Abstract

This study investigated the influence of grandmothers’ attitudes towards children’s emotion expression on the mothers’ attitudes towards children’s emotion expression, children’s emotion regulation, and social competence. A total of 223 children (aged 3 to 5 years) and their families participated in this study. Only maternal grandmothers were included in this study. Grandmothers’ and mothers’ attitudes towards children’s emotional expressions were measured by maternal reports using revised versions of Korean translations of the Maternal Emotional Styles Questionnaire. Mothers also rated the children’s ability to regulate emotions, while the children’s social competence was evaluated by teachers’ ratings in kindergarten settings. Results showed that grandmothers’ attitudes towards children’s emotion expression positively affected the mothers’ attitudes. Grandmothers’ attitudes towards children’s emotion expression were not directly linked to child variables, but instead affected children’s social competence via the mothers’ attitudes towards children’s emotion expression and children’s emotion regulation. In particular, only the direct effect of the children’s emotion regulation on children’s social competence was significant. Findings were discussed in terms of the intergenerational transmission of the socialization of emotion.