Parent and Friend Emotion Socialization in Adolescence: Associations with Psychological Adjustment
Parent and Friend Emotion Socialization in Adolescence: Associations with Psychological Adjustment
Rachel L. Miller-Slough 0 1
Julie C. Dunsmore 0 1
0 Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech , 109 Williams Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24060 , USA
1 & Rachel L. Miller-Slough
Emotion socialization influences how adolescents learn how to express and regulate their affect, and has ramifications for adolescent psychological adjustment. The majority of emotion socialization research pertains to the influence of parents in childhood; however, close friends gain influence in adolescence. The present narrative review compares parent and friend emotion socialization during adolescence, a developmental period with marked social and emotional challenges in relation to emotion regulation and psychological adjustment. This review suggests that parents and friends are largely similar in their influence on adolescent adjustment, though some socialization strategies and outcomes have yet to be fully examined in friend emotion socialization. Fruitful directions for future research are discussed.
Emotion socialization; Parent-child relations; Friendships; Adolescence; Adjustment
Introduction
Emotion socialization is a formative process in adolescent
socio-emotional development
(Klimes-Dougan and Zeman
2007)
. Much of the extant literature on emotion
socialization pertains to parents; however, friends gain increasing
influence during adolescence
(Rubin et al. 2009; von
Salisch 2001)
. This narrative review will compare emotion
socialization in parent–child relationships and close
friendships, and how each relates to internalizing
symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and social competence in
adolescence. These outcomes are particularly relevant in
adolescence, when youth are at heightened risk for
developing psychological difficulties and face new social
demands for which they may need emotional guidance
(Costello et al. 2003; Garcia and Scherf 2015)
.
This review identified sources of emotion socialization
strategies based on theoretical models
(Eisenberg et al.
1998; Morris et al. 2007)
. Articles and chapters were then
selected for inclusion when relevant to these socialization
strategies (modeling, responses to emotion, emotion
discussions) and focused on adolescence. Thus, inclusion was
not based on a specific publication date range or keyword,
but rather theoretical relevance. This strategy narrowed
coverage of the vast emotion socialization literature by
excluding empirical studies focused on early or middle
childhood. Similarly, there is a large literature on the
influence of parents and friends in adolescence, but the
review focused on those studies that pertained to emotion
socialization, rather than broader influence. Methodology,
design, and sample characteristics for each of the articles
included in this review are summarized in Table 1. The
review first discusses parent–child relationships and
friendships in adolescence, compared with earlier
developmental periods, followed by a review of emotion
socialization strategies.
Parents and Friends in Adolescence
From a developmental perspective, the parent–child
relationship is the first influential dyadic relationship in a
child’s life and provides a basis from which adolescents
engage with friends. First, it is a space to develop
competencies to apply in future relationships, such as how to
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