Parental emotion regulation and preschoolers’ prosocial behavior: The mediating roles of parental warmth and inductive discipline

The potential mediating roles of parental warmth and inductive discipline on the relations of parental emotion regulation strategies to children’s prosocial behavior were examined in this study. Sixty-four parents of preschoolers (50% girls) completed questionnaires assessing their own regulation practices (i.e., cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression), parenting behaviors (i.e., parental warmth/nurturance, inductive discipline), and children’s prosocial behavior (voluntary behavior intended to benefit another). The authors hypothesized that cognitive reappraisal would be positively and expressive suppression would be negatively related to parenting behaviors and children’s prosocial behavior. They further hypothesized that parental warmth and inductive discipline would mediate the relations between parents’ own regulation strategies and children’s prosocial behavior. Results demonstrated that parental cognitive reappraisal was positively associated with warmth, and expressive suppression was negatively associated with inductive discipline and children’s prosocial behavior. Parental warmth, but not inductive discipline, mediated the relations between cognitive reappraisal and children’s prosocial behavior. The results highlight adults’ own regulatory strategies as predictors of socialization behaviors and the potential processes for socialization of children’s moral emotions and positive social development.     

Do Parents’ Adverse Childhood Experiences Influence Treatment Responses to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy? An exploratory Study with a Child Welfare Sample

This exploratory study of 23 parent–child dyads receiving child welfare services examined the association between the number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) parents reported and their children’s externalizing behaviors. We also assessed whether the effects of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) on externalizing behaviors varied by parents’ ACE histories. Results indicated that parents’ ACE scores were associated with child externalizing symptoms at baseline, but not at a second postbaseline assessment. Although all parents reported reductions in child externalizing behavior from baseline to postbaseline, only reductions reported by parents with four or more ACEs were statistically significant. Implications for implementing PCIT with trauma-exposed families are discussed.     

UNDERSTANDING PARENTING STRESS AND CHILDREN'S BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS AMONG HOMELESS,SUBSTANCE‐ABUSING MOTHERS

This article tested a model of parenting stress as a mediator between maternal depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, and child behavior problems using a sample of homeless, substance‐abusing mothers. Participants were 119 homeless mothers (ages 18–24 years) and their young children (ages 0–6 years). Mothers responded to questions about their depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, parenting stress, and child behavior problems. A path analysis showed that maternal depressive symptoms were positively associated with child behavior problems through increased parenting stress whereas maternal cognitive reappraisal was negatively associated with child behavior problems through decreased parenting stress. Moreover, maternal expressive suppression was negatively related to child externalizing problems. Findings support the parenting stress theory and highlight maternal parenting stress as a mechanism associated with homeless children's mental health risk. This study has significant implications for understanding the parenting processes underlying child's resilience in the context of homelessness and maternal substance use.     

Cognitive Reappraisal and Depression in Children with a Parent History of Depression

Although decades of research have documented that children whose parents have a history of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are at a higher risk of developing depression themselves, not all of these children go on to develop depression themselves, thus highlighting the need to understand potential moderators of risk. The current study examined whether child emotion regulation, specifically, the use of cognitive reappraisal and suppression, moderated the link between parent and child depression. We recruited 458 parents and their children between the ages of 7–11 from the community. The majority of children were Caucasian (74.2%) and approximately half were girls (46.1%). Among children with a parent history of MDD, those who reported using cognitive reappraisal more frequently were less likely to have a history of depressive diagnoses themselves and had higher current levels of positive affect. Although children’s use of suppression was not associated with their levels of depressive symptoms among children with a parent history of MDD, higher levels of suppression were related to higher levels of depressive symptoms among children with no parent history of MDD. These findings suggest that, among children with a history of parent depression, children’s use of cognitive reappraisal may influence their own risk for developing depression and highlights the potential utility of early interventions that focus on improving the use of emotion regulation strategies like cognitive reappraisal among children of depressed parents.     

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Children Born Premature: A Case Study and Illustration of Vagal Tone as a Physiological Measure of Treatment Outcome

Evidence-based psychosocial interventions for externalizing behavior problems in children born premature have not been reported in the literature. This single-case study describes Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) with a 23-month-old child born at 29 weeks gestation weighing 1,020 grams, who presented with significant externalizing behavior problems. Treatment outcome was assessed using standard measures of maternal and child functioning and observational measures of the parent-child interaction, as well as a physiological measure of heart rate variability (i.e., vagal tone) used to assess parasympathetic control in the child. Maternal reports of child behavior problems and their own stress and depressive symptoms decreased after treatment. Behavioral observations demonstrated improved parenting practices and child compliance, and vagal tone showed comparable increases as well. Results suggest that PCIT is a promising psychosocial intervention for children born premature with externalizing behavior problems, and that vagal tone may be a useful measure of treatment outcome.     

Parental Depression and Economic Disadvantage: The Role of Parenting in Associations with Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in Children and Adolescents

This study examined the effects of parental depression symptoms, economic disadvantage, and parenting behaviors in 180 children and adolescents of depressed parents (ages 9–15 years-old). Analyses revealed that while parental depression symptoms, economic disadvantage, and disrupted parenting behaviors were related to children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms, disrupted parenting (e.g., intrusive, neglectful parenting) accounted for the association of parental depressive symptoms and economic disadvantage with children’s symptoms. This study provides evidence that disrupted parenting may be a common or shared process through which both parental depression and economic disadvantage are associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing problems.     

PCIT-Health: Preventing Childhood Obesity by Strengthening the Parent–Child Relationship

Childhood obesity is a costly, yet preventable, public health concern. Strengthening the parent–child relationship and teaching parents strategies to manage children’s general and health-related behaviors has the potential to reduce childhood obesity risk. Selective prevention interventions may help parents of young children establish positive parenting and feeding practices to actively reduce risk factors. We review the existing literature on childhood obesity interventions and describe an adaptation to a behavioral parent training program—parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT)—to address children’s behaviors in obesity-salient (e.g., mealtime, screen time, bedtime) contexts. In a case example, we describe how PCIT-Health can be effectively implemented.     

Self-Reported Parenting of Clinic-Referred and Non-referred Mexican American Mothers of Young Children

Behavioral parent training (BPT) interventions for child behavior problems have been based on decades of research that demonstrate links between particular parent behaviors and child externalizing problems. However, the majority of this research has been conducted with European-American (EA) families, and less is known about whether these findings can be generalized to Mexican Americans (MAs). In the current study, we investigated self-reported parenting practices that have been associated with externalizing behavior problems among EA families (harsh parenting, inconsistency, and low parental warmth), to determine if those practices can also differentiate MA mothers whose young children have clinically significant behavior problems from MA mothers whose children do not have behavior problems. Participants were 115 MA families with young children, 58 with a child with clinically significant behavior problems and 57 with a child in the normal range for such problems. Results indicated that MA mothers whose children have behavior problems self-reported significantly less warmth and consistency and more harsh parenting compared to parents whose children’s behavior was in the normal range. These findings indicate that parenting behaviors that are associated with externalizing behavior problems among EA families are associated with the same problems among MA families with young children, suggesting that parent training interventions designed to target these behaviors are also likely to be relevant to MA families with children in this age range. However, findings also indicate that parenting behaviors differ depending on acculturation level, suggesting that BPT programs must respond to variation in normative parenting practices for MA families.     

Longitudinal Associations of Parental Emotion Socialization and Children’s Emotion Regulation: The Moderating Role of ADHD Symptomatology

Theory and research suggest that parents’ reactions to children’s emotions play a critical role in teaching children effective emotion regulation (ER) skills, but no studies have directly examined the role that parent emotion socialization plays in the development of ER in children with ADHD. Gaining insight into the causes of impaired ER, particularly in youth with ADHD who are known to have poor ER, has important theoretical and translational significance. The present study is the first to longitudinally examine whether emotion socialization predicts later physiological and adult-reported measures of ER in children with and without ADHD. It also sought to determine if these relations are moderated by ADHD symptoms. Participants were 61 children (31 girls, 30 boys; M = 10.67 years, SD = 1.28) with and without clinically significant ADHD symptoms. At Time 1, parent reports of emotion socialization and parent- and teacher-report of child ADHD symptoms were collected. At Time 2, child ER measures were collected based on parent- and teacher-report and physiological reactivity during an impossible puzzle and a social rejection task. Physiological measures included respiratory sinus arrhythmia and skin conductance level (SCL). Supportive parenting practices were associated with better parent-rated emotion regulation skills for all children and greater SCL reactivity for children with high ADHD symptoms. Non-supportive parenting reactions were associated with greater adult-rated emotional lability for children with high ADHD symptoms. Results highlight the importance of considering multiple aspects of ER, including physiological manifestations. Findings suggest that parents’ use of adaptive emotion socialization practices may serve as a protective factor for children’s ER development and may be particularly critical for youth with ADHD. Our findings support the use of interventions addressing parent emotion socialization to help foster better ER in children.     

The Association between Self-Regulation and Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Preschoolers with Externalizing Behavior Problems

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in predicting deficits in self-regulation across the domains of executive functioning and emotion regulation. Parents of 40 preschoolers with externalizing behavior problems reported on children’s ADHD and ASD symptoms, and emotion regulation. Children completed a standardized executive functioning battery. Results indicated that 28% of parents and 53% of teachers rated children above the subclinical range on ASD symptoms. An interaction emerged such that higher ASD symptoms were only associated with poorer executive functioning for children with lower ADHD symptoms. However, ASD symptoms were predictive of poorer emotion regulation independent of ADHD symptoms. Findings revealed clinically significant ASD symptoms, which aided in explaining heterogeneity in self-regulation deficits.     

Predicting Change in Parenting Stress Across Early Childhood: Child and Maternal Factors

This study examined maternal parenting stress in a sample of 430 boys and girls including those at risk for externalizing behavior problems. Children and their mothers were assessed when the children were ages 2, 4, and 5. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to examine stability of parenting stress across early childhood and to examine child and maternal factors predicting parenting stress at age 2 and changes in parenting stress across time. Results indicated that single parenthood, maternal psychopathology, child anger proneness, and child emotion dysregulation predicted 2-year parenting stress. Child externalizing behaviors predicted initial status and changes across time in parenting stress. Stability of parenting stress was dependent upon child externalizing problems, as well as interactions between child externalizing problems and gender, and child externalizing problems and emotion regulation. Results are discussed in the context of mechanisms by which parenting stress may influence the development of child externalizing behaviors.     

Parenting and Preschoolers' Symptoms as a Function of Child Gender and SES

ABSTRACT

Improving parental discipline practices is a central target of behavioral parent training programs, but little research has examined how discipline varies as a function of gender. Based on the assumption that socialization practices might be related to gender differences in psychopathology, we examined relations between parenting and problem behaviors in children. We predicted that parents would be overreactive toward children displaying symptoms inconsistent with gender stereotypes and lax towards those with gender stereotype-consistent behavior. Parents of 112 preschool-aged children reported on their children's externalizing and internalizing symptoms, and their own lax and overreactive parenting. As hypothesized, internalizing symptoms in girls and externalizing symptoms in boys predicted lax parenting, while externalizing behaviors in girls and internalizing symptoms in boys were associated with overreactive parenting. Exploratory analyses suggest that relations differed somewhat as a function of sociocultural status, pointing to the need for future studies to consider social context.     

Parenting Behaviors and Childhood Anxiety: A Psychometric Investigation of the EMBU-C

Parent rearing behaviors, including both behavioral modeling and parent–child interactions, are associated with anxiety in children. Patterns of overprotection or rejecting behavior from parents may lead children to develop behavioral avoidance, lower self-confidence, and higher symptoms of anxiety. Additional research is needed to further elucidate the role that parenting behavior plays in the development of childhood anxiety. Unfortunately, few measures of parenting behavior exist. The EMBU-C is a 40-item child-report measure of these behaviors, but empirical data supporting the psychometric properties of the EMBU-C are limited. The current investigation examined the psychometric properties of the EMBU-C in the context of childhood anxiety. Participants were 213 children with an anxiety disorder and 150 recruited from the community (all aged 8–13 years). Overall, the EMBU-C demonstrated promising psychometrics. In terms of convergent validity, parent rearing behaviors described on the EMBU-C were significantly related to children’s anxiety symptoms, anxiety-related disability, parenting stress, family functioning and children’s externalizing behaviors. Further, the overprotection and anxious-rearing subscales discriminated between clinical and community participants. Finally, parental overprotection significantly predicted increases in child anxiety and anxiety-related disability 1 year later. Thus, the EMBU-C appears to have value as a clinical tool for assessing parental factors that may contribute to anxiety in children. Recommendations for further item development and measure improvement are offered.     

Child-directed interaction: prediction of change in impaired mother-child functioning

The first phase of parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), called child-directed interaction, teaches parents to use positive and differential social attention to improve the parent-child relationship. This study examined predictors of change in mother and child functioning during the child-directed interaction for 100 mother-child dyads. The children were 3-6-years-old and diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder. After establishing that significant improvements occurred in mother report of child disruptive behavior, parenting stress, and parenting practices, these three variables were combined to form a latent impaired mother-child functioning construct. Structural equation models were examined using maternal demographic and psychosocial variables as predictors of impaired mother-child functioning before and after the child-directed interaction. Mothers' self-reported daily hassles and depressive symptomatology predicted 74% of variance in impaired mother-child functioning before treatment. Mothers' report of social support predicted impaired mother-child functioning after the child-directed interaction, with 57% of the variance accounted for in this longitudinal model. These findings suggest the importance of improving maternal social support during the initial phase of PCIT.     

Parenting stress and competence among mothers of young children with substance use disorders: The roles of trauma and reflective functioning

Posttraumatic stress symptoms are prominent in the lives of parents of young children with substance use disorders (SUD). Parenting experiences, particularly stress and competence, impact parenting behaviors and concomitant child growth and development. Factors that promote positive experiences of parenting, such as parental reflective functioning (PRF), and protect the mother and child from negative outcomes are crucial to understand to develop effective therapeutic interventions. The current US study analyzed baseline data from a parenting intervention evaluation to examine how length of substance misuse, PRF, and trauma symptoms were associated with parenting stress and parenting sense of competence among mothers in treatment for SUDs. Measures included the Addiction Severity Index, PTSD Symptom Scale-Self Report, Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, Parenting Stress Index/Short Form, and Parenting Sense of Competence Scale. The sample included 54 predominantly White mothers with SUDs who had young children. Two multivariate regression analyses found that (1) lower parental reflective functioning and higher posttraumatic stress symptoms were associated with higher parenting stress, and (2) only higher posttraumatic stress symptoms were associated with lower levels of parenting sense of competence. Findings underscore the importance of addressing trauma symptoms and PRF when aiming to improve parenting experiences for women with an SUD.     

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Revised Parental Emotion Regulation Inventory

Despite significant research on parental emotion, parents’ regulation of their own emotions during discipline encounters is an understudied topic. Progress in this area of inquiry would be enhanced by the development of valid measures of emotion regulation. The present article describes an evaluation of such a measure, the revised Parental Emotion Regulation Inventory (PERI2). Mothers of 2-year-old children (N?=?232) completed the PERI2, additional questionnaire measures, and a parent-child observation during home visits. The present findings support the factorial and concurrent validity of the PERI2’s suppression (e.g., concealing negative emotion), capitulation (e.g., giving into aversive child behavior to reduce negative emotion) and escape (e.g., walking away mid discipline encounter to reduce negative emotion) factors. Suppression, capitulation, and escape were distinct but interrelated emotion regulatory behaviors that were associated with such factors as harsh parenting, lax discipline, parental maladjustment, and child physical aggression. In contrast, the psychometric adequacy of the reappraisal factor (e.g., thinking differently about the child’s behavior to reduce negative emotion) was not supported. The results support the future use of the PERI2, minus the reappraisal factor’s items.     

Adolescents’ Behaviors as Moderators for the Link between Parental Self-Efficacy and Parenting Practices

Based on theory that parents with higher levels of self-efficacy (PSE) should find it easier to parent effectively in the face of challenging child behaviors than should parents with lower levels of PSE, this study examines the link between PSE and parenting using children’s behaviors as potential moderators. Participants were 130 parents who had an older adolescent (M _age?=?17.58) in addition to the target adolescent (M _age?=?11.79), and both adolescents’ externalizing behaviors were used as moderators for the link between PSE and parenting of the target adolescent. Path analysis in Mplus showed that higher PSE was linked to more promotive parenting but only among parents who had an older adolescent with lower levels of externalizing behaviors. Among parents of adolescents with higher levels of externalizing behaviors, whose promotive parenting was significantly lower than other parents overall, PSE did not predict promotive parenting. The link between PSE and parenting did not differ depending on the target adolescents’ behavior. Findings suggest that the link between parents’ beliefs and parenting depends on the broader family context. More specifically, how PSE is linked to parenting practices depends at least partly on the experiences that parents bring from parenting an older adolescent to their interactions with a later-born adolescent. From a clinical perspective, parents might need guidance in how to think about their earlier parenting experiences when parenting a younger adolescent.     

Associations Between Fathers’ and Mothers’ Psychopathology Symptoms,Parental Emotion Socialization,and Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Development

In this study we tested whether the relation between fathers’ and mothers’ psychopathology symptoms and child social-emotional development was mediated by parents’ use of emotion talk about negative emotions in a sample of 241 two-parent families. Parents’ internalizing and externalizing problems were measured with the Adult Self Report and parental emotion talk was observed while they discussed a picture book with their children (child age: 3 years). Children’s parent-reported internalizing and externalizing problems and observed prosocial behaviors were assessed at the age of 3 years and again 12 months later. We found that mothers’ use of emotion talk partially mediated the positive association between fathers’ internalizing problems and child internalizing problems. Fathers’ internalizing problems predicted more elaborative mother–child discussions about negative emotions, which in turn predicted more internalizing problems in children a year later. Mothers’ externalizing problems directly predicted more internalizing and externalizing problems in children. These findings emphasize the importance of examining the consequences of parental psychological difficulties for child development from a family-wide perspective.     

Emotion Regulation and Empathy: Which Relation with Social Conduct?

A shared consensus among researchers deals with the positive association between the ability to effectively regulate and manage one's emotion and the engagement in empathic behavior and morally desirable actions. This study was designed to investigate how dispositional reliance on suppression and reappraisal differently impacted on the cognitive and affective components of empathy and on social conduct, distinguishing among prosocial, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors. Two hundred nineteen middle adolescents were enrolled and fulfilled self-reports assessing emotion regulation strategies, empathy, and social behaviors. The results suggest that there are important distinctions among the emotion regulation strategies and the components of empathy as they relate to one another and to prosocial behavior and problem conduct. Specifically, cognitive reappraisal was related to prosocial behavior through empathic concern. While internalizing behavior was associated with emotion regulation strategies, externalizing behavior was only related to perspective-taking ability. Delimitations and practical implications were discussed.     

An initial investigation of baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia as a moderator of treatment outcome for young children born premature with externalizing behavior problems

The aim of the current study was to examine the moderating effect of baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) on Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), a behavioral parent-training intervention, for young children born premature. In this pilot randomized controlled trial, 28 young children (mean age of 37.79 months), who were born <37 weeks gestation and presented with elevated externalizing behavior problems, were randomly assigned to an immediate treatment or waitlist control group. RSA, which provides an approximate marker of individual differences in cardiac vagal tone, was measured during a baseline period. Past research has generally shown that higher levels of baseline RSA correlate with various positive psychological states (e.g., empathy, sustained attention), whereas lower levels of baseline RSA correlate with less optimal psychological states (e.g., higher externalizing behavior problems). Results indicated that baseline RSA significantly interacted with treatment condition in predicting changes in child disruptive behavior. Specifically, low levels of baseline RSA were associated with greater improvements in child disruptive behavior following PCIT. While acknowledging the caveats of measuring and interpreting RSA and the need to include a sympathetic-linked cardiac measure in future research, these findings provide preliminary evidence that children with lower capacity for emotion regulation receive even greater treatment gains. Future research should also examine the moderating effect of RSA in larger samples and explore the potential mediating role of RSA on behavioral parenting interventions.