EmotionRelated Parenting Styles: SelfReport vs' ThirdParty Rating C' Agar, K' A' Babb, A' Camodeca,

1
Emotion-Related Parenting Styles Self-Report
vs. Third-Party RatingC. Agar, K. A. Babb, A.
Camodeca, K. Soucie, V. Paramaswaran, C.
Gobatto, K. Hillman, S. Voelker, J.
Hakim-LarsonUniversity of Windsor
Abstract The current study examined the
consistency between parents self-reported styles
of emotion socialization and third-party ratings
of parents socialization styles during a
storytelling task. Forty-five parents of
preschool children completed the Emotion-Related
Parenting Styles Self-Test (ERPSST) before
audio-recording themselves reading to their
children one of two text-free stories. Each
storytelling session was later coded by
independent raters on the degree to which each of
the four emotion socialization styles
characterized each parents narrative, the shared
affective tone of the interaction, and the
frequency with which parents and children used
emotion labels. The observed association between
self-reported and third-party ratings of the
Emotion Coaching style provides preliminary
evidence for the validity of the ERPSST measure.

• Results and Discussion (cont.)
• This difference in findings for these styles
  compared to the Emotion Coaching style may be due
  to the affective context of each of the tasks.
• Whereas the ERPSST evaluates emotion
  socialization styles in both pleasant and
  unpleasant situations, an interactive
  storytelling task may pull for a more pleasant
  context in which to study parental emotion
  socialization.
• Consequently, the relatively lower impression
  ratings of negative parenting styles might be a
  result of the pleasant nature of the storytelling
  task.
• Table 2

• Introduction
• Emotional competence involves the situationally
  and culturally appropriate experience and
  modulation of emotions so as to achieve goals and
  emerge from emotion-eliciting interactions with a
  sense of resiliency and self-efficacy (Eisenberg,
  Cumberland, Spinrad, 1998 Saarni, 1999).
• According to Gottmans (1997) meta-emotion
  theory, parents use four distinct emotion
  socialization styles to socialize emotions in
  their children.
• Emotion Coaching - accepting childrens
  expression of emotions, while guiding them in
  learning appropriate expressions and boundaries.
• Laissez-Faire accepting childrens emotions,
  but with little guidance in emotion regulation.
• Dismissing - discouraging emotional expression
  through efforts to minimize emotion, but with
  little guidance.
• Disapproving - discouraging emotional expression
  by criticizing and setting restrictive limits on
  emotional expression.
• Parent-child emotion talk provides a medium for
  socializing childrens understanding of emotions
  (Eisenberg, Cumberland, Spinrad, 1998).
• Storytelling provides an ideal parent-child
  interaction from which to observe parents
  emotional discourse with their children
  (Kibblewhite et al., 2004).
• Despite storytellings apparent usefulness, few
  researchers have used this approach to study
  emotion socialization.
• The purpose of the present study was to examine
  the consistency between parents self-reports and
  third-party ratings of emotion socialization
  styles during a storytelling task.

• Measures/Procedures (cont.)
• Each storytelling session was later coded by
  independent raters on
• the degree to which each of the four emotion
  socialization styles characterized each parents
  narrative.
• the shared affective tone of the interaction on a
  5-point Likert-type scale rating,
• 1 indicated strong shared negative affect
• 5 indicated strong shared positive affect
• Initial interrater agreement for each of the four
  emotion socialization types and shared affective
  tone ranged between 63 94.
• Discrepancies in ratings were resolved through
  group discussion.
• The frequency with which parents and children
  used emotion labels (Joy, Surprise, Anger,
  Sadness, Fear) during the storytelling task,
  coded for a previous study (Kibblewhite et al.,
  2004), also were included in the present study.

• Results and Discussion
• According to the ERPSST (Parent Self-Report)
• A total of 40 (89) parents reported using
  Emotion Coaching either as their exclusive or
  shared predominant parenting style.
• 39 (87) parents reported a predominantlyEmotion
  Coaching style of emotion socialization.
• 1 (2) parent reported equally high levels of
  Emotion Coaching and Laissez-Faire.
• 5 (11) parents used a predominantly
  Laissez-Faire emotion style.
• 0 parents were identified as having Disapproving
  or Dismissing as their primary emotion
  socialization style.
• When Raters Impressions of emotion socialization
  styles were examined
• 34 (76) parents were rated as using a
  predominantly Emotion Coaching style,
• An additional 5 (11) parents using equally high
  levels of Emotion Coaching and one other emotion
  socialization style.
• 3 (9) were rated as predominantly Laissez-Faire
• 2 (4) were rated as predominantly Dismissing
• 1 (2) was rated as predominantly Disapproving
• Thus, 87 of parents were rated as using Emotion
  Coaching either as their exclusive or shared
  predominant emotion socialization style during a
  storytelling task, in comparison to 89 that were
  identified by the ERPSST.

p lt.05 p lt .01

• We also assessed how rater-perceived styles were
  associated with other adaptive emotion-related
  behaviours.
• Higher Emotion Coaching impression ratings were
  significantly associated with
• a greater degree of shared positive affect during
  storytelling
• a greater frequency of using the emotion labels
  of Joy, Anger, and Sadness for both parents and
  children
• In contrast, higher Dismissing impression
  ratings were negatively associated with
• shared positive affect
• and were not associated with the use of emotion
  labels
• These findings suggest that parents who engaged
  in Emotion Coaching behaviours during an
  interactive storytelling task were more likely to
  share greater positive affect with their children
  and to encourage emotional awareness through
  verbal identification of discrete emotions.

• Conclusions
• There was close agreement on parents predominant
  emotion socialization styles and Emotion
  Competence mean ratings between the self-reported
  ERPSST scores and raters impressions based on an
  in vivo parent-child interaction task.
• This suggests that using a storytelling task can
  be an effective way of studying parental emotion
  socialization.
• Furthermore, the close association between
  self-reported and third-party ratings of the
  Emotion Coaching style provides preliminary
  evidence for the validity of the ERPSST measure.

• Method
• This study is part of an ongoing research project
  exploring parents socialization of childrens
  emotions within the context of parent-child
  interactions.
• Participants
• Forty-five parents (38 mothers, 7 fathers) with
  children ranging in age from 3 to 5 years (M
  4.09, SD .84) participated.
• There were 22 male (M age 3.77, SD .81)
  participants
• and 24 female (M age 4.35, SD .78) child
  participants.
• Measures/Procedures
• Parents completed the Emotion-Related Parenting
  Styles Self-Test (ERPSST Gottman, 1997 modified
  by Lee, Hakim-Larson, Voelker, 2000)
• Self-report questionnaire
• 81 Likert-type questions
• Classifying parental emotion socialization styles
  according to Gottmans four styles.
• Emotion-Coaching
• Laissez-Faire
• Dismissing
• Disapproving
• Parents then completed a storytelling task in
  their homes in which they audio-recorded
  themselves reading to their child one of two
  text-free stories
• Mayer, M. (1969). Frog, where are you? NY Dial

References Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, T. L.,
Spinrad, R. A., (1998). Parental socialization of
emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 241-273.
Gottman, J. (1997). The heart of parenting
Raising an emotionally intelligent child. New
York Simon and Schuster. Kibblewhite, S.,
Goodwin, J., Agar, C., Hakim-Larson, J., Voelker,
S., Soucie, K., Parameswaran, V., Camodeca, A.
(2004). Emotion language and mother-preschooler
storytelling introduction. Poster presented at
the annual meeting of the American Psychological
Association, Washington, DC. Lee, C.,
Hakim-Larson, J., Voelker, S. (2000). The
Parenting Styles Self-test Psychometric
Properties. Poster presented at the annual
meeting of the Canadian Psychological
Association, Ottawa, Ontario. Mayer, M. (1969).
Frog, where are you? NY Dial. Mayer, M.,
Mayer, M. (1975). One frog too many. NY
Dial. Saarni, C. (1999). The development of
emotional competence. New York The Guilford
Press.
t plt .10 plt .01

• As shown in Table 1, paired samples t-tests
  revealed no significant difference between ERPSST
  scores and impression ratings for the Emotion
  Coaching style, suggesting that the ERPSST rating
  of Emotion Coaching identified parents who used
  Emotion Coaching strategies when interacting with
  their children during storytelling.
• Raters coded parents as using lower levels of
  Dismissing, Disapproving, and Laissez-Faire
  styles than was indicated by parents scores on
  the ERPSST.