Management of Parents for their Children Expressing Anger

Abstract The father and the mother have a fundamental importance in the psychosocial development of children, as well as in the regulation of emotions. The objective of this research was to investigate the management of parents in the face of the expression of anger in male and female children. A total of 26 couples participated in the research, including couples that have two children from six to 12 years old. For data collection we used a general data questionnaire, the Brazilian Economic Classification Criteria, a structured interview, and a story-stimulus. We verified that the strategies most used by parents against their children’s anger were problem-centered reactions and punitive reactions, respectively adaptive and maladaptive strategies. Both fathers and mothers tended to react with a greater minimization with the son and more distractedly with the daughter. It is concluded that fathers and mothers use the same strategies for both sexes against their children’s anger expressions, but there are some gender differences in parental practice.