Despite the recognition of cultural influences on emotional development, very little is known regarding emotion regulation in children from different cultures. This study examined beliefs regarding social acceptability and regulatory behaviors in 80 children (aged five to six years and eight to nine years) from two urban communities (suburban and old city) in Gujarat, India. The children's explicit reasons and their preferred methods of expression and control were also investigated. The resultsrevealed that the children considered others to be less accepting of their expressions of anger and sadness and, in turn, they reported controlling their anger and sadness more than their physical pain. The remarkable congruence between children's beliefs regarding acceptability and reported behaviors was consistent with the notion that cognitions that focus on evaluations of others are particularly salient in guiding socioemotional behavior in a collectivist culture like India. Within-culture differences were also imperative, indicating that the children in the old city considered others to be less accepting of all of their expressions, and reported controlling these expressions more than the children in the suburban community. These differences are discussed in the context of variations in broader cultural values (i.e., the extent of collectivist orientation and adherence to Hindu ideology) in the two communities.

Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, this study examined mothers' socialization of child emotion in suburban middle-class families in Gujarat, India. In particular, a community sample of 602 children, 6 to 8 years, was screened for emotional/behavioral problems using a parent-report measure standardized with this population. Based on the screening, four groups of children were formed: those with internalizing problems (n = 31), externalizing problems (n = 32), and somatic complaints (n = 25), and an asymptomatic control group (n = 32). Mothers of children across groups completed a previously pilot-tested, forced-choice, self-report questionnaire of their emotions and behaviors in response to their children's anger, sadness, and physical pain, and an individual open-ended interview further exploring their socialization behaviors, immediate goals, and expectations from their children. Quantitative data revealed that mothers of children in internalizing, externalizing, and somatic complaints groups reported more negative emotions (anger, disappointment, embarrassment, restlessness) and punitive/ minimizing behaviors than the control group, with the somatic-complaints group also reporting less sympathy and emotion-/ problem-focused behaviors than the control group. Qualitative data provided a culturally grounded overarching framework to understand emotion socialization in this sample, and suggested variation across groups with respect to the type of mothers' behaviors, along with expectations for appropriate behavior.

The present study investigated the effects of situational (child situational emotions) and dispositional (child temperament) child variables on mothers' regulation of their own hostile (anger) and nonhostile (sadness and anxiety) emotions. Participants included 94 low and middle income mothers and their children (41 girls; 53 boys) aged 3 to 6 years. Children's situational emotions (anger, sadness, or fear) and parent emotion type (hostile or nonhostile) were important predictors of mothers' regulation, but their effects were influenced by SES: Middle income mothers were more likely to control hostile than nonhostile emotions in response to child anger and sadness, and more likely than low income mothers to control hostile emotions in response to child sadness and fear. Low income mothers were more likely than middle income mothers to control nonhostile emotions in response to child anger. However, results also suggest that differences in emotion regulation between low and middle income mothers may stem from the link between SES and authoritarian parenting beliefs. Maternal regulation of negative emotion was not predicted by child temperament.

Older mother-adult daughter dyads (N = 44) were interviewed separately about 3 variables hypothesized to affect satisfaction with the help provided to mothers by their daughters: feelings of interpersonal control, perspective-taking abilities, and attributions made about the self and other dyad member during positive and negative helping interactions. The most important predictors of partner satisfaction were mothers' and daughters' ability to accurately perceive the partner's feelings about the helping relationship and their feelings of interpersonal control. The most salient predictors of mothers' and daughters' own satisfaction were the attributions they made about the partner during a negative helping situation and their feelings of interpersonal control. These findings underscore the importance of considering interpersonal psychological variables in research concerned with helping relationships in later life.

We examined emotion regulation (ER) in intergenerational helping relationships involving 77 older mother-adult daughter dyads. Participants' ER strategies (passive, proactive) and ER goals (self-oriented, other oriented) were considered as predictors of their own and their partners' satisfaction with, and their positive and negative affective reactions to, the helping relationship. For mothers and daughters, greater use of passive ER strategies predicted greater negative affect, lower satisfaction, and less positive affect for themselves, as well as partner reports of lower satisfaction and (for daughters only) greater negative affect. Mothers' and daughters' use of proactive strategies predicted lower negative affect for themselves, and daughters' use of proactive ER strategies predicted lower negative affect for their mothers. Mothers' and daughters' endorsement of other-oriented ER goals predicted greater satisfaction and positive affect for themselves. Results are considered in the context of the larger literature concerning intergenerational helping relationships.