Adolescent Peer Relationship Difficulties, Prosociality, and Parental Emotion Socialization: Moderating Roles of Adolescent Gender

Abstract

The present study examined longitudinal, transactional associations between youth social adjustment (prosociality, peer relationship difficulties) and parental emotion socialization in early adolescence. Adolescent gender was considered as a potential moderator. Eighty-seven adolescent-parent dyads (50 girls, 37 boys) participated in 8^th grade, with follow-up waves in 9^th and 10^th grade. Adolescents reported their experiences of peer victimization and their parents’ emotion socialization responses, and parents reported youth prosocial behavior and peer relation problems. Hierarchical linear modeling results indicated transactional associations between parent supportive/unsupportive responses and adolescent peer relations and prosociality over time, some of which were moderated by adolescent gender. Increases in parental supportive emotion socialization corresponded to decreased experiences of peer victimization over time for girls, but not boys. When peer victimization increased over time, girls reported less parental supportive responses and all adolescents reported receiving more unsupportive responses from parents. For all adolescents, parents’ increased supportive responses also corresponded to decreased peer problems and increased prosocial behavior. As prosocial behavior increased, so did parental supportive responses. Increases in parents’ unsupportive responses related to decreased prosocial behavior, and increases in adolescent prosocial behavior related to decreases in parents’ unsupportive responses. Results suggest that there is mutual influence between parent emotion socialization and adolescent social adjustment. Adolescent girls appear to uniquely benefit from parents’ supportive emotional socialization in relation to their experiences of peer victimization. Potential mechanisms and implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• Peer relations
• prosocial behavior
• emotion socialization
• gender differences
• longitudinal

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Shannon Casey and Nicole Capriola for their work on this study as undergraduate research assistants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The dataset generated and analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by the Virginia Tech Department of Psychology.

Notes on contributors

Danhua Zhu

Danhua Zhu is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, Irvine. She works with families from the United States and mainland China to study culture, parents’ emotion socialization, and child socioemotional functioning. Her research interests also include autobiographical memory and narratives.

Rachel L. Miller-Slough

Rachel L. Miller-Slough is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at East Tennessee State University. Her research focuses on the role of emotion socialization in youth mental health and improving access to emotion socialization intervention programs to under-served families.

Pamela W. Garner

Pamela W. Garner is a professor of childhood studies in the School of Integrative Studies and Human Development and Family Science at George Mason University. She conducts research on the social and emotional development of children from minoritized groups and studies the contributions of parents and teachers to young children’s social-emotional learning.

Julie C. Dunsmore

Julie C. Dunsmore is a Professor of Human Development & Family Sciences at the University of Houston. Dunsmore’s research focuses on emotion socialization processes within multilayered socio-cultural contexts from early childhood through adolescence. Her research addresses effects of emotion socialization on social competence, behavior problems, and well-being.