Parental Meta-Emotion Philosophy: A Review of the Past Decade of Research

Abstract

Objectives : Parental meta-emotion philosophy (PMEP) is the concept that parents have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about their own emotions and their children’s emotions. Since the introduction of this concept in 1996 , many research studies have linked PMEP with children’s psychosocial development. In 2012, a literature review was conducted of PMEP research pub lished from 1996-2012 and a theoretical framework based on the findings from the review was proposed. The purpose of this article is to continue the review of PMEP literature by providing an explanation of the theoretical foundations of PMEP and examine the past decade of research and the im pact of that research on our understanding of PMEP and child socialization. Methods : The researcher applied a narrative literature review methodology to examine PMEP literature published from 2012-2023. Utilizing the Colum bia College online library database, Google Scholar , and Academia , the re searcher found a total of 9 empirical articles about PMEP that were published in the last decade. Results : The results of this recent review further validated the theoretical framework presented in 2012, which claims that child emotional competence acts as a mediator between PMEP and child outcomes (child psychosocial adjustment and child peer relationships). Recent studies found that PMEP can act as a moderating variable (or protective factor) be tween challenging family circumstances (such as family stress or increased maternal symptomatology) and child internalizing behaviors (which are connected to child emotional competence). Additionally , researchers found that there may be a difference between the impacts of PMEP on child sadness versus child anger in families exposed to violence. Finally, researchers discovered that ethnicity could be a moderator between PMEP and child outcomes. The emergence of a new PMEP - focused program geared toward aiding parents in developing an emotion coaching approach with anxious children called tun ing in to kids (TIK s ) has been piloted with promising results. Conclusion : An expansion of the theoretical framework to include PMEP as a moderating variable may be considered if future research can further validate these findings. Additionally, continued research examining PMEP regarding child sadness versus child anger and the impact of ethnicity on PMEP and child socialization is needed. The important role of PMEP in children’s development of emotional competence would indicate that the development of parenting programs promoting healthy PMEP (like TIK) is needed, particularly for families facing adversity. Further research on the TIK program with families from various contexts and cultural backgrounds must be conducted to test its ef fectiveness.