Mother and father reported emotion coaching tendency : relations to young children's social competence as mediated by children's emotion regulation

Abstract

This study examined the unique and joint association between mothers’ and fathers’ reported emotion coaching tendency and six to eight-year-old children’s (N= 74, 33 boys and 44 girls co-residing with parents) social competence. Parents completed questionnaires assessing their emotion coaching to children’s negative emotions, children’s emotion regulation and social skills. Mothers’ and fathers’ emotion coaching tendency showed an addictive effect on children social competence and such processes were dependent on child gender. Moreover, child emotion regulation mediated the positive effect of maternal emotion coaching on children’s social competence. Parenting programmes seem worthy of educating both mothers and fathers on the importance of emotions and emotion regulation of their children.