Parent Emotion Socialization and Child Emotion Regulation and Self-Control: Moderation Effect of Parent and Child Gender and Age in African and African Immigrant Samples

Lamin Fatty

Advisor: Thalia R Goldstein, PhD, Department of Psychology

Committee Members: Tim Curby, Pamela W. Garner

Horizon Hall, #4000
April 17, 2026, 12:00 PM to 02:00 PM

Abstract:

Studies have established relations between parent emotion socialization and child emotion regulation and self-control. In particular, these associations are found to be moderated by parent and child characteristics such as age and gender. However, evidence in support of these conclusions largely comes from Western samples with only a few findings from non-Western samples. To our knowledge, no such evidence exists from African or African immigrant samples. Thus, the present study examined the moderating role of parent gender, child gender, and child age in the link between parent emotion socialization and children’s emotion regulation and self-control in African and African immigrant samples. Specifically, the study examined the moderating effect of parent gender and child age in the link between parent supportive emotion socialization and child emotion regulation in a Gambian (i.e., African) sample and between parent supportive emotion socialization and child self-control in a sample of African immigrants living in the United States of America. Results indicated that parent gender moderates the link between parent supportive emotion socialization and child emotion regulation in the Gambian sample. However, child age did not significantly moderate the link between parent supportive emotion socialization and child emotion regulation in the Gambia sample. In the African immigrant sample, child gender, child age, and parent gender did not moderate the relation between parent supportive emotion socialization and child self-control. These findings signal the need for a further and more nuanced and contextualized examination of the possible moderating roles of parent and child demographic variables in the link between parent emotion socialization and child social-emotional outcomes in these populations.