Bidirectional Associations Between Parenting Behavior and Child Callous-Unemotional Traits: Does Parental Depression Moderate this Link?

The current study longitudinally examined bidirectional associations between callous-unemotional (CU) traits and parenting dimensions. This study extended the literature by examining whether parental depression moderated these relations in a pre-adolescent sample. Proposed relations were examined using a longitudinal sample of 120 aggressive children (59.6 % male) who were in the 4th grade (M?=?10.56 years, SD?=?0.56) at baseline and were followed annually over 4 years. A series of generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were used to examine proposed relations. At the first order level, corporal punishment (p?p?=?0.03) however, the inverse relations were not found. Importantly, parental depression moderated the link between corporal punishment and CU traits. Specifically, at high levels of depression, corporal punishment was predictive of increases in CU traits, but was unrelated to CU traits at low levels of depression. These findings aid in our understanding of the link between corporal punishment and CU traits by highlighting conditions under which certain parenting behaviors have an impact on CU traits, which in turn, may have important intervention implications. Further clinical implications, limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Do Provocateurs’ Emotion Displays Influence Children’s Social Goals and Problem Solving?

The social goals and social problem-solving of children who varied in social adjustment were examined in the context of hypothetical ambiguous provocation situations in which provocateurs’ emotion displays were systematically manipulated. Children rated the importance of six different social goals and explained how they would solve the problems. Social adjustment was measured with rating and nomination sociometric procedures. Rejected-aggressive, rejected-nonaggressive, average-nonaggressive, and popular-nonaggressive children showed both commonalities and differences in rating the six social goals, the relative importance of the six social goals, and social problem-solving depending on the provocateur’s emotion display. When provocateurs were happy, there were few group differences, but when provocateurs were angry or sad, rejected-aggressive children: a) rated hostile/instrumental goals more positively; b) rated prosocial goals less positively; and c) made problem-solving responses that were less friendly than those of other children. Results are discussed in relation to Lemerise and Arsenio’s (2000) model of emotion and social information processing.     

Parental Mediation of COVID-19 News and Children’s Emotion Regulation during Lockdown

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The COVID-19 outbreak resulted in a large amount of emotionally charged messaging that is believed to have a tremendous psychological impact, particularly on...     

Maternal Emotion Regulation and Children’s Behavior Problems: The Mediating Role of Child Emotion Regulation

Children’s difficulties managing emotions are contributors to their behavior problems, and parents’ emotion regulation difficulties are also likely contributors to their children’s regulatory challenges and behavioral difficulties. This study examined the associations among mothers’ emotion regulation, children’s emotion regulation, and children’s behavior problems. Children’s emotion regulation difficulties were hypothesized to mediate the association between maternal difficulties with emotion regulation and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. A sample of 454 mothers completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Emotion Regulation Checklist, and the Child Behavior Checklist for their children aged 3–7. Children’s emotion regulation difficulties accounted for the indirect association between mothers’ lower emotion awareness and both internalizing and externalizing problems. On the other hand, children’s emotional negativity accounted for the indirect association between mothers’ difficulties with emotion regulation and behavior problems. Future directions for research and clinical intervention focused on promoting parental and child emotion regulation are discussed.     

Does Working Memory Mediate the Link Between Dispositional Optimism and Depressive Symptoms?

The aim of this study was to explore the interplay between working memory (WM), dispositional optimism, and depressive symptoms in participants across a wide age band (16–79 years) in a nonclinical sample using a computer‐based interface. We administered tests of visuospatial WM (processing and recall), dispositional optimism (optimism and pessimism), and self‐reported depression. There were two main findings: 1) both optimism and pessimism were independent predictors of a self‐rated depression score; 2) WM recall scores predicted both optimism and pessimism. The findings suggest the following pattern: according to the negativity bias, a pessimistic outlook presents as a strong stimulus for attentional allocation, which results in depression. However, a strong WM can counter this pattern, as individuals can allocate attention to the weaker stimulus, which is an optimistic outlook. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children’s Maternal Support-Seeking: Relations to Maternal Emotion Socialization Responses and Children’s Emotion Management

The present study examined children’s support-seeking of mothers (SSM) as a moderator of the association between maternal emotion socialization responses and children’s emotion management. Participants included 119 mother–child dyads (63 boys, M age = 9.61 years, 73.1 % Caucasian). Maternal emotion socialization was assessed via observed mother–child interactions and child report. Analyses indicated several main effects such that child-reported maternal reward responses were associated with stronger child emotion management, whereas perceived maternal punishment and neglect were associated with poorer child emotion management. Regarding the significant interactions, observed maternal general unsupportive socialization responses were negatively associated with emotion management. Additionally, for children low in SSM, child-reported maternal overriding of children’s emotions was positively associated with better emotion management. Support-seeking of mothers may mitigate the risk of some unsupportive maternal socialization responses and may be an adaptive strategy in middle childhood in particular contexts.     

Children and Violence: The Role of Children’s Regulation in the Marital Aggression–Child Adjustment Link

Exposure to marital psychological and physical abuse has been established as a risk factor for children’s socio-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive problems. Understanding the processes by which children develop symptoms of psychopathology and deficits in cognitive functioning in the context of marital aggression is imperative for developing efficient and effective treatment programs for children and families, and has far-reaching mental health implications. The present paper outlines our research program, Child Regulation and Exposure to Marital Aggression, which focuses on children’s emotional and physiological reactivity and regulation as pathways in the marital aggression–child development link. Findings from our research program, which highlight the importance of children’s regulatory processes for understanding children’s adjustment in contexts of intimate partner violence, are presented, and future directions in this line of inquiry are outlined.     

Person-Centered Maternal Emotion Socialization and Child Temperament: Relations to Children’s Emotion Regulation and Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Maternal emotion socialization and children’s temperament are two foundations of children’s emotional development. Yet, emotion socialization and...     

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.     

Longitudinal Relations Between Parent–Child Conflict and Children’s Adjustment: The Role of Children’s Sleep

Sleep was examined as a process variable in relations between verbal and physical parent–child conflict and change in children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms over time. Participants were 282 children at T1 (M age?=?9.44 years; 48 % girls), 280 children at T2 (M age?=?10.41 years), and 275 children at T3 (M age?=?11.35 years). Children reported on parent–child conflict, sleep was assessed with actigraphy, and parents reported on children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Autoregressive effects for sleep and internalizing and externalizing symptoms were controlled to examine change over time. Supportive of intervening processes, physical parent–child conflict at T1 and increased change in internalizing and externalizing symptoms at T3 were indirectly related through their shared association with reduced sleep continuity (efficiency, long wake episodes) at T2. Findings build on a small but growing literature and highlight the importance of considering the role of sleep in relations between family conflict and child development.     

Parental Depression and Divorce and Adult Children’s Well-Being: The Role of Family Unpredictability

We examined how parental depression and divorce are associated with anxiety and depression among college students (N = 126; 83% female; 89% Caucasian). Participants provided retrospective recollections of their parents’ depression, and they completed The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale and portions of the Trait Anxiety Scale. In addition, they filled out the brief Marlow-Crowe Social Desirability Scale and the Retrospective Family Unpredictability Scale. Parental depression related to students’ depression, and aspects of family unpredictability (unpredictable money, maternal discipline, and paternal nurturance) mediated this relationship. Parental depression also related to students’ anxiety, however family unpredictability was not a strong mediator of this relationship. Finally, students reporting parental divorce did not report elevated depression or anxiety scores, although parental divorce did relate to perceptions of parental depression. We discuss implications and ideas for treatment and future research.     

Longitudinal Associations Between Parental and Children’s Depressive Symptoms in the Context of Interparental Relationship Functioning

Using longitudinal, multi-informant data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the present study tested associations between trajectories of parental and child depressive symptoms from ages 11 to 15 years. Consistent with predictions, changes in mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms were positively associated with change in children’s depressive symptoms over time. In addition, youth characteristics of sex and pubertal development moderated the trajectories, with children more advanced on pubertal development showing higher initial levels of depressive symptoms, and girls demonstrating steeper slopes of depressive symptoms over time. The context of interparental relationship functioning (i.e., marital conflict, marital conflict resolution) moderated both the trajectories of child depressive symptoms and the interplay between parental and child depressive symptoms in ways largely consistent with hypotheses. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of treating youth depressive symptoms with a consideration of the broader family context, including parental and interparental functioning.     

Is Maternal Fatigue Mediating the Relationship Between Maternal Depression and Child Outcomes?

Fatigue, a subjective state that has been defined as a decreased capacity for physical or mental activity, has many behavioral similarities to depression (e.g., weariness, difficulty concentrating, diminished motivation). We hypothesized that fatigue might mediate the relationship between depression and poor child outcomes. A sample of mothers (14 well women, 57 with multiple sclerosis, and 36 with rheumatoid arthritis) completed an online survey where they reported on their fatigue (using the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale), depression (using the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale), child internalizing and externalizing behaviors (using the Child Behavior Checklist), and child prosocial behaviors (using a 10-item abbreviated Positive Behavior Scale). Maternal fatigue mediated the relationship between maternal depression and the total problems T-score on the Child Behavior Checklist but a mediated relationship was not found for the Positive Behavior Scale. Findings are discussed in light of the need to elucidate the relationship between maternal fatigue, depression, and child outcomes.     

Early-occurring Maternal Depression and Maternal Negativity in Predicting Young Children’s Emotion Regulation and Socioemotional Difficulties

This longitudinal investigation examined the effects of maternal depression and concomitant negative parenting behaviors on children’s emotion regulation patterns and socioemotional functioning. One hundred fifty-one mothers and their children were assessed when children were approximately 1 1/2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-years of age. Ninety-three of the children had mothers with a history of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) that had occurred within the first 21 months of the child’s birth, and 58 of the children had mothers without any history of MDD. Early-occurring Initial maternal depression predicted children’s dysregulated emotion patterns at age 4 and decreased perceived competence ratings at age 5. Initial maternal depression also indirectly predicted decreased child social acceptance ratings at age 5 through its association with dysregulated emotion patterns. Furthermore, the relation between maternal depression and children’s decreased social acceptance was more pronounced in those offspring with a history of high versus low maternal negativity exposure. Findings increase understanding of the processes by which maternal depression confers risk on children’s socioemotional adjustment.     

Parental Migration and Children’s Outcomes in Romania

Although Eastern European migration has increased greatly, the research on its impact on children and families has been limited. In this study I examined the impact of parental economic migration on children psychosocial and academic outcomes in Romania, one of largest Eastern European migrant sending country. Surveys were conducted with 382 children in 5–8th grades. A conceptual model of the impact of parental migration, economic pressure, social support, parenting and children’s outcomes was examined using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that higher economic pressure was associated with higher desire for migration, lower parenting quality and higher child psychological distress. Higher satisfaction with migration was associated with higher quality of parenting, higher child psychosocial functioning and academic achievement. Recommendations for programs and policies targeted to immigrant families are provided.     

Etiological Contributions to the Covariation Between Children’s Perceptions of Inter-Parental Conflict and Child Behavioral Problems

Prior work has suggested that inter-parental conflict likely plays an etiological role in child behavior problems. However, family-level measurement of inter-parental conflict in most traditional child twin studies has made it difficult to tease apart the specific causal mechanisms underlying this association. The Children’s Perception of Inter-parental Conflict scale (CPIC) provides a child-specific measurement tool for examining these questions, as its subscales tap multiple dimensions of conflict assessed from the child’s (rather than the parent’s) perspective. The current study examined (1) the degree of genetic and environmental influence on each of the CPIC subscales, and (2) etiological contributions to the covariation between the CPIC scales and parental reports of child behavioral problems. The CPIC was completed by 1,200 child twins (aged 6–11 years) from the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR). Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to assess child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Multivariate models were examined to evaluate the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to both the CPIC scales and to their overlap with child behavioral outcomes. Modeling results indicated no significant moderation of sex or age. Significant environmental overlap emerged between the CPIC conflict properties scale and child internalizing and externalizing problems. By contrast, significant genetic correlations emerged between the CPIC self-blame scale and externalizing problems as well as between the CPIC threat scale and internalizing problems. Overall, findings suggest that the subscales of the CPIC are somewhat etiologically diverse and may provide a useful tool for future investigations of possible gene-environment interplay.     

Role of Gender and Emotionality Stigma in Perceived Parental Emotion Dysregulation and Adult Children’s Internalizing Symptoms

Sex Roles - Boys and girls learn early from their parents about what is appropriate and what is not in terms of emotional expression. We argue that these parental cues can lead to the formation of...     

Serotonin Transporter Genotype Moderates the Link Between Children’s Reports of Overprotective Parenting and Their Behavioral Inhibition

The goal of the current study was to examine environmental and genetic correlates of children’s levels of behavioral inhibition (BI). Participants were 100 mother child pairs drawn from the community who were part of a larger study of the intergenerational transmission of depression. Results indicated that higher levels of maternal overprotection, as reported by the child, were associated with elevations in BI among children carrying two copies of the lower expressing 5-HTTLPR alleles (S or L_G), but not among those carrying only one copy or those homozygous for the L_A allele. In addition, this interaction was specific for the social component of BI, not the nonsocial component. This relation was maintained even after statistically controlling for children’s and mother’s psychopathology. Together, these findings add to emerging research demonstrating that G × E interactions predict variation in BI during childhood.     

Testing the Relationship Between Parents’ and Their Children’s Subjective Well-Being

Casas et al. (J Happiness Stud 9(2):197–205, 2008) found no significant relationship between paired answers given by parents and their 12–16-year-old children (N?=?266) for a single-item scale on overall life satisfaction (OLS). However, a significant, but low (.19) parent–child relationship did appear for the PWI multi-item scale. Overall, children reported higher subjective well being than parents. In this article, we present the results obtained from confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), using more scales and a bigger sample (N?=?1,250) of paired parents and children. The study uses three multiple-item scales: the PWI, the SWLS and the BMSLSS, and six single-item scales: the OLS, two items from Russell’s scale on core affects, one on overall happiness, Fordyce’s happiness item and the optional item of the BMSLSS on overall life satisfaction. Separate CFA for each of the 3 multi-item scales showed good fit statistics. In order to check comparability between parents and children, we tested equal loading and intercept constraints. The models with restricted loadings fit only for the PWI and BMSLSS, but none of the models with restricted intercepts fit. Therefore, it was only possible to estimate two factor correlations for parents and their children, both very low (.16 for the PWI, .18 for BMSLSS), and it was not possible to compare factor means. When correlating scores from the 6 single-item scales for parents and children, they were all found to be significant but very low. As regards items from the multiple-item scales for parents and children many correlations are positive and significant, although very low, but others are non significant. The means of some items were substantially higher for children than for parents. For some items, differences were minor, non-significant or even reversed. All of the results suggest that parents’ well-being is very weakly related to their own children’s well-being, in spite of socialization, common material welfare and genetic influences. However, one outstanding result is that in our Catalan sample, parents’ well-being seems to have a greater influence on their female child’s well-being than on their male child’s.     

Family Expressiveness Mediates the Relation Between Cumulative Family Risks and Children’s Emotion Regulation in a Chinese Sample

Family expressiveness, a reflection of a family’s emotional environment, has been identified as a critical factor that influences children’s emotion regulation, yet research on this topic is limited, especially in varying cultural contexts. The present study addresses this research gap and expands on the extant literature by examining the influence of family expressiveness on children’s emotional development in the context of cumulative risks (e.g., low annual household income, parental psychological distress, parents’ education level, marital dissatisfaction and the family’s housing situation). Our final sample included one hundred and seventy-eight school-aged children (84 boys and 94 girls) and their biological parents. Results showed that higher scores on the familial risk index were related to increased emotion dysregulation and decreased adaptive emotion regulation, through the mediated effects of positive family expressiveness. Negative expressiveness, however, did not mediate the aforementioned links. Reasons for the different findings regarding positive expressiveness and negative expressiveness were discussed. These findings highlight the importance of cumulative risk on children’s emotional development in the Chinese cultural context and offer potential avenues to promote adaptive emotional development in the context of cumulative risks.