Covering Negative Emotions With A ‘Happy Face’ Can Negatively Affect Parent’s Mental State

Parents only want the best for their children. That's why even if sometimes life gets rough they still tend to act as though nothing's bothering them. Parents tend to hide their negative emotions conveying only the positive ones which they thought would be best especially for their children.

But according to a new research conducted by the University of Toronto Mississauga, attempting to hide that pain and hurt in one's heart can actually cause more harm than good. Putting an effort to convey that "happy face" could dangerously affect the parent's mental state. As stated by the Daily Mail, with that mask on, the study showed parents tend to feel lower emotional well-being, authenticity, relationship quality and responsiveness in caring for their kids.

"For the average parent the findings suggest when they attempt to hide their negative emotion expression and overexpress their positive emotions with their children," Dr. Emily Impett of the University of Toronto Mississauga said. "...it actually comes at a cost: doing so may lead parents to feel worse themselves."

The study conducted was divided into two studies. The first experiment included 162 parents who were asked to recall certain past events while the second one with 118 parents who answered several questions about their parenting style within the last 10 days.

The results showed that the more parents suppress and hide their emotions, the more stressed they can get -- making it more difficult for them to handle the problem. Meanwhile, both groups conveyed almost similar results.

Authors of the study are now looking forward to their upcoming research which will focus on whether or not children benefit to this kind of set up, as reported by Yahoo. "Future research should identify more adaptive ways for parents to regulate their emotions that allow them to feel true to themselves and contribute to the most joyful and optimal experiences of parenting," Dr. Impett added.