Emotion crafting links parental autonomy support and warmth to young adult well-being

Abstract

Emotion crafting, defined as individuals’ awareness of positive emotion-inducing situations and their proactive efforts to seek them out, partly explains how parental autonomy support and warmth relate to young adults’ well-being. Data from 254 young adults (69.3% women; Mage = 22.70; SDage = 2.07) in Norway and Germany showed that perceived parental autonomy support and warmth related to well-being (i.e., resilience and flourishing), and that these relations were mediated by emotion crafting (i.e., awareness and action). However, emotion crafting action and well-being were no longer linked after controlling for savoring beliefs. Stronger associations between parental warmth and emotion crafting awareness and between emotion crafting action and flourishing were observed in Norwegian (compared to German) young adults. Maternal parenting was more strongly associated with well-being than paternal parenting. Overall, these findings highlight the role of emotion crafting in linking parenting practices to young adults’ well-being.