Pathways to Adaptive Emotion Regulation Among Adolescents from Low‐Income Families

• Author: Jennifer S. Silk,Lixian Cui,Elisabeth Ponce‐Garcia,Michael M. Criss,Amanda Sheffield Morris
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12202
• Published date: 01 July 2016
• Date: 01 July 2016

M M. C  A S M Oklahoma State University

E P-G Cameron University

L C New York University–Shanghai

J S. S University of Pittsburgh

Pathways to Adaptive Emotion Regulation Among

Adolescents from Low-Income Families

The current study examined pathways to adoles-

cent anger and sadness regulationin low-income

families. The sample included 206 families with

adolescents age 10–18 years. Using a multi-

method, multi-informant approach, we assessed

neighborhood violence, mutual emotional sup-

port, parental emotion coaching, and anger and

sadness regulation. The ndings indicated that

high levels of mutual emotional support and

emotion coaching and low levels of neighbor-

hood violence were correlated with adolescent

emotion regulation. In addition, the analyses

demonstrated multiple pathways to emotion reg-

ulation. Specically, neighborhood violence was

directly and indirectly related to anger and sad-

ness regulation. Moreover, mutual emotional

support was indirectly related to emotion regu-

lation via emotion coaching. Overall, there was

little evidence of adolescent sex and age differ-

ences in the model. Implications regarding the

socialization of adolescent emotion regulation

are discussed.

B

Research has demonstrated that parents play

a critical role in the development of emotion

regulation during childhood and adolescence

Department of Human Development and Family Science,

233 Human Sciences, Oklahoma State University,Stillwater,

OK 74078 (michael.criss@okstate.edu).

KeyWords: Adolescence, emotion coaching, emotion regula-

tion, family emotional climate, low-income families, neigh-

borhood violence.

(e.g., Brenning & Braet, 2012; Morris, Silk,

Steinberg, Terranova, & Kithakye, 2009).

For instance, emotion socialization efforts

characterized by high levels of acceptance

and emotion-coaching and low levels of

emotion-dismissing (e.g., denigration, pun-

ishment) behavior have been associated with

high levels of emotion regulation (Buckholdt,

Parra, & Jobe-Shields, 2014; Cunningham,

Kliewer, & Garner, 2009). In addition, the

emotional climate of the family (e.g., positive

relationship quality) has been linked to emotion

regulation (Fosco & Grych, 2012). Moreover,

as adolescents age, inuences in the neighbor-

hood begin to have both direct and indirect

(via family factors) inuences on adolescent

development (e.g., Ingoldsby & Shaw, 2002).

Although the existing evidence has indicated

that emotion-related parenting practices, family

emotional climate, and neighborhood quali-

ties are related to emotion regulation, we are

unaware of any published research that has

examined the pathways that link these factors to

emotion regulation or that has examined poten-

tial sex and age differences in these pathways.

To address these gaps, the current investigation

focused on the impact of both family and neigh-

borhood characteristics on emotion regulation to

better understand the pathways that lead to ado-

lescent emotion regulation among low-income

families.

Family Relations 65 (July 2016): 517–529 517

DOI:10.1111/fare.12202