Cultural variations in socialization of emotions by parents: An integrative literature review

Abstract

Objective. This study aimed to identify the theoretical and methodological characteristics, as well as the results of empirical studies that addressed the parental socialization of emotions in different non-western cultural groups. Method.This required an integrative literature review with a qualitative focus. Results. The results showed that the main theoretical approaches were the ecological approaches and the heuristic model of the socialization of emotions. Regarding employed methodologies, quantitative studies with a greater presence of mothers prevailed. The main results point out that there are variations in the socializing emotions in several aspects such as the functioning of children, emotional expression, reaction to children’s emotions, parental ethnotheories, emotional talk and others. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for future research.