Links between Chinese mothers' parental beliefs and responses to children's expression of negative emotions

This study investigated relations between parental beliefs and mothers' reported responses to their children's negative emotions. Altogether 189 Chinese mothers of children aged six to eight years were interviewed in group sessions using structured questionnaires. It was found that Chinese mothers endorsed Guan, the Chinese parental beliefs. They also believed that children should be exposed to emotional experiences in order to learn about emotion but did not believe that parents should take an inactive role in their children's emotion learning. Regression analyses revealed that Guan predicted the adoption of the coaching, emotion-supportive and emotion-dismissing approaches when handling children's emotion. Maternal belief in children's open exposure to emotional experiences predicted the adoption of the coaching and emotion-supportive approaches but not the emotion-dismissing approach. Maternal belief in inactive parental role in children's emotion learning predicted the adoption of the emotion-dismissing approach but not the coaching approach. Implications for parent education are discussed.