Objective: This study examined whether beliefs about emotions mediated the relationship between the effects of parental emotion disregarding reactions to child’s negative emotions, harm avoidance and their somatic symptoms.
Methods: To examine this hypothesis, four hundred and eighteen students completed measurements that assessing parental emotion disregarding reactions to child’s negative emotions, harm avoidance, beliefs about emotions, and somatic symptoms.
Results: The result showed that beliefs about emotions fully mediated the relationship between father’s emotion disregarding reactions to child’s negative emotions, harm avoidance and somatic symptoms.
Meanwhile beliefs about emotions partially mediated the relationship between mother’s emotion disregarding reactions to child’s negative emotions, harm avoidance and somatic symptoms.
Conclusions: Although harm avoidance and parental emotion disregarding reactions influenced somatic symptoms by mediating beliefs about emotions, there were differences seen in the father and mother models. Thus, psychological intervention dealing with beliefs about emotions is suggested to be important in improving somatic symptoms. In addition, we propose that an educational and preventive approach is also necessary, especially considering that somatic symptoms can also be caused by direct emotion disregarding reactions from mothers.