Fathering and masculine norms: Implications for the socialization of children's emotion regulation

Emotion regulation skills are important across the lifespan for psychological and interpersonal functioning. Research on children's emotion regulation skill development often examines parent socialization of emotion. However, this research has focused on mothers, neglecting fathers' roles in emotionally socializing children. This is concerning because traditional Western masculine norms include restricted emotionality, and conformity to these norms relates to emotion dysregulation. Fathers' views on masculinity are likely to impact their parenting attitudes and behavior and therefore relate to their socialization of children's emotion regulation. Research and theory need to include fathers from a variety of cultural backgrounds and family constellations in order to better understand the relation between masculinity and fathering behavior, particularly fathers' beliefs and behaviors toward socializing their children's emotion regulation. This review also discusses implications for prevention and intervention work with fathers and children, as well as key methodological issues and future directions for research and policy.