Scrutinizing parental minimization reactions to adolescents' negative emotions through the lens of Chinese culture

  • Zeyi Shi
  • , Lanyue Fan
  • , Qian Wang*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

This research examined in China two types of parental minimization reactions to adolescents' negative emotions: Devaluing/invalidating that degrades the significance of adolescents' emotions (thereby invalidating adolescents' feelings) versus discounting/mitigating that downplays the seriousness of the situations (thereby mitigating adolescents' emotional arousals). Study 1 had 777 adolescents (389 females; mean age = 12.79 years) complete a survey; Study 2 had 233 adolescents (111 females; mean age = 12.19 years) complete a survey twice spanning around 6 months. Study 1 showed adolescents' perceived maternal devaluing/invalidating and discounting/mitigating reactions as two distinct factors, with different patterns of associations with other supportive versus nonsupportive parenting practices. Study 2 showed that over time, adolescents' perceived maternal devaluing/invalidating reactions predicted their dampened socioemotional functioning; discounting/mitigating reactions predicted their enhanced functioning.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)380-394
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Research on Adolescence
Volume34
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2024

Keywords

  • Chinese culture
  • emotion regulation
  • internalizing and externalizing problems
  • parental minimization reactions to adolescents' negative emotions
  • social competence

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