TY - JOUR
T1 - When My Mommy Was Angry, I Was Speechless
T2 - Children's Perceptions of Maternal Emotional Expressiveness Within the Context of Economic Hardship
AU - Raver, C. Cybele
AU - Spagnola, Mary
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation grant (#SBR-9616454), the McCormick-Tribune Foundation, and a Faculty Scholars Award from the William T. Grant Foundation, to the first author. Many thanks to the families and administrators of participating Head Start centers in Tompkins County, NY and the city of Rochester, NY. The authors are grateful for the exemplary research assistance of Joylyn Somersel, Barbara Esqudero, Todd Jusko and Melissa Leibman. They also thank Elizabeth Gershoff and the volume editor and reviewers for their helpful comments.
PY - 2002/1/1
Y1 - 2002/1/1
N2 - This study examined relations among poverty-related risk, mothers' self-report of negative emotional expressiveness, and children's representations of maternal anger and sadness (N = 46). Children's accuracy was lower when identifying negative emotions than when identifying positive emotions. Significant differences between children exposed to high versus low levels of maternal negative expressiveness were found. Children of highly negative mothers were less accurate in identifying maternal anger, used fewer anger-related terms, and described maternal anger as significantly less intense. These children also were significantly more likely to generate punitive solutions to child anger and irrelevant/incomplete solutions to maternal sadness than were children with less emotionally negative mothers. Support was also found for the negative impact of poverty-related risk on emotional processes within the family. These findings are discussed in light of models of emotion socialization, risk, and resilience among low-income families.
AB - This study examined relations among poverty-related risk, mothers' self-report of negative emotional expressiveness, and children's representations of maternal anger and sadness (N = 46). Children's accuracy was lower when identifying negative emotions than when identifying positive emotions. Significant differences between children exposed to high versus low levels of maternal negative expressiveness were found. Children of highly negative mothers were less accurate in identifying maternal anger, used fewer anger-related terms, and described maternal anger as significantly less intense. These children also were significantly more likely to generate punitive solutions to child anger and irrelevant/incomplete solutions to maternal sadness than were children with less emotionally negative mothers. Support was also found for the negative impact of poverty-related risk on emotional processes within the family. These findings are discussed in light of models of emotion socialization, risk, and resilience among low-income families.
KW - Economic hardship
KW - Emotion socialization
KW - Maternal emotional expressiveness
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U2 - 10.1300/J002v34n01_04
DO - 10.1300/J002v34n01_04
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0038772320
SN - 0149-4929
VL - 34
SP - 63
EP - 88
JO - Marriage and Family Review
JF - Marriage and Family Review
IS - 1-2
ER -