Emotion Socialization Interventions in Parenting

Emotion socialization interventions in parenting encompass structured programmes and strategies designed to enhance caregivers’ capacity to recognise, understand and respond constructively to children’s emotional experiences. Grounded in theories of emotional development and regulation, these interventions typically focus on fostering parents’ own emotion awareness, modelling adaptive regulation and employing “emotion coaching” techniques. Key objectives are to reduce punitive or dismissive responses, encourage open discussion of feelings and cultivate a supportive family emotional climate. Empirical evidence indicates that such approaches bolster children’s self-regulation, emotional competence and behavioural adjustment, while also promoting parental well-being and self-efficacy. Recent developments have emphasised digital delivery modes, cultural adaptation across diverse settings and integration with broader mental health and educational services.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have evaluated a well-established six-week emotion-focused parenting programme delivered online. In a randomised trial involving parents of preschool children, interactive webinars led to sustained improvements in parents’ beliefs about emotions, more supportive reactions to negative affect and a warmer family emotional climate. Small but significant reductions in child internalising and externalising behaviours were observed at six-month follow-up, with high levels of participant engagement and retention. These findings underscore the feasibility of remote delivery and the plasticity of emotion socialization practices in diverse cultural contexts.

Emotion Socialization Interventions in Parenting publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in emotion socialization interventions in parenting across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Emotion coaching: A structured approach in which parents validate, label and guide children’s emotional experiences to support regulation and problem-solving.

Meta-emotion: Parents’ beliefs and feelings about emotions, including attitudes towards emotional expression and regulation strategies.

Internalising behaviours: Emotional or behavioural problems directed inward, such as anxiety, withdrawal and depression.

Externalising behaviours: Outwardly directed difficulties, including aggression, defiance and hyperactivity.

Emotion regulation: Processes by which individuals modulate their emotional responses in terms of intensity, duration and expression.

References

1. "They Don't Come With a Handbook": Exploring Design Opportunities for Supporting Parent-Child Interaction around Emotions in the Family Context. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (2024).
2. The Tuning in to Kids parenting program delivered online improves emotion socialization and child behavior in a first randomized controlled trial. Scientific Reports (2024).
3. The effects of emotion-focused skills training on parental mental health, emotion regulation and self-efficacy: Mediating processes between parents and children. Psychotherapy Research (2023).
4. Effects of emotionally oriented parental interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology (2023).