Iranian mothers' beliefs about children's negative emotional expressions

Cultural diversity creates different attitudes about how emotional expressions are. Since these attitudes have not been studied in Iranian culture so far, the aim of the present study is Iranian mothers' beliefs about children's negative emotional expressions. The qualitative phenomenological approach was used to acquire data. All mothers with 3-6 children whose children attended Solaleh Kids House in 2018 were included in the study population. The researcher used an accessible and purposive sample strategy, interviewing ten women with at least one 3-6-year-old kid and seeing 23 mothers and children in the same age range interact. The semi-structured interview and observation approach was used to gather data, and Colaizzi's method analyzed the data. The findings indicated that mothers' beliefs include supporting attitudes, supportive attitudes with moderate or severe non-internalized attitudes, attitudes of acceptance based on emotion and gender, and non-supportive attitudes centered on their own or their child's needs. According to the findings, mothers' beliefs about expressing negative emotions in children seem to be a continuum, with just two principles for caring for oneself and others serving as children's emotion socialization practices. Rather than that, these restrictions may sometimes become excessive, and the mother believes that the child should abstain from negative emotional manifestations in order to protect herself, others, or family. The results indicate that it is feasible to establish programs to educate parents about emotional parenting.