The relations of parenting, effortful control, and ego control to children's emotional expressivity.
The relations of observed parental warmth and positive expressivity and children's effortful control and ego control with children's high versus low emotional expressivity were examined in a 2-wave study of 180 children (M age = 112.8 months). There were quadratic relations between adults' reports of children's emotional expressivity and effortful control; moderate expressivity was associated with high effortful control. Structural equation models supported the hypothesis that children's ego overcontrol (versus undercontrol) mediated the relation between parental warmth or positive expressivity and children's emotional expressivity, although parenting at the follow-up did not uniquely predict in children's expressivity after controlling for the relations in these constructs over time. The alternative hypothesis that children's ego overcontrol elicited positive parenting and expressivity also was supported.
Eisenberg
Nancy
N
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287-1104, USA. nancy.eisenberg@asu.edu
Zhou
Qing
Q
Losoya
Sandra H
SH
Fabes
Richard A
RA
Shepard
Stephanie A
SA
Murphy
Bridget C
BC
Reiser
Mark
M
Guthrie
Ivanna K
IK
Cumberland
Amanda
A
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires