Associations 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 (PES) beneficially affects cognitive functioning, well-being, and the ability to cope with various stressors and adversity. For parents, the occurrence of depression can negatively impact parenting patterns which can lead to child maladjustment and increased levels of psychopathology later in the child’s life. Based on these consideration, I predicted that greater PES could act as a protective factor for children of parents with depression. This archival study aimed to analyze whether children of mothers with unipolar and bipolar depression perceived different levels of PES from their mothers compared to children of control mothers. Additionally, the study longitudinally assessed whether children who had perceived greater levels of PES would exhibit less psychopathology and greater well-being at later time points compared to children who had perceived lower PES. After multiple analyses, these hypotheses were not supported. However, further research needs to be conducted on this topic using different measures and a more environmentally inclusive lens in order to obtain a more comprehensive view of the relationship between maternal depression and PES, which could ultimately lead to better outcomes for children of mothers with unipolar and bipolar depression.