Predictors of Media Emotion Regulation and Its Consequences for Children’s Socioemotional Development

Abstract

Media emotion regulation has been defined as parents’ use of media to regulate their children's emotions in early childhood. The purpose of this review is to investigate the predictors of media emotion regulation and its consequences on children's socioemotional development. As predictors of media emotion regulation, parental education level, parental media use, and the child’s temperament were examined. It was observed that parents with low levels of education and higher personal media use more frequently offer their children media emotion regulation than other parents. The relationships between children’s temperamental domains of negative affect and extraversion/surgency and media emotion regulation have been shown as positive, while the relationship between effortful control and media emotion regulation has been displayed as negative. As for the consequences of media emotion regulation on children's socioemotional development, children’s problematic media use, emotional knowledge, and empathy were examined. The relationship between media emotion regulation and problematic media use was displayed as positive; children who frequently experienced media emotion regulation had increased problematic media use. Also, it was shown that media emotion regulation has a negative role in children's emotional knowledge. As children's experience with media emotion regulation increased, their emotional knowledge decreased. Lastly, in the relationship between media emotion regulation and empathy, both positive and negative findings were observed and variables that may influence this relationship were discussed. This study contributes significantly to understanding the conditions under which children more frequently experience media emotion regulation and the role of this experience on children's socioemotional developmentAs the consequences of media emotion regulation on children’s socio-emotional development, children's problematic media use, emotional knowledge, and empathy have been explored. There is a positive relationship between media emotion regulation and problematic media use. As media emotion regulation increases, children's emotional knowledge decreases. Finally, in the relationship between media emotion regulation and empathy, both positive and negative outcomes have been found, suggesting that media content and how children perceive media emotion regulation may influence this relationship. This study offers a significant contribution by exploring the conditions under which children more frequently experience media emotion regulation and its role in children's socio-emotional development.