Feelings Are Hard: The Influence of Parent Emotion Socialization, the Social Sharing of Emotions, and Emotion Regulation Strategies on Peer Relationship Quality

Emerging adulthood (ages 18 to 29, typically in western cultures) is a period of high emotional volatility and shifts in peer relationships; therefore, the link between emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal, distraction, rumination, and suppression) and peer relationship quality must be examined. Furthermore, previous literature has found that supportive parent emotion socialization is related to healthier emotion regulation strategies in children. Study 1 found that reappraisal mediated the relationship between supportive parent emotion socialization and communication, suggesting that supportive parent emotion socialization teaches children to use reappraisal more, which aids in communication. Due to the link between emotion regulation and communication displayed in Study 1, Study 2 again examined the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and peer relationship quality, this time with the social sharing of negative emotions as a mediating variable. Results showed that the quality of social sharing, but not the number of times participants socially shared, mediated the relationship between suppression and average peer relationship quality. Given these findings, supportive emotion socialization and the (qualitative) social sharing of negative emotions are important when examining the relationship between emotion regulation strategies (specifically, reappraisal and suppression) and peer relationship quality