Mother-Child Dyadic Emotional Responses in Everyday Life: Moderation by Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Child Negative Emotionality

Although emotion socialization during preschool years is well studied, how mother-child mutual emotional responses unfold in naturalistic contexts remains largely unknown. This pilot study examined within-dyad associations between children’s emotion expressions and maternal socialization behaviors, and the moderating effects of maternal depressive symptoms and child negative emotionality. Forty mother-child dyads participated (42.5% girls; Mage = 5.16 years). Across two consecutive weekend days, mothers completed ecological momentary assessments 12 times, reporting children’s positive and negative emotion expressions, the intensity of child peak negative expressions, and their own emotion coaching (EC) and emotion dismissing (ED) behaviors. Children’s peak negative emotion was associated with mothers’ use of EC and ED, and the peak negative emotion and EC link was moderated by child negative emotionality. Maternal EC/ED also predicted children’s subsequent positive and/or negative emotion expressions, and the association between maternal ED and child negative expressions was further moderated by maternal depressive symptoms or child negative emotionality. Using an ecologically valid, real-time assessment approach, this study explored how the mother-child emotion socialization process unfolds in everyday life. Findings highlight the negative impact of maternal ED on children’s emotional experiences and highlight the potential value of early interventions targeting parental ED behaviors.