Development of a culturally informed method of evaluating emotion socialization within Latino families

University Of Connecticut Sch Of Med/Dnt, Farmington CT

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY Adaptive emotion regulation skills can help to promote resilience in children by mitigating the risk for psychopathology associated with a range of risk factors including parental mental health problems, childhood maltreatment, and violence exposure. Importantly, Latino children and youth are at an increased risk for mood disorders yet less likely to receive treatment, as compared to European American youth, with more than a million Latino youth suffering in 2019, only 37% of whom received treatment. Supporting the development of adaptive emotion regulation skills may be one way to reduce these disparities. However, Latino families are rarely included in research on children’s socioemotional development, and therefore may be left behind from the advances in interventions in this area. A primary means by which children develop adaptive emotion regulation skills is from their parents’ use of emotion socialization parenting behaviors (ESPBs), including parents’ modeling of their own emotional responses, direct teaching about emotions and regulation skills, and responses to their children’s emotional displays. ESPBs are related to emotional functioning and psychosocial outcomes in children of all ages and thus can be an important target for intervention. However, most of what we know about these parenting behaviors is based upon research conducted predominantly with European American samples. There is reason to believe that Latino parents’ ESPBs may differ from those of European American parents because parents possess culturally-influenced beliefs about emotions that guide their response to and shaping of their children’s emotional experience, expression, and regulation. Yet very little is known about ESPBs in Latino families. The current study aims to expand our understanding of emotion socialization processes in Latino families and generate a culturally informed measure for assessing them that can be used to evaluate the impact of interventions on parenting and ensuing child outcomes. We propose to utilize an exploratory mixed methods design to deepen our understanding of ESPBs among Latino families and establish a culturally informed and linguistically valid method for assessing them. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to improve our ability to validly evaluate ESPBs and their impact on Latino children (ages 6-12). Specifically, this study will pursue three aims: (1) Strengthen our understanding of ESPBs among Latino parents utilizing focus groups with 48 Latino parents to enhance our knowledge. This information will inform an adaptation of an existing widely used assessment tool, the EAC (with support of its authors) which will be carefully translated into two Spanish-language versions appropriate for use by individuals of Mexican or Puerto Rican origin; (2) Examine the factor structure and test the reliability of the modified EAC via an on-line national survey of parents of Mexican or Puerto Rican origin; and (3) Establish the convergent validity of the modified EAC. With this tool in hand, we can more sensitively develop and evaluate ESPB interventions for Latino families.