Distinct parental emotion socialization strategies and contextual moderators: A meta-analysis of links with children and adolescents’ internalizing problems

Parental responses to children’s negative emotions, as a form of emotion socialization (ES), encompass a range of specific strategies commonly classified as supportive or unsupportive. However, empirical evidence for the presumed protective and adverse roles of supportive and unsupportive strategies for the risk of developing internalizing problems has been mixed, potentially due to differences in ES strategies examined under the two broad dimensions, as well as contextual (e.g., type of child emotion and sociocultural background within which the strategies were used) and methodological variations. To further understand the heterogeneity in research findings, this study took a meta-analytic approach to examine the associations between distinct ES strategies and internalizing problems in children and adolescents, as well as key moderators of these associations. A systematic literature search (updated in August 2025) yielded 133 studies comprising 1,050 relevant effect sizes. Overall, significant pooled associations with internalizing problems emerged for supportive ES strategies (r = -0.148) and unsupportive strategies (r = 0.199). However, override and expressive encouragement did not show the same negative associations as other presumed supportive strategies; minimization was less strongly linked to internalizing problems than other unsupportive strategies except for ignoring. Associations involving specific strategies were further moderated by factors conceptualized as key contexts of parents’ strategy-use (e.g., type of child negative emotion parents were responding to, child age and gender, sociocultural background). Overall, these findings underscore the complex and nuanced nature of how emotion-related parenting may be related to children’s mental health. They also provide evidence for more targeted and context-sensitive prevention strategies to promote adaptive ES practices.