Graduation Year
2020
Date of Submission
5-2020
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Psychology
Reader 1
Dr. Stacey N. Doan
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2020 Anna Beth Burniston
Abstract
Although parental emotion socialization (ES) has been correlated with emotion regulation outcomes in children, no prior study has examined how children’s physiological stress regulation is differentially influenced by supportive ES as a function of child gender. Moreover, to date, no studies have examined the simultaneous contribution of mothers and fathers. Seventy-two mothers, fathers, and their preschool-aged children participated in the present study. To measure supportive ES, we created a composite measure using parents’ self-report on the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotion Scale (CCNES) and experimenter ratings during a wordless picture book reading task. Child stress regulation was measured through salivary cortisol samples taken at specified times throughout a series of stressor tasks. We found that paternal supportive ES was a stronger predictor of children’s cortisol levels than maternal supportive ES, and that this influence was not moderated by child gender. Our findings underscore the importance of examining paternal ES in research on child physiological functioning.
Recommended Citation
Burniston, Anna Beth, "Why Dads Should Talk About Feelings: A Biopsychosocial Model of Emotion Socialization and Child Stress Regulation" (2020). CMC Senior Theses. 2412.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2412
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
