Investigating Cultural Transmission of Emotion Regulation Strategies via Parenting Styles

Abstract

The way we feel—and how we manage those feelings—likely starts at home. Indeed, researchers have begun charting how both cultures and parents shape emotion regulation habits. In particular, individuals from East Asian cultures report that their parents use more authoritarian parenting styles, which are characterized by strict power structures, and also report greater use of expressive suppression (inhibiting emotional expression) to regulate their own emotions. In contrast, individuals from Western cultures report that their parents use greater authoritative parenting styles (characterized by less strict power structures and an emphasis on warm support) and report less use of expressive suppression as an emotion regulation strategy. Studies also link being raised in authoritative households with greater use of cognitive reappraisal (changing how one thinks about a situation to change how one feels). However, evidence for associations between culture and cognitive reappraisal is mixed, and no study has directly investigated whether parenting styles serve as a generational conduit that connects culture to offsprings’ emotion regulation habits. Here, we test this question in a pre-registered study. We also developed a task-based measure of emotion regulation choice (suppression vs. reappraisal) to test how parenting and culture related to both self-reported and task-evoked regulation strategy use. Adults (N = 380, 50% East Asian, 50% White) completed questionnaires on emotion regulation and parenting, alongside the regulation strategy selection task. In line with prior work, East Asian participants reported greater use of suppression than White participants, and White participants reported greater use of reappraisal than East Asian participants. Furthermore, parenting styles were significantly associated with emotion regulation strategies and partially mediated cultural differences in reappraisal. However, self-report and task measures differed in regards to reappraisal, with both parenting styles positively associated with reappraisal in the self-reported questionnaire but negatively associated in the selection task, stressing the importance of a multi-method assessment. The findings of this study contribute to the current growing body of research that emphasizes how patterns of emotion regulation differ across cultures, suggesting that cultural differences in emotion regulation are partly transmitted through parenting, highlighting the meaningful role that parenting plays in shaping how individuals choose to regulate their emotions. Future research should continue to expand upon these processes across international populations and contexts to better understand how emotion regulation skills develop.