basic emotions (Denham, 2000) and mixed emotions in early development (Steele, Steele, Croft & Fonagy, 1999). Research demonstrates that social relationships, particularly with parents, contribute to a child’s emotional development and provide the context within which children learn to understand and regulate emotion (Cole et al., 2004). Parents are also life- experienced adults who potentially possess advanced knowledge of emotions and strategies for regulating emotions, placing them in a position to teach social–emotional skills to young children (Dunn, Brown, Slomkowski, Tesla & Youngblade, 1991). Consequently, parents have the capacity to provide children with a valuable framework within which they can learn to interpret and synthesise emotion. Within this framework, Denham et al. (2012) highlighted the
26 importance of parents’ generally positive emotional expression (with safe negative emotional expression), their openness and expertise when discussing emotions and their encouragement of these same reactions in children. This ultimately assists children to become social– emotionally competent when they enter early schooling. Hastings, Utendale and Sullivan (2007) added that parents who engage in supportive emotion socialisation with their children tend to be more empathetic and prosocial overall, while Scrimgeour, Davis and Buss (2016) acknowledged that children of such parents tend to display more effective solution-oriented behaviours.
Parents’ own social–emotional development is also influenced by their family-of-origin social–emotional experiences in childhood, which may consequently affect the social– emotional development of their children. As reported by Leerkes and Crockenberg (2002), parents who demonstrate high maternal self-efficacy with their children are more likely to report their own emotional needs having been met when they were children themselves. Likewise, parents who are raised in controlling or emotionally rejecting environments tend to experience more hostility, negative attitudes and negative attributions towards their own and others’ infants and children (Leerkes & Siepak, 2006).
Studies have identified three effective strategies for parents to develop social– emotional skills with their children i.e., parent modelling of emotions, parent reactions to children’s emotions and parent teaching about emotions (Denham, 1998; Eisenberg, Cumberland & Spinrad, 1998; Garner, 2010). Each strategy will now be discussed.
2.8.1 Parent modelling of emotions
Through emotion modelling, a parent’s own emotional expressiveness may teach a child about which emotions are acceptable and how to express and regulate these (Valiente, Fabes, Eisenberg & Spinrad, 2004). Studies by Luebbe, Kiel and Buss (2011) and Silk et al. (2011) examined negative parenting styles upon children’s developing ER abilities. Results
27 show that children’s effective social functioning is stunted when parents model consistently negative emotions or provide children with sad or hostile templates for dealing with people and situations. According to Raver and Spagnola (2002), children in such positions learn little about emotions and do not self-reflect well. Children may also acquire modelled information from parents about which situations evoke certain emotions such as fear, and what the appropriate response may be. This contributes to their emotional knowledge in more functional ways, possibly promoting their survival (Nixon & Watson, 2001). While positive parent modelling may contribute to a child’s emotional knowledge for their benefit, it is also likely that negatively modelled emotions contribute to a child’s emotional knowledge in less functional ways (Garner, Jones & Miner, 1994).
2.8.2 Parent reactions to children’s emotions–contingent responding
Through contingent responding, parents may either encourage or discourage a child’s emotional expression by the way they react to particular behaviours (Denham, 1998; Eisenberg et al; 1998; Garner, 2010). Parents who encourage expression of emotions by accepting them in their children have been shown to impart valuable lessons in emotional tolerance and control. Gottman, Katz and Hooven (1997) demonstrated this as positively associated with children’s emotional expressiveness in schooling. Conversely, Berlin and Cassidy (2003) demonstrated that parents who consistently dismiss their children’s emotional world or punish their emotional experiences contribute to their children being more subdued, sad or fearful. According to Fabes, Leonard, Kupanoff and Martin (2001), this leads to diminished emotional regulation for children, who then cannot alter their situation or emotional responses appropriately without the necessary skills. As such, they remain psychologically aroused.
Popular evidence-based behavioural programs that reflect contingent responding include Parent Management Training (Pearl, 2009), The Incredible Years (Webster-Stratton, Jamila Reid & Stoolmiller, 2008) and Triple P (Sanders, Markie-Dadds, Tully & Bor, 2000).
28 Such programs base successful outcomes on teaching positive and negative reinforcement of children’s behaviour. However, they are not designed to teach parents to specifically respond to children’s emotional needs or the unique social–emotional situations that result from children’s behavioural responses. The third strategy, of parents teaching children about emotions (emotion coaching), addresses this issue.
2.8.3 Parent teaching about emotions–emotion coaching
Emotion coaching is best described as supportive responding, with parents verbally labelling emotions and using empathy to teach children to understand and regulate their emotions (Gottman & DeClaire, 1997; Gottman et al; 1996). Behavioural causes, consequences and empathy skills are also addressed through parent emotion coaching (Denham & Kochanoff, 2002). The deliberate use of instruction in emotion coaching assists children to make connections between expressions, situations and words to formulate meaningful scripts about their unique emotional experiences. Through discussing emotions, parents impart new tools for emotion expression and self-regulation to their children, while also validating, clarifying and highlighting their emotional states (Brown & Dunn, 1992). Additionally, as children expand their social interactions, parent emotion coaching assists in guiding children to be aware of specific emotional cues and to be aware of manageable components of their behaviour (Denham et al., 2012), while contributing to a child’s expanding EK skill-set (Havighurst, Wilson, Harley, Prior & Kehoe, 2010). This emotion knowledge includes a child’s increased awareness of emotional expressions, situations and causes (Denham, Zoller & Couchoud, 1994),leading to the child establishing a meaningful body of knowledge about emotion.
Studies focusing on parents as emotion coaches identify positive outcomes for child social–emotional development. For example, Bierman et al. (2008) revealed positive social– emotional skill trends for four year old children (n = 356) engaged in an emotional intelligence development program at school. Additional materials (videos and handouts) were provided for
29 parents at home, with parent emotion coaching practices reinforcing these school program lessons. Bierman, Welsh, Heinrichs, Nix and Mathis (2015) also compared several outcomes for four year old children (n=200) after assigning them to a Research Based, Developmentally Informed (REDI) program versus a combined REDI program plus parent program which gave parents evidence-based learning activities and games to play with their children using emotion coaching strategies. The combined program proved effective in demonstrating significant improvements in child literacy, academic skills, self-directed learning and social competence. Havighurst and colleagues (Havighurst, Harley & Prior, 2004; Havighurst, Wilson, Harley & Prior, 2009; Havighurst et al; 2010; Wilson, Havighurst & Harley, 2012, Havighurst et al; 2013; Havighurst et al; 2015), also investigated the role of parents in building children’s emotional competence through emotion coaching techniques, using video materials, group discussions, exercises, role-play, reading, information and home activities. Using a structured, group-delivery program for parents—Tuning Into Kids—Havighurst and her colleagues demonstrated significant improvements in parent and teacher reports of children’s emotional competence and decreases in teacher and parent–reported behavioural difficulties after children (aged four to six years) completed the program. Samples in these studies ranged from n = 47 to n = 218.
While each parent strategy has shown positive influences on children’s social– emotional skill development, the emotion coaching approach has been the most closely related to optimal social–emotional development in childhood (Eisenberg et al., 2001; Gottman et al., 1996). As such, it will serve as the selected strategy for parents in this study, within a purpose- designed social–emotional skill program.