Mums and dads who both offer lots of support and reassurance when their young children express negative emotions may not be doing them a favour, new research shows.
Studies in 4- and 5-year-olds found children whose parents reacted with differing levels of support to their emotional setbacks wereactually more emotionally mature and handled conflict better, Nancy L. McElwain of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her colleagues found.
"It's good to give your child some support, but also at the same time some space to manage the problem," Dr McElwain said.
Parents' reactions to a child's negative emotions play a key role in social and emotional growth, Dr McElwain and her team point out in the current issue of Child Development.
Most research has focused on how mothers interact with children, Dr McElwain and her team note. To look at the role of mothers and fathers together, the researchers conducted two experiments, one evaluating children's emotional understanding and the other investigating friendship quality.
Parents of children in both studies answered questions measuring their level of emotional support.
Offering a low level of support didn't necessarily mean a parent reacted harshly, Dr McElwain said.
"High levels of support from both parents might overwhelm and undermine the child's ability to work it out on his or her own."
Researchers would next try to observe parents with their children, rather than relying on parents' own reports of how they interact.
