Background and Aim: Adolescence is an important period for the development of emotional skills, and parents play a key role in adolescents’ emotion regulation. Given the importance of family cultural context and the scarcity of indigenous qualitative studies in this field, this study aimed to explain the role of parents in Iranian adolescents’ emotion regulation from experts’ perspectives using an inductive qualitative content analysis approach.
Methods: This qualitative study was conducted from May to October 2025. Participants included 10 experts and counselors in adolescent mental health who were purposively selected until data saturation was reached. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using inductive qualitative content analysis with a latent approach, following the method proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. Data were managed using Microsoft Word 2013. Trustworthiness was ensured based on Lincoln and Guba’s criteria, including member checking, peer review, and detailed documentation of the research process.
Results: Participants included six women and four men, with a mean age of 45.6 years and an average of 18 years of clinical experience. Data analysis yielded three main categories and eight subcategories: (1) emotional education and empowerment (emotional awareness, coping skills and self-care, and emotion acceptance); (2) emotion-focused parenting (authoritative parenting, parental modeling, and effective communication); and (3) creating a supportive environment (a safe environment, family structure, and management of marital conflicts).
Conclusion: The findings indicate that the role of parents in adolescents’ emotion regulation extends beyond behavioral recommendations and requires enhancing parents’ emotional literacy, emotion-focused interactions, and family stability. Accordingly, family-based interventions emphasizing parental emotion coaching and reducing marital conflicts may contribute to promoting adolescents’ mental health.