Maternal Emotion Socialization of Depressed and Healthy Adolescents: Maternal Responses to Anger Harsher Than Those to Sadness

We examined mother emotion-socialization behaviors associated with emotional displays of anger versus sadness in depressed and non-depressed adolescents. Mothers engaged in fewer supportive responses and more unsupportive responses towards adolescent anger overall, compared to sadness. Mothers of depressed adolescents responded more unsupportively to adolescents’ anger, especially in depressed girls.