Symposia
Parenting / Families
Sarah Moran, B.A., M.A. (she/her/hers)
PhD Student
Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia
Meghan Goyer, M.A. (she/her/hers)
Doctoral Student
Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia
Erinn Duprey, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Research Scientist
Mt. Hope Family Center & Children’s Institute Department of Psychology
Rochester, New York
Jena Michel, M.A. (she/her/hers)
Doctoral Student
Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia
Laura G. McKee, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor
Georgia State University
Decatur, Georgia
Caregiver emotion socialization (ES) responses to youth negative emotion impact adolescent life satisfaction (LS), stress, and depression (e.g., Guo et al., 2017; Lee & Lee, 2019). Few studies include how ES responses to youth positive emotion impact LS, stress, or depression. Further, adolescent gratitude has been linked to greater LS and lower depression; however, it is unclear how ES responses to negative and positive emotions relate to gratitude. This study explores (1) direct associations among neglect/punish sadness (NPS), override/reward sadness (ORS), reward/magnify happiness (RMH), and gratitude, stress, LS, and depression and (2) the mediating roles of gratitude and stress.
Primarily Latinx 9th graders (N=290) in the Southeastern US self-reported gratitude, perceived stress, depression, LS, and caregiver ES.
In a good-fitting SEM, χ2(162)=266.06, p< 0.001, CFI=.95, ORS was negatively associated and NPS was positively associated with depression (β=-0.32, p< .01; β=0.23, p< .01), while RMH was associated with LS (β=0.22, p=.04). In a second model testing indirect effects, χ2(193)=298.69, p< 0.001, CFI=.95, ORS was positively associated with gratitude (β=0.52, p< .01) and negatively associated with stress (β=-0.28, p=.03). NPS was positively associated with stress (β=0.20, p=.03), and RMH was positively associated with LS (β=0.22, p=.01). Gratitude was negatively associated with depression (β=-0.43, p< .01) and positively associated with LS (β=0.54, p< .01). Stress was positively associated with depression (β=0.37, p< .01) and negatively associated with LS (β=-0.15, p=.01). ORS was indirectly associated with depression through gratitude (β=-0.22, p< .01) and stress (β=-0.10, p</em>=.04). ORS was indirectly associated with LS through gratitude (β=0.28, p< .01). NPS was indirectly associated with depression through stress (β=0.07, p=.04).
Supportive and unsupportive ES of sadness predicted depression, while supportive ES of happiness was positively associated with LS (model 1). When gratitude and stress were added as mediators (model 2), the association between RMH and LS remained. Gratitude and stress mediated the association between ORS and depression; when parents respond to youth sadness with distraction or comfort, adolescents experience more gratitude and less stress, and thus fewer depressive symptoms. Further, stress mediated the relationship between NPS and depression: when parents respond to youth sadness punitively or neglectfully, adolescents experience more stress and consequently more depression.