(PS10-B38) Early Emotion Minimization by Caregivers Is Associated with Lower Signal-congruent Emotional Responding in Emerging Adulthood

Introduction

Early emotion socialization experiences can have significant, enduring effects on an individual’s ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions (Eisenberg, 2020). Invalidating responses to emotions from caregivers—i.e., reactions that punish, minimize, or communicate distress—may teach an individual, from a young age, to respond to their own emotions with aversion or avoidance (Krause et al., 2003); in contrast, validating or supportive reactions—i.e., reactions that soothe, problem-solve, or encourage emotional expression—may help them learn to recognize their emotions as meaningful, context-specific signals, and to respond to those signals accordingly. This study piloted a novel emotion-focused task that elicited individuals’ imagined emotional responses to scenarios with clear signals (i.e., scenarios about (a) loss, (b) threats to safety or success, (c) being violated or blocked from a goal, and (d) committing social transgressions). This study explored relationships between participants’ early emotion socialization experiences and their selection of signal-congruent emotions.

Method

Participants were 122 undergraduate students (M_age = 20.16 years, SD = 1.45) enrolled in an introductory psychology course at a North American university who completed the study for course credit.  The sample was 54.1% female, 44.3% male, and 1.6% gender nonbinary, and diverse in terms of race and ethnicity (47.5% Asian, 31.1% White, 15.6% Latinx, 7.4% Black, 4.1% Middle Eastern/North African, 4.9% multiracial, 0.8% Native American/Indigenous). Participants completed the emotion task and a questionnaire battery, which included the Socialization of Emotions Scale (SES; Krause et al., 2003) as well as measures of temperament (the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised—Short Form; EPQR-S, Eysenck et al., 1985), and emotional functioning (e.g., the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20, Bagby et al., 1994; Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire – Distress Aversion subscale, MEAQ-DA, Gámez et al., 2011). Data analyses used Pearson correlations and linear regression models.

Results

Signal-congruent emotion selections (e.g., sadness in response to loss scenarios) were negatively correlated with early punishment (r = -.25, p = .006), minimization (r = -.33, p < .001), and distress reactions (r = -.30, p = .001). Controlling for all correlates (including state anxiety and alexithymia), early minimization was significantly, negatively associated with signal-congruent emotion selections overall (b = -.31, p = .024) as well as signal-congruent guilt/shame selections (b = -.30, p = .042).

Discussion

Early experiences of emotion minimization by caregivers may hinder an individual’s ability to experience and respond to signal-congruent emotions—particularly signal-congruent guilt/shame—in early adulthood. These experiences appear to have a lasting impact even when considering temperamental and coping-related factors. Therefore, prevention efforts as well as emotional disorder interventions should consider the impact of early emotion socialization on individuals’ ability to experience and respond adaptively to the full range of their emotions.