Trends in Psychology (2024) 32:425–448

https://doi.org/10.1007/s43076-022-00194-3

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Parenting Competencies Supporting the Development

of Social and Emotional Skills of Children—a Scoping
Review

Assumpta Ndengeyingoma1 · Maria Helena Jacob1 ·

Vincent Beaulieu‑Kratchanov1 · Monique Séguin1

Accepted: 30 April 2022 / Published online: 16 May 2022

© Associação Brasileira de Psicologia 2022

Abstract
The development of social-emotional learning (SEL) skills is thought to provide
children with social and emotional competencies for successful social adaptation.
Parenting is an ongoing process and features myriad aspects such as modeling,
sensitivity, and responsivity, all of which are relevant to socio-emotional develop-
ment. Generally, parents are invited to participate in group training due to children
exhibiting behavior that is difficult to manage. An important question is to identify
which specific skills may have a greater impact on parenting competencies and how
to translate these skills in a learning group session. The objective is to better identify
parenting competencies specifically supporting the development of children’s socio-
emotional skills, their characteristics, and the instruments for assessing these par-
enting skills. A scoping review followed by a content analysis was conducted. Five
databases (CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE, PsycArticles, SocINDEX) were searched
and 234 retrieved articles were screened using exclusion and inclusion criteria. Six-
teen relevant studies were retained, and data was extracted respecting standard rules.
Eight different competencies were identified, of which four dimensions emerged:
emotional awareness, support availability, parenting approach, and environmen-
tal stress management. Thirty-one tools assessing parenting competencies were

Highlights
• Few studies have evaluated the overall parenting competencies that promote the development of
children’s SEL skills.
• The literature review brought to light eight parenting competencies grouped into four different
dimensions: emotional awareness, support availability, parenting approach, and environmental stress
management.
• An innovation here is the emerged dimensions of parenting competencies linked specifically to
children’s social and emotional development, which might be endorsing particular forms of balanced
parenting.
• The proposed dimensions will hopefully meet needs, enhance family capacity, and promote
both child and family wellness once included in different interventional or conceptualization
opportunities.

Extended author information available on the last page of the article

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grouped in these four dimensions. Taken together, these dimensions seem to com-
plement each other in relation to the necessary characteristics for adequate parent-
ing competencies promoting children’s SEL skills development. Teaching parents
and caregivers parenting competencies and their attributes will allow them to better
manage their own emotional reactivity and respond to children’s emotions in a more
flexible and supportive manner.

Keywords Parenting · Social-emotional competencies · Social-emotional learning ·

Development · Children

Introduction

The development of social and emotional learning (SEL) skills is thought to provide
children with social and emotional competencies for successful social adaptation.
Without adequate social and emotional competencies, an individual may experience
troubles in the fields of employment, independent living, daily living skills, and par-
ticipation in the community (Ruegg, 2003). The parental role is one of the main
contributory factors to develop these competencies among children and adolescents
(Rutherford et al., 2015; Shortt et al., 2010). Parents who teach and coach their chil-
dren about emotions have children with better skills in understanding what emotions
are and how they function, as well as in regulating and expressing their emotions
(Cappa et al., 2011; Dunn et al., 1991).
The integration of SEL into curriculum and policy is proliferating around the
globe, and important organizations (such as UNICEF, UNESCO, World Health
Organization, and World Bank) are emerging the idea for a more explicit and inten-
tional consideration of social and emotional skills and its relationship to well-being
in health and education domains (Schonert-Reichl, 2019). Various definitions for the
concept of parenting competency are presented in the literature: the parents’ ability
to provide adequate care without asking others for help (Nair & Morrison, 2000),
the knowledge, skills, problem solving ability, and activity for child care—with
knowledge and skills being more relevant compared to other dimensions (Pridham
et al., 1998), or the trust in interpersonal relationships, self-efficacy, and compatibil-
ity with parental roles (Mondell & Tyler, 1981). Mastering of parenting competen-
cies affects how each parent interprets his/her child’s behavior and his/her behavior
(Mageau et al., 2016). Johnson et al. (2014) proposed two categories of parenting
competency: foundational and functional competencies. The foundational compe-
tency comprises personal abilities, knowledge, and attributes that may support the
adequate performance of parenting duties, and which may be developed indepen-
dently of the parenting role. The functional competency comprises the abilities and
the performance skills of specific tasks related to effective parenting.
Actually, the higher the parents’ level of knowledge and competence, the greater
it is for them to promote a suitable environment for a healthy development and to be
wiser to their child’s needs (Agarwal & Agarwal, 2018; Ribas & Bornstein, 2005;
Zarra-Nezhad et al., 2015). Parenting competencies are paramount to assist them in

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fostering their children’s need for autonomy, gaining insight into the elements that
act as facilitators and obstacles of more autonomy-supportive and less psychological
control discipline (Mageau et al., 2016). The SEL programs aim to effectively pro-
mote the skills, attitudes, and knowledge to understand and manage emotions, feel
and show empathy for others, develop and maintain positive relationships, estab-
lish and achieve positive goals and make responsible choices (Payton et al., 2008),
and usually include parental participation and engagement. SEL programs include
five interrelated competencies: self-management, self-awareness, social awareness,
relationship skills, and responsible decision-making (Weissberg et al., 2017). These
skills promote better academic performance, healthy behaviors, positive social
behaviors, fewer behavior problems, less emotional distress, and even community
integration (Greenberg, 2004).
Few studies have evaluated the overall parenting competencies that promote the
development of children’s SEL skills. Many of the studies involve parents in the chil-
dren’s SEL program, but do not consider the vulnerabilities they may have in terms
of skills to put the development of SEL into practice. This issue can limit the par-
ent–child partnership going forward. Effective parenting guidance and participation
cannot be conceptualized simply as the use of specific styles (Grusec et al., 2000).
Such exploration would be facilitated by describing parenting competencies and its
characteristics, accompanied by the measure of criteria evaluating these competen-
cies. An accurate understanding of parenting competency and how parents influence
children’s SEL development might boost parent’s competence and help them to cre-
ate healthy surroundings. It is paramount to better realize parent’s performance and
their ability to afford children’s SEL skills, when considering its importance and
guidance related to methods, plans, and interventions of policymakers, educators,
and health professionals.
There is a lot of research on parenting competencies (Agarwal & Agarwal, 2018;
Cardoso et al., 2015; Johnson et al., 2014; Mason et al., 2016) or on SEL skills
(Oberle & Schonert-Reichl, 2017; Ross & Tolan, 2018; Ura et al., 2020). However,
there is a lack of research that examines specifically parenting competencies sup-
porting the development of children’s social-emotional skills, their characteristics,
and the instruments for assessing these parenting competencies. Therefore, the cur-
rent study sought to gain an in-depth understanding of those factors together.

Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to recognize the parenting competency support-
ing the development of children’s socio-emotional skills. Three questions guide the
research: (1) what parenting competencies are needed to promote the development
of SEL skills among children? (2) how these abilities can be grouped? (3) what tools
were used to assess these parenting competencies? The specific objectives of this
study are as follows:

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1) to identify parenting competencies that promote the development of children’s

SEL skills in the recent literature;
2) to characterize these parenting competencies and group them into appropriated
dimensions; and
3) to identify the evaluation criteria for parenting competencies related to the devel-
opment of the children’s SEL skills.

Methodology

The scoping review design was chosen because it provides more flexibility than a
traditional systematic review and is more aligned with the exploratory nature of our
study objectives. By summarizing studies and guiding future research, this review
sought to provide an overview of recent literature on how parenting competencies
support the development of children’s socio-emotional skills. A scoping review was
believed to be the most appropriate method to provide a synthesis that aims to map
the literature and provide an opportunity to identify key concepts and research gaps.
In adherence to guidelines for scoping reviews and Preferred Reporting of Items for
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) procedures, we followed the
search scheme developed by Vest et al. (2021) (Fig. 1). In March 2022, five data-
bases (CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE, PsycArticles, SocINDEX) were explored using
the keywords parents or caregivers or mother or father or parent and social and
emotional competencies. The research was carried out on articles published between
2010 and 2021 and written in English or French.
Figure 1 outlines the process of article selection utilizing the PRISMA guidelines
for a scoping review (Vest et al., 2021). The first stage constituted identifying the
purpose and the research questions as stated above, and after that, we identified the
relevant studies of the scoping process. A literature search was done using standard
procedures. A total of 234 titles were identified by the databases. After any dupli-
cate articles were removed, the reading of titles focused on consistency and meaning
with keywords. All team members independently reviewed each title and abstract,
and a consensus was reached on whether the sources should be read in their entirety.
For the inclusion criteria, the studies were to cover only the disciplinary fields of the
health sector, social services sector, and educational sector. The studies should also
include at least one outcome variable relevant to at least one of the five SEL compe-
tency areas (self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills,
and responsible decision-making). For exclusion criteria, studies dealing specifically
with an issue (i.e., bullying, violence, illicit drug use, ADHD) associated with socio-
emotional competencies were excluded. Also excluded were systematic reviews, lit-
erature reviews, book reviews, and research protocols. Publicly available theses and
dissertations were not considered as well as other unpublished works.
Then, 51 articles were pre-selected, listed, and saved in a Word document. From
this total of 51 articles, 35 were excluded after examination of the full article. The
full text of the 16 resulting articles was read and reviewed for data extraction and
each article was broken down into a Word table. To chart the data, a Word docu-
ment was created and securely hosted online which was used by all team members

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Idenficaon Key-words (MeSH):

parents (or caregivers or mother or father
or parent) Records identified through
AND social and emotional competencies database searching : 234 citations
CINAHL (47)
ERIC (51)
Medline (42)
PsycArticles (56)
SocINDEX (38)

Total of 198 articles pre-selected after removal of duplicates

Screening

Excluded with eligibility criteria based

on title and abstract

n=147
Eligibility

Excluded after examination of full

article (n=35):
-sexual behavior (6)
-illicit drug use (7)
-childhood disability (6)
Final inclusion in the review -parental distress (7)
-mental health issues (4)
Included

n=16 -protocol studies (3)

-literature reviews (2)

Inclusion and exclusion criteria :

Articles written in English or French;

Articles published from 2010 to 2021;
Articles available in completely electronic format;
Articles dealing specifically with socio-emotional skills;
Exclusion
Articles dealing specifically with a problem (bullying, violence, illicit drug
use, ADHD, COVID-19 pandemic) associated with socio-emotional
skills;
Articles reporting only literature reviews or research protocols were
excluded.

Fig.1  PRISMA-guided scoping review flow chart

confidentially. Details regarding publication information, study design, and sample

were recorded, as well as all relevant inquiry points for the research questions using
the iterative model presented in Arksey and O’Malley (2005). For each included
study, at least two authors performed the same extraction of a given article, and in
the event of disagreement on any item, a third author performed the same task to
reach a consensus. Collating, summarizing, and reporting the data was the last stage
of this scoping review.
The content analysis methodology (Vaismoradi & Snelgrove, 2019) was guided
by five rules to promote the creation of coherent categories of analysis. The first
established rule was to clear inclusion and exclusion parameters in the categories

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related to each specific objective of this study. The articles were analyzed to iden-
tify parenting competencies, its characteristics, and the evaluation criteria used to
measure these parenting competencies. The second rule implied that categories were
mutually exclusive. It means that when searching parenting competencies, only the
term closest to the description of parenting competencies has been extracted. Or,
when analyzing parenting abilities characteristics, the main characteristic related to
parenting competency was extracted, in case there was more than one. And when
considering the evaluation criteria measuring parenting competency, each of the
tools used was classified in a single domain, related to the main objective of the
tool. The third rule determined that the categories were not too broad and presented
homogeneous content. This means that each of the sixteen selected studies, based on
the main described characteristic of parenting competencies, was grouped with their
equivalents, forming different dimensions based on related contents. Once the first
rules were followed, the fourth rule was established and the dimensions (or catego-
ries) that emerged might respond to almost all possible contents. The four dimen-
sions that emerged (related to parenting competency characteristics) were produced
from a clear and objective classification, respecting the latest proposed rule. When a
dimension emerged, explanations or support for it using examples from the included
studies were highlighted. When a dimension was named, forward and backward
movements were made and a review of explanations and interpretations were con-
ducted among the authors, and eventually, a more appropriate name for it was found.
The research carried out considers the parenting competencies (and their quali-
ties) which promote children’s SEL skills, the emerging dimensions related to par-
enting competencies characteristics, and the evaluation criteria for assessing par-
enting competency which has been addressed by the included studies (N = 16). The
included studies are rich in information and have adopted different methodological
procedures.

Results

The literature review brought to light various parenting competencies linked to

social-emotional skill promotion in children. In relation to the first and second
objectives, descriptive information was collected to identify a set of eight parent-
ing competencies and their different characteristics, which were grouped into four
different dimensions: emotional awareness, support availability, parenting approach,
and environmental stress management (Table 1). Also, several parenting compe-
tency assessments—linked to social-emotional skills promotion in children—were
analyzed respecting the four emerged dimensions, according to the third objective
(Table 2).

Emotional Awareness This dimension corresponds to parents’ ability to recognize

emotions in oneself and in his/her child. It can vary from the simple perception of
physiological sensations to more differentiated and labeled experiences. This dimen-
sion grouped two different parenting competencies: emotion coaching, and paren-
tal emotional expressiveness. Emotion coaching is characterized by an adaptative

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 Table 1  Dimensions related to parenting competencies that emerged from the included studies, and its reported characteristics
Dimensions Parenting competencies Main characteristics

Emotionalawareness 1) Emotion coaching 1) Awareness and acceptance of the child’s emotions, and the degree to which parents provide
2) Parental emotional expressiveness instruction to the child on managing his/her emotions (Chan et al., 2021; Kehoe et al., 2014;
Wilson et al, 2014)
2) Display of positive and negative emotions, creating a positive or negative emotional climate
Trends in Psychology (2024) 32:425–448

in the family (Zhang et al., 2021). Discussions about emotion or emotional experiences (Curtis
et al., 2020)
Support availability 3) Coaching and behavior management strategies 3) Reinforcement, rules/instructions, and punishment (Stefan & Miclea, 2013)
4) Supportive reactions 4) More available and unconditional parental support (Coté et al., 2014). Encouraging, emotion-
5) Parent engagement focused, and problem-focused reaction (Perry et al., 2020)
5) Defined in terms of parental warmth and sensitivity, active participation in learning, and sup-
port for child’s autonomy (Sheridan et al., 2010)
Parenting approach 6) Parenting practices and control 6) Associated with positives (warmth, structure, autonomy support, involvement, and praise) or
negatives (rejection, chaos, coercion, poor monitoring, inconsistency, and harsh discipline)
parenting style characteristics (Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016; Hosokawa & Katsura, 2017; Mason
et al., 2016). Attempts that intrude into youths’ psychological and emotional development
(Cook et al., 2012). Supportive (i.e., reward) and unsupportive (i.e., punishment) parental
emotion socialization responses to adolescent emotional displays (McNeil & Zeman, 2021)
Environmental stress 7) Sense of coherence 7) Important issue in the understanding of social factors behind health and illness, based on
management 8) Mindful parenting manageability, meaningfulness, and comprehensibility (Hosokawa et al., 2017)
8) Being present in everyday interactions with children through paying attention without
judgment, contributing to parental positivity and less punitive discipline, facilitating child
decision-making (Wong et al., 2019)
431

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Table 2  Parenting skills assessments related to SEL and its dimensions

Dimensions Parenting skills assessments/included study

Emotional awareness 1.Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES)(Fabes

et al.,1990)/(Chan et al., 2021; Perry et al., 2020; Wilson et al.,
2014)
2.Difficulties in Emotion Regulation scale (DERS)(Gratz and
Roemer, 2004)/(Kehoe et al., 2014)
3.Emotion Expression Scale for Children (EESC)(Penza-Clyve and
Zeman, 2002)/(McNeil & Zeman, 2021)
4.Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ)(Gross and John, 2003)/
(Chan et al., 2021)
5.Parent–Child Affective Quality scale (PCAQ) (Spoth et al.,
1998)/(Mason et al., 2016)
6.Parent Emotional Style Questionnaire (PESQ) (Havighurst et al.,
2010)/(Wilson et al., 2014)
7.Parent Emotion Socialization Practices (Magai, 1996; Magai and
O’Neal, 1997)/(Kehoe et al., 2014)
8.Parent Emotion Talk (ET) (Hakins, 1993; Pasupathi et al.,
2002)/(Curtis et al., 2020)
9.Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire (SEFQ)(Halber-
stadt et al., 1995)/(Zhang et al., 2021)
10.Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ)(Spreng et al.,
2009)/(Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016)
11.Trait Measure of Emotional Intelligence (TMEI)(Schutte et al.,
1998)/(Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016)
Support availability 12.Availability of emotional support (Kerns, Klepac, and
Cole,1996)/(Coté et al., 2014)
13.Emotion as a Child questionnaire (EAC)(O’Neal and Magai
2005)/(McNeil & Zeman, 2021)
14.Index of Child Care Environment (ICCE) (Anme et al.,
2013)/(Hosokawa et al., 2017)
15.Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS)
(Dahlem et al. 1991; Zimet et al. 1988)/(Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016)
16.Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (Robinson et al.,
1995)/(Curtis et al., 2020)
Parenting approach 17.Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) (Frick, 1991)/(Chan
et al., 2021; Hosokawa & Katsura, 2017; Mason et al., 2016)
18.Critical and disapproving reactions (from the National Longi-
tudinal Survey of Children and Youth—Statistics Canada)/(Coté
et al., 2014)
19.Hostile Parenting scale (from the Longitudinal Study of Austral-
ian Children)/(Wilson et al., 2014)
20.Parental Hostility (Iowa family interaction rating scales-IFIRS)
(Melby and Conger, 2001)/(Cook et al., 2012)
21.Psychological Control scale (PCS) (Barber, 1996)/(Cook et al.,
2012)
22.Revised-Parent as Social Context Questionnaire (R-PSCQ) (Deci
and Ryan, 1985)/(Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016)
23.Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)(Goodman, 1997)/
(Zhang et al., 2021)

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Table 2  (continued)
Dimensions Parenting skills assessments/included study
Environmental stress management 24.Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS)(Pianta, 1992)/(Zhang
et al., 2021)
25.Family Environment Scale (Moos and Moos, 1994)/(Mason et al.,
2016)
26.Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (ICQ) (Buhrmester
et al. 1988)/(Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016)
27.Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale—Dutch version
(IM-P)(Duncan, 2007; de Bruin et al., 2014)/(Wong et al., 2019)
28.Parent Internalizing Difficulties (GHQ 28) (Goldberg,
1981)/(Kehoe et al., 2014)
29.Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (Johnston and Mash,
1989)/(Wilson et al., 2014)
30.Parenting Stress Index- Short Form (Lam, 1999)/(Chan et al.,
2021)
31.Sense of coherence (SOC-13) (Antonovsky, 1987)/(Hosokawa
et al., 2017)

emotion socialization style focusing on becoming aware of the child’s emotion,

viewing the child’s emotion as an opportunity for intimacy and teaching; commu-
nicating understanding and acceptance of emotions with empathy; helping the chil-
dren to use words to describe how they feel; and when necessary, assist them with
problem solving. Kehoe et al. (2014) examined the efficacy of a parenting program
in improving emotion coaching practices and reducing youth internalizing difficul-
ties and the results showed significant improvements concerning both issues. Ado-
lescent questionnaires reported that their parents became less dismissive of their
negative emotions. In the pilot study performed by Wilson et al. (2014) , the same
parenting competency was introduced by a specifically modified version (only for
fathers) of the same parenting program (Tuning in to Teens) explored by Kehoe et al.
(2014) previously. Fathers’ questionnaire results showed increased emotion coach-
ing, improved parenting satisfaction and efficacy, and decreased emotion dismiss-
ing and angry reactivity. Both mothers and fathers participated in a similar program
(Tuning in to Kids) that also focused on emotion coaching, showing that parents can
strongly affect children’s emotional socialization (Chan et al., 2021).
Parental emotional expressiveness (PEE) refers to the display of negative (e.g.,
contempt, anger, sadness, and embarrassment) and positive (e.g., happiness, thank-
fulness, pride, and excitement) emotions, which creates a negative or positive emo-
tional climate in the family (Halberstadt et al., 1995). PEE is one of the three core
contributors to child problem behaviors (e.g., internalizing and externalizing), social
competence, and emotion regulation, and it can shape the family context (Zhang
et al., 2021). It is a parenting competency also defined as a type of emotion-related
socialization practice. It is characterized by discussions about emotion or emotional
experiences, including parent expression of emotion and parent reactions to chil-
dren’s emotions. This competency can be related to emotion coaching, but its rel-
evance resides in objectivity and simplicity in the development of this parental abil-
ity. In the study developed by Curtis et al. (2020) , this parenting competency could

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be one quality of emotion coaching, but it was related to children’s higher effortful
control, which was associated with children’s higher sympathy and more socially
appropriate behaviors.

Support Availability This dimension embraces preventive parenting strategies

that utilize comprehensive support components to provide social and emotional
assistance to their children. This dimension was explicitly identified and grouped
together three different parenting competencies: coaching and behavior management
strategies, supportive reactions, and parent engagement.
The coaching and behavior management strategies consisted of coaching for sup-
porting social and emotional competence development and were characterized by
three strategies: reinforcement, rules/instructions, and punishment. One important
step consisted of familiarizing parents with coaching strategies to support children
in identifying appropriate solutions in conflict situations through effective commu-
nication competence, dealing with misbehaviors as well as emotion regulation, and
focusing on a positive discipline perspective (Stefan & Miclea, 2013).
The supportive reactions were associated with children’s adaptative functioning
and psychological well-being (Perry et al., 2020). In the study longitudinal devel-
oped by Perry et al. (2020) , the parenting competency explored was maternal
supportive reactions which include encouraging, emotion-focused, and problem-
focused reactions and may reduce negative arousal and communicate acceptance and
safety, from the points of view of mothers, children, and teachers. Corresponding
to its reported characteristics, “availability” of parental support denotes children’s
perception that they are important to their parents and that the latter are available
and willing to discuss their concerns and feelings with them, and “unconditionality”
means support that does not depend on meeting certain expectations and reflects
acceptance of the individual as he/she is (Coté et al., 2014).
Parent engagement—viewed as a parenting competency—is highly related to
children’s SEL skills and it has been seen as an essential component in the process
by which parents facilitate children’s autonomy through parental warmth and sensi-
tivity, and active participation in learning tasks with their children (Sheridan et al.,
2010).

Parenting Approach This dimension translates parenting philosophies, and these

may include statements and rules on appropriate discipline, attitudes, and values
established in the family environment. It brings one competency: parenting practices
and control.
Parenting practices are important competencies, and these can be associated with
positive or negative parenting style attributes. According to Mason et al. (2016) ,
positive parenting practices included in a training program that involves youth, par-
ents, and family interaction were linked to anger management, coping, problem
solving, discipline, rationales, and a significant condition that may improve parent
involvement. This competency focuses on self-regulation and generalization of par-
enting competency. In Egeli & Rinaldi (2016) , parenting practices were evaluated
through positive (warmth, structure, and autonomy support) or negative (rejection,

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chaos, and coercion) characteristics of parenting, and other measures completed

the assessment of the overall quality of parenting style. Using a short-term longi-
tudinal design, the study by Hosokawa and Katsura (2017) examined the relation-
ships among familial socioeconomic status, marital conflict, parenting practices,
child social competency, and behavioral adjustment. The parenting competencies
were deeply detailed as positive (involvement and praise) or negative (poor moni-
toring, inconsistency, and harsh discipline) parenting competencies. Similarly, the
study conducted by McNeil and Zeman (2021) noted that supportive and unsup-
portive parental emotion socialization responses displayed an important role in the
development of parenting competencies. The main identified supportive competen-
cies include assuring and emphasizing their child’s emotional experiences as valid.
Unsupportive responses displayed were magnifying perceived problems, neglecting,
and punishing reactions.
Parenting control is a form of parenting practice, which exerts influence on
the child’s development positively or negatively. It was the parenting competency
explored in the study by Cook et al. (2012) , and parenting control. Exceptionally,
the parental ability covered in this study is a disability or a lack of or insufficient
ability. Parents who express psychological control and hostility toward young peo-
ple might teach children that intrusive behaviors are an adequate way to deal with
problems and it might negatively affect youth’s ability to communicate with parents
about their lives. The control of this behavior presents itself—irrefutably—a compe-
tency to be included in the analysis (Cook et al., 2012), from the parent but also the
child’s perspective. Once parental psychological control is an important issue in the
development of the child, and this supervision might be appropriate to the child’s
age and conducted with respect for communication, autonomous development, and
emotional warmth (Delgado et al., 2007). Parental control is related to children’s
socialization display rules and to behaviors that help establish and maintain friend-
ships (Cook et al., 2012). Beyond issues of culture, parents’ control and autonomy
support reflect to some extent the effects of parents’ involvement on children’s per-
ceptions of competency and positive emotional functioning (Cheung & Pomerantz,
2011). In addition, parenting styles may be an important issue related to parenting
competencies. Children who were raised under authoritarian parenting style may
present higher antisocial behaviors. Permissive parenting style (indulgent or neglect-
ful) sounds good but children submitted to this type of parenting style will resist
supervision by others and face problems in following the rules. The ones who were
raised under authoritative parenting style may have pro-social behaviors and they
are more self-confident and self-controlled. The authoritative parents may provide
emotional support to their children linked to a strict behavioral supervision, and this
parenting style seems to be the most effective in contributing to children’s social-
emotional skills development in society nowadays (Tan & Yasin, 2020).

Environmental Stress Management This dimension reports that stress and its man-
agement influence the nature of family interactions, especially parenting compe-
tencies. Emphasis is given to family environment and parents’ ability to cope with
stressful situations. It grouped together two different parenting competencies: sense
of coherence and mindful parenting.

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The sense of coherence (SOC) can be referred to as an individual’s personal abil-

ity to cope with stressors. Parents with higher SOC could be positive role models
for socially expected emotional responses to situations through adaptive emotional
coaching. Parents with lower SOC may be under control, developing emotions in
frustrating situations and responding punctually to the expression of their children’s
negative emotions. Therefore, parents’ SOC level is directly related to the develop-
ment of children’s self-control, similar to parents’ behavior (Hosokawa et al., 2017).
Mindful parenting is characterized as the practice of awareness at the moment. It
is cultivated by increased attention without judgment and reactivity, and improved
parent emotion regulation contributing to parental positivity as well as healthy par-
ent–child relationships (Wong et al., 2019). Mindful parenting competency may
improve the child’s ability to deal with stressful, emotion-inducing events.
Taken together, these four dimensions seem to complement each other in relation
to the necessary characteristics for adequate parenting competencies promoting chil-
dren’s SEL skills development.

Parenting Competency Assessments

The set of analyzed articles also identified tools other than those for parental assess-
ment, most of which assessed the skills of children as self-assessment and/or by
parental observations and/or teachers directly related to SEL competencies. Table 2
presents only the tools referring to parents’ (or caregivers) competencies.
In total, 31 different tools for assessing parenting competencies were found in
14 out of the 16 included studies. They are listed and grouped in the four selected
dimensions. The studies of Sheridan et al. (2010) and Stefan and Miclea (2013)
did not evaluate parents’ competency; they have only assessed the children’s skills.
Each one of the tools was analyzed and related to just one specific dimension, while
often it could be framed in more than one. Interestingly, after analyzing the par-
enting competencies measurements, the included studies did not remain exactly on
the same dimension. Most studies used more than one measurement of evaluation
which generated a certain “movement” in the classification of studies in relation to
the dimensions. For example, according to its characteristics, the study developed by
Wilson et al. (2014) was classified in the emotional awareness dimension. However,
this study has applied different tools to also measure parenting competencies related
to parenting approach and environmental stress management dimensions. Another
example to illustrate this aspect can be taken from the study of Egeli and Rinaldi
(2016), which was related to the parenting approach dimension and was represented
in all four dimensions, according to the measurements used (Table 2).

Emotional Awareness Assessments Eleven different tools were linked to this dimen-
sion. The Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (Fabes et al., 1990) was
used in three different studies (Chan et al., 2021; Perry et al., 2020; Wilson et al.,
2014). It is interesting to note that it is an instrument that was created in 1990, and

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still has a significative rated power of assessment in recent studies. This scale was
designed to assess how parents respond to the emotional distress of their child and
has six subscales: distress reactions, punitive responses, minimizing reactions,
expressive encouragement, emotion-oriented reactions, and problem-oriented reac-
tions. This dimension highlighted the relationship between parental competencies
and emotion regulation and its implication in the proposed studies. This scale has
high internal reliability.
In the study designed by Kehoe et al. (2014) , the Difficulties in Emotion Regula-
tion Scale (DERS) (Gratz and Roemer, 2004) was used to assess parents’ difficulties
in raising awareness and regulating emotions. The scale is a 36-item self-assessment
questionnaire, composed of multiple aspects of emotional dysregulation in a gen-
eral form, divided awareness, clarity, impulse, goals, non-acceptance, and a lack
of access to strategies for feeling better. Higher scores indicate greater difficulty in
regulating emotions. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were 0.94 at baseline and 0.93 at
follow-up.
The Emotion Expression Scale for Children (EESC) (Penza-Clyve and Zeman,
2002) has two scales with 8 items for each: the reluctance to express poor emotional
awareness and negative emotions. In McNeil and Zeman’s study with teenagers and
their parents (2021), only the reluctance to express emotions scale was used and it
had adequate internal consistency (α = 0.73).
In the study developed by Chan et al. (2021) , the Emotion Regulation Question-
naire (ERQ) (Gross and John, 2003) was used to measure two parents’ emotion reg-
ulation strategies: Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression. It is a 10-item
scale that parents rated on a 7-point scale. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients showed
acceptable to good internal consistency.
The Parent–Child Affective Quality scale (PCAQ) (Spoth et al., 1998) is based on
the average of six elements, all of which use a five-point Likert-type scale. There are
scales both for the emotional quality of the parents and the children. Young people
reported only the emotional quality of parents. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were
0.74 (1st year) and 0.81 (follow-up) (Mason et al., 2016).
The Parent Emotional Style Questionnaire (PESQ) (Havighurst et al., 2010)
assessed the parenting style of fathers in response to the child’s negative emotions
in 21 items. The answers are added up for two subscales: Emotion Dismissing and
Emotion Coaching. There was good internal reliability for both scales at both time
points (coaching α = 0.68, 0.83; and dismissing α = 0.81, 0.82) (Wilson et al., 2014).
The Parent Emotion Socialization Practices (Magai, 1996; Magai and O’Neal,
1997) was used to measure the practices of socializing parents’ emotions for anger,
sadness, and anxiety. It generates five emotional socialization subscales: parental
encouragement for the young person’s emotional expression; punitive responses
from parents; parental neglect; parental twinning/magnifying the child’s emotion;
and the parental overcoming of young people’s emotions. Cronbach’s alpha coeffi-
cients were 0.87 at baseline and 0.80 at follow-up (Kehoe et al., 2014).
The Parent Emotion Talk (Curtis et al., 2020) is based on a video-recorded pic-
ture book reading task. Parents and children, seated side-by-side, were given a word-
less picture book, Frog, Where Are You?, written in 1969 by Mercer Mayer. It has
also been used in previous research on the socialization of emotions (Hakins, 1993;

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438 Trends in Psychology (2024) 32:425–448

Pasupathi et al., 2002). The content and quality of the parents’ conversation were
coded according to three dimensions: (a) parents’ use of emotion words, (b) parents’
questions and comments on emotion, and (c) the quality of the parents’ conversation.
The intra-class correlations (ICCs) for the composite ET quality code were 0.92.
The Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire (SEFQ) (Halberstadt et al.,
1995) is a 40-item tool to measure paternal emotional expressiveness, which has
two sub-scales: positive (23 items) and negative (17 items) expressiveness. Higher
scores of the Negative Expressiveness subscale indicated more negative emotional
expressiveness, while higher scores of Positive Expressiveness subscale indicated
more positive emotional expressiveness in the family context. Cronbach’s α for the
Positive and Negative Expressiveness subscales was 0.94 and 0.89, respectively
(Zhang et al., 2021).
The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) (Spreng et al., 2009) is a one-dimen-
sional measurement of emotional empathy defined as an increased response to the
emotional experiences of others, with a seven-point Likert type scales. Good inter-
nal consistency (α = 0.85) (Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016).
The Trait Measure of Emotional Intelligence (TMEI) (Schutte et al., 1998) con-
sists of 33 items comprising a single scale with 13 items dealing with the assessment
and expression of emotions, 10 items measuring emotional regulation, and 10 items
measuring emotional use in parents. Excellent internal consistency value (α = 0.93)
(Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016).

Support Availability Assessments Five different tools were included in this dimen-
sion. The Availability of emotional support (Kerns et al.,1996) was assessed using
seven statements from ten statements chosen from the instrument to measure avail-
ability and willingness to serve as an attachment figure for their child. The internal
consistency index reached 0.85 (Coté et al., 2014).
The Emotion as a Child questionnaire (EAC) (O’Neal and Magai 2005) is a
15-item instrument that assesses the ways parents socialize their child’s sadness,
angry, and worry on a 5-point scale. The EAC is considered as a valid measure of
parent emotion socialization practices (internal consistency index upper than 0.80)
(McNeil & Zeman, 2021).
The Index of Child Care Environment (ICCE) (Anme et al., 2013) is a meas-
urement of 13 elements of children’s education style. This scale is based on home
observation for environmental measurement, which is used to assess the quality and
quantity of stimulation and support available for children on their family environ-
ment. The internal consistency was 0.71 (Hosokawa et al., 2017).
The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) (Dahlem et al.
1991; Zimet et al. 1988) includes 12 elements and measures parents’ social support
from three sources: family, friends, and other important people. Parents were asked
to rate the frequency at with each statement is true for them on a seven-point Likert-
type scale. Excellent internal consistency α = 0.92 (Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016).
The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (Robinson et al., 1995) was
measured by the parents’ report on the parental authority scale. Cronbach’s alpha
was 0.90 (Curtis et al., 2020).

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Trends in Psychology (2024) 32:425–448 439

Parenting Approach Assessments This dimension presented seven different tools

which assess parent styles according to “two-side” characteristics (positive or nega-
tive approach). One of them is the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Frick, 1991;
Shelton, Frick and Wootton, 1996; Elgar et al., 2007) which was used in three
included studies (Chan et al., 2021; Hosokawa & Katsura, 2017; Mason et al., 2016),
and constitutes a particularly popular questionnaire still used in scientific research.
It is a 42-item self-assessment questionnaire to assess parental behavior (five sub-
scales: poor supervision/supervision, inconsistent discipline, corporal punishment,
positive parenting, and involvement) and it has short versions. It shows good inter-
nal consistency.
The Revised-Parent as Social Context Questionnaire (R-PSCQ) (Deci and Ryan,
1985) includes 30 elements and assesses parenting style based on parents’ self-
assessments of six characteristics: warmth, rejection, structure, chaos, support for
autonomy, and coercion. It has excellent internal consistency (α = 0.90) (Egeli &
Rinaldi, 2016).
Considering the negatives attributes of parenting practices, this dimension pre-
sented four tools (out of 6). The first one is the Psychological Control scale (PCS)
(Barber, 1996) which was used to measure the use by parents of psychologically
intrusive behavior toward young people. Higher scores indicate higher levels of
parental psychological control. Cronbach’s alphas ranged from 0.64 to 0.77 for
mothers’ and fathers’ reports at Wave1 and Wave2 (Cook et al., 2012). The second
one is the scale of Parental Hostility (Iowa family interaction rating scales-IFIRS)
(Melby and Conger, 2001). Three observation scales (hostility, antisocial behavior,
and physical attack) were used to measure the observed hostility from parents to
adolescents. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.79 (Cook et al., 2012). Hostility was also meas-
ured in the study of Wilson et al. (2014) using the Hostile Parenting scale (from the
Longitudinal Study of Australian Children), which consists of four relevant items
assessing reactive angry responses to difficult child behavior, asking parents how
often in the previous 4 weeks his child had gotten on his nerves when crying, and he
had been angry with, shouted at, or lost his temper with his child. Cronbach alphas
were 0.88 (time 1) and 0.81 (time 2). The fourth tool related to a negative approach
of parenting practices is the Critical and disapproving reactions. It is a measure
based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (Statistics Can-
ada) and the eight statements measured the frequency with which parents clearly
express dissatisfaction with their children by reacting with criticism and disapproval
when they encounter difficulties or make mistakes. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.72 (Coté
et al., 2014).
In the study conducted by Zhang et al. (2021) , fathers and mothers reported the
target adolescent’s prosocial and problem behaviors using the Strengths and Difficul-
ties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, 1997). The SDQ is a reliable and valid meas-
ure (Cronbach’s α was 0.69 for the Prosocial Behavior subscale and was 0.80 for the
Problem Behavior subscale).

Environmental Stress Management Assessments This dimension was contemplated

with eight different tools related to sense of competence, mindfulness, and interper-
sonal parenting competencies. The Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (Johnston

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and Mash, 1989) is a 16-point questionnaire measuring parents’ self-reported sat-

isfaction and effectiveness in parenting. Good internal consistency (Wilson et al.,
2014). The Sense of coherence (SOC-13) (Antonovsky, 1987) includes 13 elements
measuring the areas of comprehensibility (5 elements), manageability (4 elements),
and meaningfulness (4 elements). The internal consistency was 0.82 (Hosokawa
et al., 2017).
The Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale—Dutch version (IM-P)(Dun-
can, 2007; de Bruin et al., 2014) was used to measure maternal mindful parenting
and has 5 dimensions: listening with full attention, emotional awareness of self and
child, self-regulation in parenting, non-judgmental acceptance of self and child,
compassion for self and child. Internal reliability (α. = 0.86) (Wong et al., 2019). The
Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (ICQ) (Buhrmester et al., 1988) was used
to measure affirmation and has eight elements which assess the level of comfort with
a directly communicative relational dissatisfaction among parents. Good internal
consistency (Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016).
The Parent Internalizing Difficulties were assessed using the anxiety and depres-
sion subscales (7 items each; scored from 0 to 3) of the general health questionnaire
(GHQ 28) (Goldberg, 1981). Higher scores indicate greater difficulty. Cronbach’s
alpha was 0.88 (baseline) and 0.90 (follow-up) (Kehoe et al., 2014). A central fea-
ture of internalizing problems is mood or emotional disorder. Adults and children
with internalizing difficulties (such as depressive symptoms, social anxiety, low self-
esteem) have been shown to have unique patterns of emotional competence (Berking
& Wupperman, 2012; Southam-Gerow & Kendall, 2002).
The Family Environment Scale (Moos and Moos, 1994) was used to assess the
frequency of family conflicts (parent’s report and youth’s report). It is based on the
average of four items with response options using a 5-point Likert scale. Cronbach’s
alpha coefficients were 0.58 (1st year) and 0.64 (follow-up) (Mason et al., 2016).
The Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS) (Pianta, 1992) was used to measure
the father-adolescent relationship on two dimensions: conflict (12 items) and close-
ness (10 items). Cronbach’s α of the conflict and closeness subscales was 0.89 and
0.80, respectively (Zhang et al., 2021). The Parenting Stress Index–Short Form
(PSI–SF) (Lam, 1999) is 36-item questionnaire with three subscales (parental dis-
tress, parent–child dysfunctional interaction, and difficult child) assessing parents’
perception of distress in taking care of their children. It is rated in a 5-point scale
and good internal consistency and validity were reported (Chan et al., 2021).

Discussion

This scoping review described parenting competencies and the characteristics by

which parents can contribute to the development of their children’s social-emotional
competencies through the improvement of their own social and emotional abili-
ties, and how it has been measured in the scientific literature. The assessment of
the parenting competencies is a relevant subject for health professionals, educators,
and parents to supply substantiate knowledge and decisions and, on another hand,

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Trends in Psychology (2024) 32:425–448 441

monitor the evolution and follow the parents’ process of taking on childcare. While
it has innovative elements, parenting competency is not a completely new type of
social conceptualization. After a growing interest in social and emotional com-
petencies and their relationship to the way that parents manage their children and
carry out the parental role, it seems that parenting is something that people learn
as an object of education, training, and resource building. An innovation here is
the emerged dimensions of parenting competencies linked specifically to children’s
social and emotional development, which might be endorsing particular forms of
balanced parenting—which means healthier, stronger, calmer, and more weighted
parenting.
The results of the first objective of this study, to identify parenting competen-
cies to promote children’s SEL, show that eight different parenting competencies
emerged from the sixteen articles and they were grouped into four dimensions fram-
ing these competencies and their characteristics. Multiple variants and combinations
of these parenting competencies are possible. The parenting competencies here iden-
tified can be used as building blocks to design an intervention tailored to parents and
families to support appropriate social and emotional development in their children.
All the parenting competencies (emotion coaching, parental emotional expres-
siveness, coaching and behavior management strategies, supportive reactions, par-
ent engagement, parenting practices and control, sense of coherence, and mindful
parenting) as well as the dimensions emerged (emotional awareness, support avail-
ability, parenting approach, environmental stress management) from this scoping
review are represented in the multi-level and cross-disciplinary model of parent-
ing competency presented by Johnson et al. (2014) , reinforcing our findings and its
importance as a relevant information about how parents can support their children’s
SEL competency. Naturally, this model is complex, and the parenting competencies
identified here are not sufficient to match this proposition, although they serve as
an adequate reference for pointing parenting core abilities related to youth’s SEL
competence.
Concerning the second objective, results found here suggest that most of time,
but not exclusively, the emphasis of studies is on the importance of emotional issues
(Cheung & Pomerantz, 2011; Harrington et al., 2020). Support for this conclusion
can be explained by the fact that emotions are universal, biologically basic, and sta-
ble across people and cultures. Besides that, emotional regulation is a key milestone
in child development (Rutherford et al., 2015). In fact, the formal recognition of the
bidirectional nature of the parent–child relationship must address how parents’ adap-
tative set of skills should be promoted over interventions, looking at the personal
vulnerability that might limit parenting competencies and adequate parenting. There
are, however, good conceptual reasons to explore different routes of influence on
parent’s attributes favoring their children’s SEL, as seen in our findings.
Children’s personal development starts at home and parents are the first role mod-
els that children will imitate. Besides the four dimensions emerged here—emotional
awareness, support availability, parenting approach, and environmental stress man-
agement—it is paramount that parenting competencies should be interconnected and
presented in the modern way of life on a daily basis. Emotional awareness means
that increased emotion coaching as well as decreases in angry/reactive parenting

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might improve emotion socialization practices and child outcomes, leading to a feel-
ing of parenting efficacy and satisfaction. Support availability is another dimension
to manage behavior strategies and to motivate children’s autonomy through parent
engagement and supportive reactions. Parenting approach is the way to improve par-
enting, family interaction, and child outcomes. Parents continue to influence chil-
dren’s behaviors and attitudes, through positive or negative parenting style charac-
teristics. The environmental stress management dimension means that the ability of
parents to control stress factors related to the environment in which they live (fam-
ily, work, society) is crucial for the feeling of efficiency and responsibility within
the parental role. These dimensions are essential and interdependent to sustain a
dynamic and flexible balance in the parent–child relationship allowing for constant
and bilateral promotion of social and emotional learning skills.
In respect to the third objective, most of the tools used in the included studies
demonstrated good internal consistency. However, only two tools were used more
than once. Considered one of the best-known instruments to evaluate parenting
practices, the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ)—used by Chan et al. (2021)
, Hosokawa and Katsura (2017), and Mason et al. (2016) —has shown acceptable
or good reliability and validity in other languages, its scales being considered psy-
chometrically valid when assessing parenting methods (Esposito et al., 2016; Essau
et al., 2006). The Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES)—used
by Wilson et al. (2014), Perry et al. (2020) and Chan et al. (2021)—is a widely used
questionnaire of emotion socialization practices, adapted to different ethnic groups,
and which has good psychometric reliability and validity (Havighurst et al., 2019;
Pintar-Breen et al., 2018). It is not surprising that these two tools have been high-
lighted among the included studies, since both have popularity and robustness in the
literature.
Ideally, abilities taught in parents-target programs lead to improved children’s
outcomes (Yuen, 2019). Most of the included studies reported improvements in both
children’s and parents’ attitudes and behaviors. This study also showed that parents,
when given the opportunity to participate in a well-tailored program, were receptive
and responsive, reinforcing their possible positive role in children’s emotional and
social development (Curtis et al., 2020; Egeli & Rinaldi, 2016; Stefan & Miclea,
2013). A continuing search for qualities that build an adequate and feasible portrait
on strengthening positive parenting competencies and patterns of parent–child inter-
action must be considered for future research.

Limitations

There were several challenges that may have affected the interpretation of our find-
ings. One limitation of this study is that scoping reviews are descriptive and do not
measure evidence quality in a traditional sense (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005). Also,
the inclusion criteria limited the studies to those published via peer review and
therefore did not include other available studies, such as dissertations and theses,
or gray literature. It may have excluded important studies from our review. Even
though this scoping review presented a limited discussion of parenting competencies

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Trends in Psychology (2024) 32:425–448 443

promoting SEL skills development in children, the emerged dimensions are a com-
plementary framework—neither perfect nor exhaustible—for parenting competency.
This study did not evaluate the strength of the included studies nor the mechanisms
within each parenting competency yielded stronger outcomes in children. Future
research should be more focused on these interesting aspects. Clearly, the full poten-
tial of parenting competency favoring SEL skills development in children, its mech-
anisms, and specific strategies to better understand which components are the most
effective in producing positive outcomes in different contexts is yet to be determined
and is outside the scope of this study.

Implications

Clinical and Policy Level

Because successful parenting involves many abilities and variables, comprehensive

perspectives concerning parenting competency may be expected to assist caregivers
in achieving their goals of positive child outcomes related to social and emotional
competencies. Discussing parenting competency related to child’s SEL development
could help minimize the stigma about parenting programs participation. When par-
ents admit that there are areas where they can improve, the identification of these
dimensions/competencies where they are stronger may help them compensate for
areas where they lack skill. Community-based parenting education programs vary
widely in content. Providing programs based on a more uniform view of the nec-
essary parenting abilities related to SEL competence promotion in children could
strengthen acceptance, interest, and efficacy. Our findings are important for inform-
ing strengths and difficulties related to parenting competencies, helping clinicians
to better understand and evaluate parenting competency supporting children’s
development.

Research Level

These findings could help health professionals and researchers to evaluate and
improve the use of tools about how one competency/dimension relates to another.
Several tools have been developed over the past 20 years and are still in use. Updat-
ing these tools will allow a reassessment of the parameters and variables that must
be adapted in a given moment or in a specific cultural context, for example. From
a social health perspective research, parenting competency quality might greatly
affect societal well-being spreading more qualified and accurate parenting compe-
tencies which promote children’s social and emotional competencies and, conse-
quently, decreasing emotional and behavioral troubles in countless family environ-
ments. Among the sixteen articles included, six of them have developed intervention
programs with parents, though not all exclusively with parents (Chan et al., 2021;
Kehoe et al., 2014; Mason et al., 2016; Sheridan et al., 2010; Stefan & Miclea, 2013;
Wilson et al., 2014). Even if not part of the objectives of this current study, all these

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parenting training programs were evaluated and could contribute and deepen the
comprehension of parenting competencies related to social and emotional develop-
ment in children, thus influencing instrument re-evaluation and modification.

Family Unit Level

Once the most important parenting competencies concerning children’s SEL devel-
opment are well described and established, information may (indirectly or even
directly) provide parents with concrete examples allowing comparison and self-
evaluation of their practices and attitudes with those shown to be efficacious. By
providing a simple proposition of parenting competencies, organizations, health
professionals, and educators may be able to decrease parent burden, enhance their
capacities, and improve their ability to care for their children, thus improving mental
health issues for caregivers and children. It might be a possible bridge between fam-
ily unit level and our (or multiple) research findings. For example, when a parent
lacks a competency in child social or emotional promotion—pointed out by him/
herself or by a professional in the area—he/she could search and complete a training
module that targets different abilities within that competency. Potential uses of our
findings include a holistic program design and parent education focusing on promot-
ing youth’s SEL skills. It might be an opportunity for families accessing relevant and
available parenting competencies information, being considered more empowered,
and better able to cope and support child’s self-management.

Conclusions

Parenting competencies correspond to the set of knowledge and skills that enable
parents to best perform their parental role and ensure the maximum potential for
their child’s growth and development (Cardoso et al., 2015). Teaching parents and
caregivers parenting competencies and its attributes, which favor children’s SEL
skills, will allow them to better manage their own emotional reactivity, and respond
to children’s emotions in a more flexible and supportive manner. It might be para-
mount to improve parent–child relationships, preventing and reducing parent and
youth internalizing difficulties.
Reflecting the importance of a simple and direct understanding of parenting com-
petencies promoting children’s SEL skills development, this study adds to the scien-
tific literature a new path of parenting characteristics over a specific outcome. The
findings of this scoping review are offered as a starting point to the comprehensive
description of parenting competencies that favor successful social and emotional
childrearing and also to enhancing its implicated benefits in the whole of society
(children, parents, peers). The proposed dimensions, related to parenting competen-
cies and its evaluation criteria, will hopefully meet needs, enhance family capacity,
and promote both child and family wellness once included in different interventional
or conceptualization opportunities.

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Trends in Psychology (2024) 32:425–448 445

Author Contribution A.N., V.B-K., M.S.: collaborated in designing the manuscript, co-conducting the
review, provided feedback throughout the duration of the reviewing and writing process, and writing sec-
tions of the paper. M.H.J.: collaborated in designing the manuscript, co-conducting the review, writing
sections of the paper, and editing manuscript drafts.

Declarations

Ethics Approval This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by the
authors.

Consent to Participate Not applicable.

Conflict of Interest The authors declare no competing interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

Assumpta Ndengeyingoma1 · Maria Helena Jacob1 ·

Vincent Beaulieu‑Kratchanov1 · Monique Séguin1

* Maria Helena Jacob

[email protected]
1
Quebec University at Outaouais (UQO), Gatineau, QC, Canada

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