Parent and Peer Emotion Responsivity Styles: An Extension of Gottman’s Emotion Socialization Parenting Typologies

Abstract

This theoretical paper introduces six emotion socialization typologies that can be used for designating emotion responsivity styles of parents and peers of children in middle childhood, referred to as Parent and Peer Emotion Responsivity Styles (PPERS). This typology draws on theoretical foundations of meta-emotion and emotion socialization. These typologies are compliment with and extend Gottman’s emotion-based parenting styles, as they are organized generally by whether the response is more positive or more negative and whether the response is more emotionally constructive or destructive, but extend the four styles to include whether the parent or peer targets the emotion directly when responding to a child’s emotions, or whether they target the emotion-related behavior. On the positive end, there is the Emotion Constructive style, which targets the child’s emotions directly. The other two positive styles include Emotion Responsive and Emotion Acceptive, which target the child’s emotional behaviors with higher or lower levels of activity. On the negative side, there is the Emotion Destructive style which is employed to target the emotion itself, while the Emotion Punitive and Emotion Dismissive styles target the child’s emotion-related behavior with varying levels of activity. Implications for the development and study of these theoretical typologies are discussed.

Parents and Peers in Child and Adolescent Development: Preface to the Special Issue on Additive, Multiplicative, and Transactional Mechanisms

“…One innovation is the inclusion of both mothers and fathers in five of the six empirical studies in this Special Issue, an approach that was not often taken in past parent-peer literature. Additionally, child and adolescent samples are represented in the empirical papers: Assari et al [1] and Jespersen et al [2] studied children; Cox et al [3], Havewala et al [4], Hu et al [5], Lindsey [6], and Sigal et al's [7] samples comprised adolescents; and Gazelle and Cui's [8] included both age groups. This is in line with our belief that peer groups are critical contexts for socialization in both childhood and adolescence.…”

“…The conceptual models used by the authors in this Special Issue build on an amazing array of existing theories and models. Some of the papers are guided by grand theories such as Attachment Theory (Cox et al [3]; Hu et al [5]), Social Learning Theory (Jespersen et al [2]; Sigal et al [7]), Ecological Theory (Hu et al [5]), Behaviorism (Jespersen et al [2]), and Self-Determination Theory (Hu et al [5]). As in the extant literature, there really is no "grand theory" of child and adolescent socialization that includes both parent and peer contexts in this Special Issue.…”

“…Existing mid-range models that guide the papers in this Special Issue include the Marginalization and Diminished Returns (MDR) Framework (Assari et al [1]); Coercion Theory (Cox et al [3]); a Risk and Protective Factor Framework (Havewala et al [4]); a Diathesis-Stress Model of Anxious Solitude (Gazelle & Cui [8]); Gateway Theory, Self-Derogation Theory, and Primary Socialization Theory of Substance Use/Abuse (Sigal et al [7]); multiple models of emotion socialization and regulation, including Meta-Emotion Theory, the Tripartite Model of Emotion Regulation, Eisenberg's Emotion Socialization Model, and Gottman's Meta-Emotion Philosophy and Typology of Emotion Socialization (Jespersen et al [2]); and the Extended Process Model (Lindsey [6]).…”

“…In addition to highlighting these mid-range models, this Special Issue includes two papers that propose new conceptual models. The Cox et al [3] and Jespersen et al [2] papers both integrate and build upon multiple existing theories within a subarea area of child or adolescent development: immigrant adolescent behavior problems and emotion socialization, respectively. Cox et al's [3] model proposes that adolescents become vulnerable to deviant peer influence when their language becomes disparate from their par-ents' and when conflict and alienation ensue.…”

“…Cox et al's [3] model proposes that adolescents become vulnerable to deviant peer influence when their language becomes disparate from their par-ents' and when conflict and alienation ensue. Jespersen et al [2] postulate that children's emotion-socialization experience is a function of the children's activity, emotions, and their parents' or peers' responsivity styles. Each paper represents an important trend by suggesting a specific and complex interplay of parent and peer contexts on socioemotional development.…”