Association and Outcomes of Positive Emotion Socialization in the Children of Mothers with Unipolar and Bipolar Depression

Abstract

Emotion socialization (ES) is the way in which influential individuals in a child or adolescent’s life react to, discuss, and express emotions, which in turn influences the child’s own emotional responses and expression. Supportive positive emotion socialization more specifically has a cumulative effect that beneficially affects multiple levels of not only cognitive functioning and well-being, but also coping with various stressors and adversity. However, parents with depression have a well-established pattern of dysregulated parenting, which is thought to be associated with their children’s later maladjustment and increased levels of psychopathology. Based on these patterns of dysfunction, it seems possible that utilizing the opposite strategies, that is being responsive and positive with their children, could act as a protective factor for child of parents with depression. This archival study aimed to analyze if children of mothers with unipolar and bipolar depression perceived different levels of positive emotion socialization compared to children of control mothers. Additionally, the study longitudinally assessed if children that experience increased perceptions of positive emotion socialization would exhibit less psychopathology and increased well-being compared to children with decreased perceptions of positive emotion socialization. After multiple analyses, these hypotheses were not supported. However, further research needs to be conducted into this topic using multiple different measures and views into positive emotion socialization in order to get a more comprehensive view of maternal depression’s relationship with positive emotion socialization, which could ultimately lead to decreased likelihood in heritability of unipolar and bipolar depression.