The Effectiveness of Knowledge Mobilization on Parent Emotion Beliefs Is Moderated by Parent Gender, Dysregulation, and Family Expressiveness

We tested the effectiveness of mobilizing research findings from a study on parental beliefs about gender and emotion directly to parent stakeholders and examined parent gender, parent emotion dysregulation, and family expressiveness as moderators of belief change pre-to-post knowledge mobilization. A sample of 936 parents of children aged 8-12 completed measures about gendered emotion beliefs, emotion dysregulation, and family expressiveness and was then randomized to watch either a short, animated knowledge mobilization (KMb) video or a control video. KMb effectiveness was moderated by parent gender, such that gendered beliefs decreased significantly more in the KMb condition for fathers but not for mothers. Results also revealed a larger decrease in gendered emotion beliefs post-KMb video for parents who initially endorsed low levels of dysregulation and family emotion expressiveness. Implications for informing future KMb efforts and tailoring such efforts based on the heterogeneity of the targeted audience are discussed. Public Significance Statement This study found that the effectiveness of a knowledge mobilization (KMb) video about gender and emotion expression was moderated by parent gender, parent emotion dysregulation, and family expressiveness. Our findings suggest that one size does not fit all and that optimal KMb strategies should be tailored to specific knowledge users and their characteristics.