Maternal talk and children’s psychological adjustment: Examining mother’s explanations of others’ coping strategies for dealing with negative emotions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between maternal emotion socialization, given while viewing illustrations designed to elicit talk about emotions, and young children’s psychological adjustment. Participants were 46 mother–child pairs and their nursery school teachers. The results showed that mothers’ supportive explanations were associated with low levels of hyperactivity and conduct problems in children. These findings suggest that children might learn how to manage their own negative emotions from maternal supportive explanations about how others manage their negative emotions, thereby modeling socially adaptive behavior.