Crenças maternas sobre competências emocionais e estratégias de regulação emocional: impactos na autorregulação emocional dos filhos

Abstract

Emotion regulation stands out for its preponderant role in mental health, academic success and social competence. The study of parental beliefs about children's emotional competence is relevant for the relationship it maintains with emotion socialization strategies that impact the development of this skill. To deepen these issues, this study investigated maternal beliefs about emotional competence in children and emotional regulation strategies used by mothers in their children, when expressing emotions considered negative, particularly anger and sadness, and the relationship with their emotional self-regulation. Forty-four children, from four to five years old, and their mothers participated. Identification forms, Sociodemographic Data, the COMPE scale, the CCNES scale were applied to mothers and a structured interview was conducted. With children, was apllied an emotional regulation task for anger and sadness. The data analysis included quantitative analyzes, through descriptive statistics, normality tests, t test, Pearson's correlation analysis, Sperman's correlation test and chi-square, and qualitative analyzes (content analysis of the interview responses). The results indicated the predominant use of supportive strategies. Two sociodemographic variables seem to have contributed in this regard: the high level of education and the high average age of the mothers. It was not found significant association between the score on the scale of beliefs about emotional competence (COMPE) and the score on the scale that measured emotional regulation strategies used by mothers with their children when expressing emotions considered negative (CCNES). Method options may have influenced this outcome. Furthermore, the literature emphasizes that the relationship between beliefs and strategies is not linear and direct. The sample size may also have interfered with this and other results. The results also pointed out a predominance in the use of adaptive strategies, for anger and sadness, and studies show that children from four years old already have an explicit awareness of effective strategies in the management of anger and sadness. It was not found significant associations between the child's sex and the type of strategy used, as well as between the COMPE score and the emotional regulation task scores, and between the CCNES subscale scores and the emotional regulation task. It is considered that the maternal level of education and age, in addition to the sample size and methodological choices may have interfered in these results. There was a predominant use of supportive strategies by mothers, both for anger and sadness, but with considerably greater reporting of supportive strategies for sadness, and a significantly higher percentage of reactions of emotional encouragement for this emotion. It can be conjectured that, as the literature points out, sadness, when compared to anger, is seen as a less threatening emotion. It is suggested that new studies include a larger number of participants, with greater sociodemographic variation, and the inclusion of other tools for data collection combined with those used in this thesis. It is understood that this study covers gaps found in the literature, especially the lack of Brazilian studies, and is expected to promote further investigations.