Emotional Life of the Family: Parental Meta- -emotions, Children's Temperament and Internalising and Externalising Problems

The aim of this study was to investigate some assumptions related to Gottman's model of parental meta-emotions on a sample of preschool children's parents. The study included 506 parents. The questionnaires about parental meta-emotions, dimensions of temperament and children's internalising and externalising problems were completed by mothers and fathers separately. Mothers' and fathers' awareness of their own and of their children's emotions and coaching child emotions were indirectly related to child externalising and internalising problems through child negative affectivity and effortful control, and awareness was also directly related to the child's externalising and internalising problems. The results of the models showed that mothers' and fathers' awareness and coaching were positively related to effortful control and negatively related to negative affectivity, whereas only mothers' and fathers' awareness were negatively related to externalising and internalising problems. Simultaneously, negative affectivity was positively related to the child's externalising and internalising problems and effortful control was negatively related to the child's externalising and internalising problems. With this study, we have confirmed part of the investigated assumptions from Gottman's model that relate to the influence of parental meta-emotion on child outcomes.