Emotion socialization practices in Italian and Hong Kong-Chinese mothers
Caterina Fiorilli1, Simona De Stasio1, Carlo Di Chicchio2
1LUMSA University, P.zza delle Vaschette, 101, 00193 Rome, Italy.
Background:
Parents' emotion socialization practices are their ways of handling their children's emotional experiences in light of cultural expectations surrounding emotions. Such practices are thought to significantly affect children's social adjustment. We compared the parenting practices of Italian and Hong Kong Chinese samples in an ethnological validation study of the maternal responses to children's emotion scale (MRCES). Participants were 71 Italian mothers (M = 39.45) and 71 Hong Kong-Chinese mothers (M = 37.75) with children aged 6-9 years.
Findings:
The results confirmed the two-factor structure identified by the scale's authors, namely coaching/emotion-encouraging and emotion dismissing approaches, respectively. Each of the two factors displayed satisfactory internal consistency. The Chinese mothers obtained higher scores than the Italian mothers on both subscales.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggested that parents' emotion socialization practices for coping with children's emotions received different degrees of emphasis and were underpinned by different meaning in the Hong Kong and Italian cultural groups. These cultural differences are discussed in relation to their effect on children's socio-emotional development.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Parenting Styles
Authoritarian Parenting
This style is strict and controlling, with little room for open dialogue. Authoritarian parents demand obedience and often enforce rules with minimal warmth. Children raised this way may lack social skills and initiative, usually comparing themselves to others unfavorably.
Authoritative...
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other
Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types
Relationship with Parents: Attachment
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison


