Parental Emotion Socialization and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation in Adolescents: A Network Analysis.

Abstract

Parental emotion socialization strategies influence adolescent emotion regulation development. However, there are still doubts about the supportive/unsupportive role of each strategy. This may be likely due to limitations of prior research that analyzed these strategies in isolation, without considering their interdependence. This study explored interactive patterns among parental strategies, clarifying which combinations were associated with fewer emotion regulation difficulties. Participants were 503 adolescents (60.8% female; Mage = 14.54; SDage = 1.17). Network and Expected Symptom Activity analyses indicated that reward and override strategies were associated with fewer emotion regulation difficulties, while punishment, neglect, and magnification were associated with greater difficulties. High reward (but not high override) mitigated emotion regulation difficulties unless alongside high neglect or two unsupportive strategies. Override helped buffered neglect's negative effects when combined with high reward. High values in all strategies were associated with more emotion regulation difficulties, while low values with fewer. These results emphasize the interactive nature of parental emotional responses during adolescence, suggesting that no strategy is inherently adaptive or maladaptive-it depends on the context of co-occurring parental behaviors. The findings also support the "good enough" parenting perspective, showing that positive and negative behaviors can coexist and still be associated with fewer difficulties in emotion regulation. In this context, neglect appears to be more detrimental than other emotion socialization strategies.