Positive and Negative Family Emotional Climate Differentially Predict Youth Anxiety and Depression via Distinct Affective Pathways

Abstract

A socioaffective specificity model was tested in which positive and negative affect differentially mediated relations of family emotional climate to youth internalizing symptoms. Participants were 134 7(th)-9(th) grade adolescents (65 girls; 86 % Caucasian) and mothers who completed measures of emotion-related family processes, experienced affect, anxiety, and depression. Results suggested that a family environment characterized by maternal psychological control and family negative emotion expressiveness predicted greater anxiety and depression, and was mediated by experienced negative affect. Conversely, a family emotional environment characterized by low maternal warmth and low positive emotion expressiveness predicted only depression, and was mediated through lowered experienced positive affect. This study synthesizes a theoretical model of typical family emotion socialization with an extant affect-based model of shared and unique aspects of anxiety and depression symptom expression.

Maternal enhancing responses to adolescents’ positive affect: Associations with adolescents’ positive affect regulation and depression

“…Mothers reported on their own warmth ( α = 0.84) by indicating whether they exhibited each of 10 behaviors on a scale from 1 ( not like me ) to 3 ( a lot like me ). The CRPBI has demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Schluderman & Schluderman, ), convergent validity (Kim Park, Garber, Ciesla, & Ellis, ), and the maternal‐self report version has also shown good internal consistency (Luebbe & Bell, ).…”

“…Therefore, the influence of mothers’ active‐constructive cannot be solely attributable to mothers’ mere expressions of PA. Previous research shows that maternal warmth, family, and maternal expressiveness of positive emotions each heighten adolescents’ experience of PA itself (Gentzler et al, ; Luebbe & Bell, ). However, these studies did not investigate whether these family processes impact adolescents’ strategies for managing PA. Our findings suggest that active‐constructive responses to PA when sharing positive events may be a unique interaction wherein adolescents learn to engage in regulatory behaviors to maintain experiences of PA.…”

“…Indeed, parents’ supportive responses to youth displays of negative affect, such as validating and encouraging expression, are linked to greater youth emotional competence (McElwain, Halberstadt, & Volling, ), and non‐supportive reactions, like reprimanding and punishing expression, have been linked to self‐regulation difficulties (Eisenberg et al, ) and internalizing and externalizing symptomatology (O'Neal & Magai, ). As these studies imply, the bulk of research examining parents’ socialization has centered on responses to NA to the relative neglect of PA. Not only might parents respond in different ways to negative and positive affect, the consequences of these responses may be different for outcomes such as regulatory abilities and symptomatology (Luebbe & Bell, ). As such, recent research has explored parents’ specific responses to youth PA (e.g., happiness, excitement) in relation to youth outcomes.…”

“…It is also critical to discern whether parental active‐constructive responses are distinct from additional components of the family emotional context. For example, diminished parental warmth, lower family positive emotional expressiveness, and less expressed parental PA have each been associated with elevated depression in youth (Luebbe & Bell, ; Schwartz et al, ). Although parental active‐constructive responses to adolescents’ PA are likely related to these other aspects of the family emotional context, we argue it is a distinct construct that represents a specific form of socialization.…”

Childhood Mental Health: An Ecological Analysis of the Effects of Neighborhood Characteristics

“…Neighborhood strain may have deleterious effects on the family environment, which may lead to more family conflict and less cohesion, negatively impacting child development (Kohen, Leventhal, Dahinten, & McIntosh, 2008). Family environment problems, such as negative emotional expressiveness , defined as the degree to which family members express negative emotions, have been linked to increased risk for depression and anxiety (Luebbe & Bell, 2014). Klebanov, Brooks-Gunn, Chase-Lansdale, & Gordon (1997) investigated the influence of neighborhood effects on child outcomes through its impact on family-level processes.…”