JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the parents’ perception of emotion regulation and how it supports parents in upbringing children. The importance of this topic is dictated by the need to understand with what knowledge, skills, or areas parents might begin to immerse themselves in this learning process. This study has assumed to start parents’ learning path with examining parenting styles and practices as “a constellation of attitudes toward the child” and emotion regulation as a specific area. A total of 11 parents were recruited for the current study. The data were collected through two questionnaires including a Likert scale assessment to examine parenting styles and emotional practices and a semi-structured interview to explore parents’ interpretations of emotion regulation and self-assessment of parenting styles/practices (8 participants took part in the interview). Based on the questionnaire analysis, the parents were divided into 3 groups. Group 1 — with a pronounced authoritative style and emotion-coaching practice, Group 2 — with a slight predominance of an authoritative style and dismissing emotional practice, Group 3 — with an authoritative style and dismissing and did not participate in the interview. The qualitative analysis presented that those parents, who pay attention to emotion regulation and purposefully implement it in parenting, tend to display the authoritative style and the emotion-coaching parenting practice, interpret emotion regulation in multifaceted dimensions, taking into account their internal perception of emotions (acceptance, awareness), influencing emotion (regulation), and social interests. The less knowledgeable parents in the emotional area do not appropriately take into account acceptance and awareness of emotions, especially negative, and they use fewer strategies compared with the emotion coachers. Moreover, results showed that the application of knowledge on emotional regulation in practice often depends on the internal state of the parents. Additionally, the main reasons were identified why parents want to be aware of emotion regulation, where they emphasized the importance of emotions in parent-child relationships.