The Effects of Parenting and Emotion Socialization on Emerging Adults' Well-Being: The Mediating Effect of Emotion Regulation

Emerging adulthood is characterized by major changes in many life domains. Thus, emerging adults are at risk for reduced well-being compared to other developmental age groups. Parents uniquely contribute to their child’s developmental outcomes in many ways such as, supporting the development of emotion regulation (ER), which is the ability to manage emotions and is essential for healthy psychosocial functioning. This study aims to investigate the relations between perceived parental emotion socialization, parental warmth, parental control, and resilience and well-being, and whether emotion dysregulation mediates these associations. Undergraduate students (n = 695) participated in an online survey. Results indicated that emotion dysregulation mediated the relationships between unsupportive parental emotion socialization and resilience and well-being, as well as the relationship between parental warmth and each of resilience and well-being. These findings suggest that specific parental responses to emotions are associated with emerging adult resilience and well-being through emotion regulation ability.