Supportive and Nonsupportive Parental Emotion Socialization and Early Childhood Emotion Regulation: A Systematic Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59944/postaxial.v4i3.1726Keywords:
Early Childhood, Emotion Regulation, Nonsupportive Emotion Socialization, Parental Emotion Socialization, Supportive Emotion SocializationAbstract
Parental responses to children’s emotions play an important role in the development of emotion regulation during early childhood. This systematic review synthesizes recent evidence on supportive and nonsupportive parental emotion-socialization practices and their associations with children’s emotion regulation. Studies published between 2016 and 2026 were considered, with particular attention to emotion coaching, expressive encouragement, problem-focused and emotion-focused responses, emotion dismissing, minimization, punitive reactions, and parental distress responses. The review was conducted following PRISMA 2020 reporting principles, with methodological quality appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Findings indicate that supportive parental emotion socialization is generally associated with more adaptive emotion regulation, whereas nonsupportive practices show comparatively consistent associations with poorer regulation and greater emotional dysregulation. However, these relationships vary according to child age and emotionality, parental psychological functioning, broader parenting practices, maternal warmth, and sociocultural context. Longitudinal and observational evidence further suggests that parental emotion socialization operates transactionally rather than exclusively through unidirectional parent-to-child effects. These findings highlight the importance of strengthening supportive parental responses while reducing dismissive, punitive, and minimizing reactions to children’s emotions.
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