Cultural socialization of toddlers in emotionally charged situations

This study examined mothers' responses to foster emotional competence from a cultural perspective. Fifty-one European American, 52 Turkish, and 40 Romanian mothers of 2-year-old children provided open-ended responses to vignettes of anger-, sadness-, fear-, and happiness-eliciting situations. Mothers' responses were compared between the family models of independence (United States) and psychological interdependence (Turkey, Romania) to understand cultural variations. To anger, all mothers endorsed problem-focused responses that emphasized teaching coping skills at similar rates, suggestive of an autonomy-orientation. European American mothers also endorsed behaviorally oriented discipline to cope with anger independently more than Turks and Romanians, who endorsed reasoning and comforting responses more, reflecting a relatedness emphasis. To sadness, problem-focused and comforting responses did not reveal cultural differences. Expected differences in reasoning and dismissive responses were partly supported. To fear, comforting was the dominant response, with the highest rate reported by European Americans. Turkish and Romanian mothers' relative emphasis on reasoning was characteristic of their family model. In happy situations, European American mothers validated toddlers' happiness most often, whereas Turkish mothers reported the escalation of happiness most often. Despite sharing the psychological interdependence model, differences in some responses to sadness, fear, and happiness were noted between Turkish and Romanian mothers.