How parents leverage guilt and pride: A comparison of parental guilt and pride induction in Hong Kong and the United States

Parental socialization of self-conscious emotions is crucial in shaping children's behaviors and moral development. While research has frequently examined the socialization of negative emotions like guilt, the socialization of positive emotions such as pride remains understudied. This gap limits our understanding of the outcomes and cultural differences in parental socialization of self-conscious emotions. Additionally, current research often fails to consider domain differences in the socialization of self-conscious emotions despite evidence indicating varying levels of perceived legitimacy and acceptance by adolescents, leading to a restricted understanding of their connection with parent-child relationships. Our study investigated the association between adolescents' perceptions of parents' pride and guilt induction across different domains (i.e., moral, conventional, prudential, and personal) and adolescents' perceptions of parent-child relationship quality in the United States (N = 142) and Hong Kong (N = 124). The domain-differentiated guilt and pride induction scales demonstrated scalar invariance, indicating consistent meaning and structure across both cultural groups. Results revealed both cultural similarities and differences. In both cultures, guilt induction on personal issues was negatively associated with relationship quality, while perceived levels of pride induction across all issue types were positively associated with relationship satisfaction. However, perceived levels of guilt induction on other issues were negatively associated with relationship quality only in the US sample. The results suggest cultural similarities and differences in how adolescents perceive their parents' use of guilt and pride induction. Our study emphasizes the significance of examining the socialization of positive self-evaluation emotions, like pride, and the need to differentiate between various domains in emotion socialization research.