An Inquiry into The Development of the Self-Conscious Emotions of Shame and Guilt in Primary School Students: The Role of Parenting Dimensions, Child’s Mood, and Self-Concept

Self-conscious emotions play an important role in the health and adjustment of children. They are evoked by self-reflection and self-assessment. Shame and guilt are among the self-conscious emotions that need to be considered from early childhood; the purpose of the present study was to investigate the development of self-conscious emotions of shame and guilt and the role of parenting dimensions, and child's mood and self-concept in predicting these emotions. The moderating role of age was also explored in this regard. The statistical population of the present study included all the primary school students of Jam city, Iran and their families. From the given secondary schools, four classes were selected from the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grades through cluster random sampling. For each grade, 50 subjects were selected that counted up to a total of 200 students and their families. The families completed the Malhotra Temperament Scale (MTS), and the Alabama parenting questionnaire and the students completed the Test of Self-conscious Affects for children (TOSCA-C), and Piers-Harissis Self-conscious Scale for Children. To test the hypotheses, descriptive and inferential analysis including mean, standard deviation and multiple regression analysis were used. The results showed that parenting and mood variables significantly predicted self-conscious emotions of shame and guilty. The results also showed that relationships between the predictor variables, and the dependent variables partially varied across age.