Maternal Emotional Style Questionnaire (MESQ)

Abstract

The Maternal Emotional Style Questionnaire (MESQ) is a psychometric instrument designed to assess the specific ways mothers typically respond to their children’s expressions of negative emotions, such as sadness and anger. Developed by Lagacé-Séguin, the scale aims to quantify maternal responses along two key dimensions: Emotional Coaching (EC) and Emotion Dismissing (ED). Research utilizing the MESQ explores the critical link between maternal Emotional Style and subsequent child outcomes, including social competence and behavioral adjustment, particularly in early childhood.

Keywords

Maternal Emotional Style Questionnaire, MESQ, parenting, emotional regulation, Emotional Coaching (EC), Emotion Dismissing (ED), child social adjustment, psychometrics, parent-child interaction.

Authors

D. G. Lagacé-Séguin, R. Coplan

Purpose

The primary purpose of the MESQ is to provide a standardized, self-report measure for researchers and clinicians to evaluate maternal emotional responses. It captures the underlying beliefs and behavioral strategies employed by mothers when their child experiences and expresses difficult emotions.

By differentiating between coaching and dismissing styles, the scale allows for detailed examination of how parental emotional socialization practices influence children’s emotional development and their capacity for emotional self-regulation. This measurement is fundamental for understanding the mechanisms through which parenting affects child social and emotional well-being.

Construct

The MESQ measures the construct of maternal Emotional Style, which refers to consistent patterns of parental reactions to a child’s display of negative affect. The instrument is rooted in theories suggesting that parental responses shape how children learn to manage their feelings.

The scale is fundamentally bifactorial, distinguishing between two opposing styles: Emotional Coaching (EC), characterized by validating, empathizing, and utilizing emotional moments as teaching opportunities; and Emotion Dismissing (ED), characterized by avoidance, minimization, or suppression of the child’s emotional expression. These styles have significant implications for child Social Adjustment and development.

Validity

Initial construct validity for the MESQ was established through Lagacé-Séguin’s doctoral work (2001) and subsequent peer-reviewed research, demonstrating that the scale’s factors correlate meaningfully with predicted child outcomes. Specifically, the Emotional Coaching (EC) style is typically associated with positive child adjustment, while the Emotion Dismissing (ED) style is linked to greater behavioral difficulty.

Further validation studies, such as those conducted by Soleimani and Bashash (2012), confirmed the robust factor structure and validity of the MESQ across different cultural contexts, supporting its use as a reliable measure of maternal emotional responses.

Reliability

The MESQ demonstrates high levels of internal consistency, indicating that items within each factor reliably measure the same underlying construct. The reported Cronbach’s alpha coefficients are indicative of excellent reliability for both subscales:

• Emotional Coaching (EC): Alpha coefficient of 0.92.
• Emotion Dismissing (ED): Alpha coefficient of 0.90.

These high values confirm the consistency and dependability of the instrument in measuring maternal emotional styles.

Factor Analysis

Factor analysis confirmed a clear two-factor solution for the MESQ, corresponding to the theoretical constructs of Emotional Coaching and Emotion Dismissing. The original 14-item version of the MESQ is partitioned into these two distinct factors:

• Factor I: “ED” (Emotion Dismissing) – Includes items 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, and 12. These items reflect beliefs that emotions should be minimized, fixed quickly, or avoided entirely.
• Factor II: “EC” (Emotional Coaching) – Includes items 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 13, and 14. These items reflect beliefs that emotions are valuable, offer opportunities for closeness, and require problem-solving or exploration.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report Psychometrics instrument (Questionnaire)

Format: 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree).

Language Available: English (Original), adapted versions may exist for research purposes.

Population Group: Mothers (and generalized to Parents in the Parent Emotional Style Questionnaire [PESQ] variant).

Age Group: Adults (Parents) of young children (typically preschool or early elementary age).

Population Details: Individuals who are currently parenting children and are able to reflect on their emotional responses to their child’s negative affect.

Test Methodology: Respondents are asked to rate how accurately various statements describe their typical reactions and beliefs regarding their child’s sadness, anger, or worry.

Keywords

Parenting style, internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha, emotional regulation, child development, emotional responses, parent-child interaction, affective socialization.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified in source.

Correspondence Address: Not specified in source.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: Initial validation and development occurred in 2001 (Lagacé-Séguin, Doctoral Dissertation). The instrument was subsequently published in 2005 (Lagacé-Séguin & Coplan).

Permissions & Fee: The instrument is often used freely for academic research, as evidenced by its availability online through institutional repositories. The original PDF describing the instrument can be downloaded here: http://www.msvu.ca/site/media/msvu/lagace-seguin%26coplan-social%20development.pdf. A related Parent Emotional Style Questionnaire (PESQ) version is also available here: https://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/Parent%20Emotional%20Style%20Questionnaire.pdf.

Reference’s

The MESQ is referenced in several academic works, establishing its development and psychometric properties:

• Legace-Seguin, D. G. (2001). Fostering emotional and social well-being: Examining the correlations of maternal emotional styles. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• Lagacé-Séguin, D.G., & Coplan, R. (2005). Maternal emotional styles and child social adjustment: Assessment, correlates, outcomes and goodness of fit in early childhood. Social Development, 14, 613-636.
• Lagacé-Séguin, D.G. (2002, August). A novel approach to the study of parenting: The psychometric validation of the Maternal Emotional Styles Questionnaire. Poster presented to the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, Ottawa, Ontario, August, 2002.
• Lagacé-Séguin, D.G. (2002, August). An examination of child regulation as a moderator in the association between maternal emotional styles and behavioural adjustment in preschool. Poster presented to the International Society for the Study of Behavioral. Development, Ottawa, Ontario, August, 2002.
• Lagacé-Séguin, D.G. (2001, April). Weathering the winter: Meteorology and mother’s perceptions of children’s emotions during the winter season. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 19-22, 2001.
• Lagacé-Séguin, D.G. (2001, April). Fostering emotional wellbeing: examining the relations between parenting beliefs and emotional styles. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 19-22, 2001.
• Soleimani H, Bashash L.(2012). Factor structure, Validity and Reliability of the Maternal Emotional Styles Questionnaire (MESQ). 13 (47) :39-48.

Items of the Maternal Emotional Style Questionnaire (MESQ)

Rating Scale: 1= Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3= Neutral, 4= Agree, 5= Strongly Agree

MESQ (Lagacé-Séguin, 2001)

1. When my child is sad, it’s time to problem solve
2. Anger is an emotion worth exploring
3. When my child is sad I am expected to fix the world and make it perfect
4. When my child gets sad. it’ s a time to get close
5. Sadness is something that one has to get over, to ride out, not to dwell on
6. I prefer my child to be happy rather than overly emotional
7. I help my child get over sadness quickly so he/she can move on to other things
8. When my child is angry, it’s an opportunity for getting close
9. When my child is angry, f take some time to try to experience this feeling with him/her
10. I try to change my child’ s angry moods into cheerful ones
11. Childhood is a happy-go-lucky time, not a time for feeling sad or angry
12. When my child gets angry, my goal is to get him or her to stop
13. When my child is angry, I want to know what he/she is thinking
14. When my child is angry, it’s time to solve a problem