Children's socioemotional development has been extensively studied by personality, developmental, clinical and social psychologists. Unfortunately, there is relatively little research that simultaneously considers how both parenting and child characteristics (e.g., gender and temperament) contribute to children's socioemotional development. In a series of studies, I will examine the relations of parents' emotional expression, children's emotion regulation, coping, and children's developmental outcomes (e.g., externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors, and social competence). I will test if children's coping with daily stress is related to mothers' and fathers' expression of positive and negative emotion. I will also examine if parents' emotional expression moderates the relations of stress and coping. In an extension of this study, I will examine if children's coping changes, or remains stable as children age. I will also examine how parenting and children's characteristics influence the trajectory of children's daily coping. Using longitudinal data, I will test if children's emotion regulation mediates the relations of parental expressivity and children's problem behaviors and social competence.
