Mothers supportive of their children's negative emotions rate their children as being more socially skilled than teachers do. Not really a big surprise, parents often think the way they have chosen to do things is the best way, even if their kids seem like many to be, well, brats.
Mothers’ supportive reactions were instead correlated to fewer socioemotional skills and more problem behaviors by third-grade teachers, who obviously see a different side of children.
Nonetheless, these contrasting patterns suggest a potential downside to mothers’ supportiveness of children’s negative emotions for third-grade children’s social adjustment in school. Or not, since it's surveys.
"It’s not clear if the parents are causing these problems by hovering or providing too much support when less support is needed, if the parents are rightfully providing more support because their children are experiencing these social and emotional problems, or if the children are exhibiting very different emotional and social behaviors at home than they are at school,” said Dr. Vanessa Castro, co-author of the study. The authors also suggest that it may be helpful for parents to consider other strategies to guide their children to develop their own skills in emotion regulation and social interaction.
Citation: Vanessa L. Castro, Amy G. Halberstadt and Patricia T. Garrett-Peters, 'Changing tides: Mothers’ supportive emotion socialization relates negatively to third-grade children's social adjustment in school', Social Development, DOI: 10.1111/sode.12251.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jts.22186/full
