Parental emotion regulation difficulties and stress: the role of mindful parenting and emotion socialization in young children’s emotion regulation

Research highlights that children’s emotion regulation develops not only through individual characteristics but also through parental and family-related factors. The present study examined the associations between parental psychological functioning and young children’s emotional outcomes, focusing on parenting stress and parental emotion regulation difficulties, along with mindful parenting and emotion socialization behaviours, as predictors. The sample consisted of 349 Turkish parents (268 mothers, 81 fathers; Mage = 35.45, SDage = 6.18) with children aged 2–6 years. Data were collected using the Emotion Regulation Checklist, Parental Emotion Style Scale, Parental Stress Scale, Mindfulness in Parenting Questionnaire, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that mindful parenting and emotion coaching positively predicted children’s emotion regulation, whereas parenting stress and parental emotion regulation difficulties were negative predictors. For emotional lability/negativity, parenting stress and parental emotion regulation difficulties emerged as the strongest positive predictors. These findings highlight the importance of parental emotional functioning and parenting practices in young children’s emotional development.