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

Michael M. Criss, Amanda Sheffield Morris, Elisabeth Ponce-Garcia, Lixian Cui, Jennifer S. Silk

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

57 Scopus citations

Abstract

The current study examined pathways to adolescent anger and sadness regulation in low-income families. The sample included 206 families with adolescents age 10–18 years. Using a multimethod, multi-informant approach, we assessed neighborhood violence, mutual emotional support, parental emotion coaching, and anger and sadness regulation. The findings indicated that high levels of mutual emotional support and emotion coaching and low levels of neighborhood violence were correlated with adolescent emotion regulation. In addition, the analyses demonstrated multiple pathways to emotion regulation. Specifically, neighborhood violence was directly and indirectly related to anger and sadness regulation. Moreover, mutual emotional support was indirectly related to emotion regulation via emotion coaching. Overall, there was little evidence of adolescent sex and age differences in the model. Implications regarding the socialization of adolescent emotion regulation are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)517-529
Number of pages13
JournalFamily Relations
Volume65
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2016

Keywords

  • Adolescence
  • emotion coaching
  • emotion regulation
  • family emotional climate
  • low-income families
  • neighborhood violence

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