Emotion Socialization and Developmental Outcomes in Black Children: Relations with Ethnic-Racial Socialization

Abstract

The way parents perceive, understand, and react to the emotions expressed by their children affects the development of emotional and social competence during childhood. This relation may be influenced by ethnic-racial issues. In the first part of this chapter, we discuss the relation between emotion socialization and ethnic-racial socialization and its repercussions for black children’s social-emotional development. In the second part of the chapter, we investigate the mediation role of children’s emotional self-regulation on the relation between maternal emotion socialization practices and children’s behavioral problems in a Brazilian sample of 35 self-declared black and brown mother-child dyads with children aged 3–7 years. Results showed that unsupportive emotion socialization practices predicted lower child emotional self-regulation, which was inversely related to externalizing problems. We discuss the hypothesis that black Brazilian parents might have difficulties helping their children cope with social challenges, particularly the negative emotions elicited by prejudice and discrimination. Future research must investigate this hypothesis, and policymakers must implement intervention programs to promote emotional and ethnic-racial socialization in Brazil.