=215.10, p< 0.001, CFI=.95. Paternal NO was negatively associated with both savoring (β=-0.25, p= .01) and self-esteem (β=-0.33, p< .01). Neither paternal RM nor Punish were significantly associated with compassion, savoring, or self-esteem.

Discussion:
Both maternal and paternal ES were significantly associated with EA self-esteem. These results suggest mothers’ supportive ES (i.e., rewarding or magnifying) to happiness may increase EA self-esteem, while fathers’ unsupportive ES (i.e., neglectful or distracting happiness) may decrease EA self-esteem. Both maternal NOP and RM were positively associated with EA compassion, suggesting regardless of whether a mother’s response to child happiness is supportive (RM) or unsupportive (NP), EAs experience greater compassion. Interestingly, paternal ES did not significantly predict compassion, suggesting fathers’ responses to happiness does not impact EA compassion. Only paternal NO was negatively associated with savoring, while maternal ES was not associated with savoring, which is consistent with previous research (Moran et al., 2017). These findings provide support for the unique contributions of mothers’ and fathers’ responses to their child’s expression of happiness and positive outcomes of compassion, savoring, and self-esteem and may inform parenting interventions.