Latent profiles of parents’ family-of-origin invalidation experiences: associations with emotion coping and children’s prosocial behavior

The development of prosocial behavior, a vital aspect of children’s socialization and future mental health, remains understudied in its relationship to parents’ family-of-origin experiences. The goal of the present study is to examine how parents’ family-of-origin experiences are related to children’s prosocial behavior through parental emotion coping styles. We conducted a six-month longitudinal study with 837 families in Shanghai, China, focusing on children aged 31–83 months (M = 63.42 months, SD = 7.99). This research identified that parents’ family-of-origin invalidation experiences could be categorized into three profiles: the effective parents’ family-of-origin profile, the father-invalidating family profile, and the both-invalidating family profile. Compared with the effective parents’ family-of-origin profile, both the father-invalidating family profile and the both-invalidating family profile were associated with lower levels of children’s prosocial behavior, in the context of their spouse’s higher non-supportive and lower supportive emotion coping styles. The both-invalidating family profile was further associated with lower prosocial behavior in the context of parents’ own lower supportive coping styles, and this association appeared stronger than that of the father-invalidating family profile. These findings highlight distinct pathways linking invalidating family-of-origin dynamics to children’s prosocial development, supporting the tripartite model of family influence and offering culturally relevant insights for fostering prosocial behavior in children.