Maternal Emotional Styles and Child Social Adjustment: Assessment, Correlates, Outcomes and Goodness of Fit in Early Childhood

The goals of the present research were to develop a modified version of an existing self-assessment questionnaire designed to measure parents’ emotional style and to examine how the aspects of child regulation may moderate the relation between the emotional styles and social outcomes in childhood. Participants in Study 1 were 140 mothers and children (73 males, 67 females, Mage = 56.0 months). The mothers completed the Maternal Emotional Styles Questionnaire (MESQ) to assess maternal emotional styles, and the Child Behavior Vignettes to assess parental goals across two scenarios. Participants in Study 2 were 50 mothers who were interviewed regarding their emotional styles using the Meta-emotion Interview, and who also completed the MESQ. In Study 3, 100 mothers and children (41 males, 59 females, M = 58.0 months) participated. The mothers completed the MESQ and the Child Behavior Questionnaire to assess the children’s emotion and behavior regulation. Teachers completed the Child Behavior Scale to measure the indices of preschool adjustment. Results from Studies 1 and 2 indicated a two-factor scale for the MESQ, with good psychometric properties (including stability, convergent validity, and construct validity). Results from Study 3 indicated different patterns of associations between maternal emotional styles, and child adjustment for well-regulated versus dysregulated children.