Childhood emotional support is associated with adaptive behavioral and emotional processes over the first year of college.

OBJECTIVE

Protective childhood experiences (PCEs) promote positive outcomes throughout life, but the mechanism of this relationship is unclear. The current study examined how facets of PCEs (emotional support, home stability, and parental education) are associated with adaptive daily emotion and coping.

PARTICIPANTS

N = 114 college students participated in this study across their first academic year.

METHODS

Participants completed weekly diaries reporting affect, coping behaviors, stressful events, and a text-entry of the most stressful event. Facets of PCEs were considered as predictors of affect, behavioral engagement, and in-vivo emotional reactivity.

RESULTS

Childhood emotional support was associated with increased positive affect, and higher frequency of adaptive coping. Results suggest that higher emotional support may buffer against stress-related variability in positive emotion.

CONCLUSION

These results provide preliminary evidence that PCEs, specifically childhood emotional support, may facilitate coping behaviors during stressful periods.