Maternal Emotion Socialization: The Contribution of Inhibited Behaviour and Mothers' Dissatisfaction with the Parent–Child Relationship

In the present study, we examined the associations between children's inhibited behaviour, mothers' dissatisfaction with the parent–child relationship and mothers' self‐reported reactions to children's emotions. Fifty‐three mother–child dyads visited the laboratory, and mothers completed questionnaires about child temperament and emotion socialization. Maternal stress stemming from dissatisfaction with the parent–child relationship was negatively predictive of mothers' supportive reactions to happiness. In addition, the interaction between children's inhibited behaviour and parent–child relationship dissatisfaction significantly predicted mothers' supportive reactions to children's fear; specifically, mothers who reported the highest levels of dissatisfaction in their relationship with their children and had children who exhibited low levels of inhibition reported the lowest levels of supportive responses to their children's fear. Importantly, mothers reported the highest levels of supportive reactions to children's fear when their children were low in inhibition, and they reported low levels of dissatisfaction in their relationship with their child. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sustained attention development during the toddlerhood to preschool period: associations with toddlers' emotion regulation strategies and maternal behaviour

The current study examined the role of maternal behaviour and toddlers' emotion regulation strategies in the development of children's sustained attention abilities. Participants for this study included 447 children (232 girls) obtained from three different cohorts participating in a larger ongoing longitudinal study. When the children were 2 years of age, mothers brought their children to the laboratory and were videotaped during several tasks designed to elicit emotion regulation and mother–child interaction. Sustained attention was also measured at the same visit via a laboratory task and in a subsequent visit when children were 4.5 years of age. Results indicated that toddlers' use of help‐seeking emotion regulation strategies was positively related to sustained attention, while avoidance behaviours and maternal behaviour characterized by high levels of overcontrolling/intrusiveness were negatively related to sustained attention at age 2. Significant interactions emerged such that high levels of maternal warmth/responsiveness buffered the negative associations between low use of distraction and high use of self‐comforting emotion regulation strategies and sustained attention at age 2. Maternal behaviour characterized by high levels of warmth/responsiveness also predicted greater growth in sustained attention from age 2 to 4.5. These findings are discussed in terms of how maternal behaviours and children's use of active versus passive emotion regulation strategies relate to sustained attention abilities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maternal Expressive Style and Children's Emotional Development

Maternal expressive styles, based on a combination of positive and negative expressive patterns, were identified at two points in time and related to multiple aspects of preschool children's emotional development. Mother–child pairs from 260 families participated when the children were 3 years old, and 240 participated again at aged 4 years. Expressive styles were identified at age 3 using cluster analysis, replicated at age 4 and examined in relation to children's emotional understanding, expressiveness and regulation. Three expressive styles were identified: high positive/low negative, very low positive/average negative and average positive/very high negative. Cluster membership was stable in 63% of families from age 3 to 4 years; no systematic patterns of change were evident in the remaining families. Expressive style was related to aspects of children's emotional expression at 3 years and to emotion expression and regulation at 4 years. Children's expressiveness and regulation at age 3 were also related to changes in mothers' expressive styles over 1 year. Identifying mothers' expressive styles provides a unique way to understand the potential role of the emotional climates in which preschool‐aged children learn to express and regulate their own emotions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Child Negative Emotionality and Caregiver Sensitivity Across Context: Links with Children's Kindergarten Behaviour Problems

Behavioural adjustment is critical for children's school readiness. This study used data from a nationally representative sample of children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort. We examined the effects of interactions between children's negative emotionality, maternal sensitivity and preschool teacher sensitivity on children's kindergarten internalizing and externalizing behaviours. Parent report of children's negative emotionality and observations of maternal sensitivity were obtained at age 2 years, teacher sensitivity was observed in preschool and teacher report of children's behaviour problems was obtained in kindergarten. Negative emotionality moderated links between maternal sensitivity, teacher sensitivity and children's internalizing behaviours. For children high in negativity, maternal sensitivity was positively associated with internalizing behaviour in the context of low teacher sensitivity, whereas for children low in negativity, maternal sensitivity was negatively associated with internalizing behaviour. For children high or low in negativity, internalizing behaviour was comparable when teacher sensitivity was high regardless of maternal sensitivity. Maternal sensitivity and teacher sensitivity interacted to predict externalizing behaviour regardless of child negativity. Children who experienced high teacher sensitivity displayed comparable externalizing behaviour regardless of maternal sensitivity. When children experienced low teacher sensitivity, maternal sensitivity was negatively associated with externalizing behaviour. Interactions between child characteristics and caregiving across developmental contexts are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental Socialization of Emotion

Recently, there has been a resurgence of research on emotion, including the socialization of emotion. In this article, a heuristic model of factors contributing to the socialization of emotion is presented. Then literature relevant to the socialization of children's emotion and emotion-related behavior by parents is reviewed, including (a) parental reactions to children's emotions, (b) socializers' discussion of emotion, and (c) socializers' expression of emotion. The relevant literature is not conclusive and most of the research is correlational. However, the existing body of data provides initial support for the view that parental socialization practices have effects on children's emotional and social competence and that the socialization process is bidirectional. In particular, parental negative emotionality and negative reactions to children's expression of emotion are associated with children's negative emotionality and low social competence. In addition, possible moderators of effects such as level of emotional arousal are discussed.     

Coparental Affect,Children's Emotion Dysregulation,and Parent and Child Depressive Symptoms

Children's emotion dysregulation and depressive symptoms are known to be affected by a range of individual (parent, child) and systemic (parent–child, marital, and family) characteristics. The current study builds on this literature by examining the unique role of coparental affect in children's emotion dysregulation, and whether this association mediates the link between parent and child depressive symptoms. Participants were 51 mother–father–child triads with children aged 7 to 12 (M age = 9.24 years). Triads discussed a time when the child felt sad and a time when the child felt happy. Maternal and paternal displays of positive affect were coded, and sequential analyses examined the extent to which parents were congruent in their displays of positive affect during the emotion discussions. Results indicated that interparental positive affect congruity (IPAC) during the sadness discussion, but not the happiness discussion, uniquely predicted parent‐reported child emotion dysregulation, above and beyond the contributions of child negative affect and parental punitive reactions. The degree of IPAC during the sadness discussion and child emotion dysregulation mediated the association between maternal, but not paternal, depressive symptoms and child depressive symptoms. Findings highlight the unique role of coparental affect in the socialization of sadness in youth and offer initial support for low levels of IPAC as a risk factor for the transmission of depressive symptoms in youth.     

Infant Emotion Regulation Strategy Moderates Relations between Self‐Reported Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Infant HPA Activity

Children of mothers with depressive symptoms often have high cortisol levels. Research shows that various child characteristics (e.g., attachment pattern, internalizing behaviours, and temperament) moderate this association. We suggest that these characteristics share common variance with emotion regulation strategy. Therefore, we examine infant emotion regulation strategy as a moderator of the association between maternal depressive symptoms and infant hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) function. We hypothesize that infants who utilize more independent emotion regulation strategies and have mothers who report higher depressive symptoms will exhibit elevated cortisol levels. Participants were 193 mothers and infants (15 months old) recruited from the community. Self‐reported maternal depressive symptoms were assessed. Infant independent regulatory behaviours (withdrawal, wandering away, distraction, scanning, orienting to another object) were coded in the context of a Toy Frustration Task. Infant cortisol was collected via saliva samples at baseline, +20, and +40 minutes. Results indicate that infant emotion regulation strategy moderates the relation between mothers' self‐reported depressive symptoms and infant total cortisol output (AUC_G) and cortisol reactivity (AUC_I). Infants who employed more independent regulatory behaviours and have mothers with higher depressive symptoms experience greater cortisol secretion. We discuss the findings in relation to parent‐infant interactions and the adaptive nature of emotion regulation strategies, as they relate to HPA regulatory capacities. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

母亲元情绪理念与儿童情绪调节能力发展的关系：母亲情绪调节的中介作用

以540名小学一、三、五年级儿童的母亲为对象,采用回归分析和路径分析技术,考察了母亲元情绪理念及其情绪调节对儿童情绪调节能力发展的预测作用及其机制。结果表明：（1）母亲情绪教导和情绪紊乱理念对儿童情绪稳定性的发展具有直接预测作用,且以其高冲动性为中介对儿童情绪稳定性的发展具有间接预测作用;（2）母亲情绪教导理念对儿童情绪调节性的发展具有直接预测作用,且以其情绪调节策略缺乏为中介对儿童情绪调节性的发展具有间接预测作用。因此,母亲情绪教导理念有助于其不良情绪的控制和更加灵活多样的情绪调节策略,而对自身不良情绪的有效控制和更灵活的情绪应对策略,将有助于促进其孩子情绪调节能力的发展。     

The role of fathers in children's emotion regulation development: A systematic review

This systematic review summarizes the results of 43 studies that explored the potential role of fathers in emotion regulation (ER) development in children. Following a tripartite model, this review investigates the paternal modelling of ER strategies, emotion-related paternal parenting practices, father–child emotional climate, and fathers' characteristics, by identifying 16 specific themes of paternal factors that could play a role in the child's ER development. Results show that while a large number of studies investigated father–child emotional climate and fathers' characteristics and their association with children's ER, the effects of paternal modelling and the father's emotion-related parenting practices on children's ER are still understudied. This review reveals that several factors—fathers' modelling of ER strategies; positive reactions and support in responding to their child's expression of emotions; better quality of the father–child relationship; higher father–child attachment security; and positive parenting in terms of sensitivity, engagement, and expressiveness—had significant associations with children's higher ER skills. Conversely, fathers' psychopathology and harsh parenting were associated with poorer ER skills in children.

Highlights

• This study summarized existing literature that explored the association between paternal factors and ER in children.
• The review showed some evidence supporting the paternal role in children's ER development.
• Fathers' role in the development of child's ER is most prominent in infancy and toddlerhood.
• Most paternal factors significantly associated with a child's ER reflected previous findings examining maternal factors.

     

Cortisol Rhythm in Preschoolers: Relations with Maternal Depression and Child Temperament

Evidence supports associations between deviations from the normative daily cortisol rhythm and depression. We examined associations between multiple indices of daily cortisol in 146 preschool-aged children and two well-established risk factors for depression: maternal depression and early child temperament (negative emotionality/NE and positive emotionality/PE). Offspring of mothers with current depression demonstrated lower waking cortisol and lower total post-awakening cortisol. Child PE was negatively associated with waking cortisol. The combination of maternal depression history and high child NE was associated with higher levels of evening cortisol. Findings suggest that an interplay between familial risk for depression and child temperamental vulnerability may be related to neuroendocrine functioning in young children and highlight important methodological considerations in the assessment of children’s basal cortisol activity. It will be critical for future research to map the developmental progression from early disruptions in children’s cortisol rhythm to the emergence of psychopathology.     

Vocabularies

Negative emotionality is considered to be the core of the difficult temperament concept (J. E. Bates, 1989; R. L. Shiner, 1998). In this correlational study, the authors examined whether the relations between children's negative emotionality and problematic behavior (internalizing and externalizing) were partially mediated by parenting style (authoritative and authoritarian) in a community sample of 196 3-year-old children and their mothers. The authors assessed maternal perception of child negative emotionality using the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (M. K. Rothbart, S. A. Ahadi, K. L. Hershey, &; P. Fisher, 2001) and assessed problematic child behavior by means of maternal report using the Child Behavior Checklist (T. M. Achenbach, 1992). The results showed that the relations between child negative emotionality and internalizing and externalizing behaviors were partially mediated by mothers' authoritative parenting style. Moreover, when the authors used confirmatory factor analysis to decontaminate possible overlap in item content between measures assessing temperament and problematic behavior, the association between negative emotionality and internalizing behavior was fully mediated by authoritative parenting.     

Maternal attributions and young children's conduct problems: a longitudinal study

The association between negative maternal attributions and child conduct problems is well established in correlational studies. However, little is known about how these variables influence each other over time. The present study examined patterns of prediction over time between maternal attributions and pre‐school conduct problems. Sixty mothers and their 3‐year‐old children with a range of levels of conduct problems were interviewed when the child was just 3, and then again when the child was just 4. Childhood conduct problems were assessed using the parental account of childhood symptoms and parental attributions were assessed using a modification of Walker's Parental Attribution Questionnaire. Results indicate that even as young as age 3, child conduct problems are associated with negative maternal attributions. In longitudinal analyses, children's conduct problems at age 3 predicted mothers' attributions at age 4, but mothers' attributions did not predict children's conduct problems over the same time period. The data are consistent with the notion that negative attributions may be a result, rather than a cause, of having a difficult‐to‐manage child. This has implications for current proposed mechanisms that link maternal attributions and child conduct problems, and thus for interventions for these problems. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children's Moral Emotions,Narratives, and Aggression: Relations With Maternal Discipline and Support

ABSTRACT. Children who attribute more positive emotions to hypothetical moral victimizers are typically more aggressive and have more behavior problems. Little is known, however, about when individual differences in these moral emotion attributions first emerge or about maternal correlates of these differences. In this study, 63 4–6-year-olds judged how they would feel after victimizing peers for gain and enacted event conclusions using narrative methods adapted from the MacArthur Story Stem Battery. In addition, children's mothers completed assessments of their disciplinary styles and social support, and children's aggressive tendencies were assessed based on ratings from mothers and a second familiar adult. Results revealed that most preschoolers expected to feel happy after their victimizing acts, but variations in happy victimization were unrelated to children's aggression. Several of children's narrative themes, including making amends (e.g., apologizing, reparations), aggressive acts, and mentions of death/killing, however, were related to children's aggression. Moreover, two maternal disciplinary dimensions, higher warmth and reasoning, as well as greater social support were also related to lower child aggression. Children's emotion attributions and moral narratives, however, were unrelated to maternal disciplinary practices or social support.     

Maternal self-regulation,relationship adjustment,and home chaos: Contributions to infant negative emotionality

There has been increasing interest in the direct and indirect effects of parental self-regulation on children's outcomes. In the present investigation, the effects of maternal self-regulation, home chaos, and inter-parental relationship adjustment on broad and specific indicators of infant negative emotionality (NE) were examined. A sample of maternal caregivers and their 4-month-old infants (N = 85) from a rural community participated. Results demonstrated that better maternal self-regulation was associated with lower infant NE broadly, as well as with lower infant sadness and distress to limitations/frustration and better falling reactivity (i.e., emotion regulation), specifically. Maternal self-regulation also predicted less chaotic home environments and better maternal inter-parental relationship adjustment. Findings also supported the indirect effects of maternal self-regulation on broad and specific indicators of infant NE through home chaos and maternal relationship adjustment. Some differential effects were also identified. Elevated home chaos appeared to specifically affect infant frustration/distress to limitations whereas maternal relationship adjustment affected broad infant NE, as well as several specific indicators of infant NE: frustration/distress to limitations, sadness, and falling reactivity. In conjunction with other recent investigations that have reported the effects of maternal self-regulation on parenting, the findings in the present investigation suggest that parental self-regulation may influence children's outcomes through several proximal environmental pathways.     

Maternal Emotional Distress,Abuse Risk,and Children's Symptoms: Child Gender as a Moderator of Parent Sensitivity as a Mediator

Mothers' distress is a correlate of their children's elevated behaviour problems and symptoms. Parenting practices have been shown to mediate these associations, but few studies have observed parenting or focused on parents at risk of child abuse. In this study of 269 high‐risk mothers and their young children (M = 4.2 years), structural equation modelling was used to test associations between mothers' distress and child externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Associations were expected to be partly indirect via mothers' observed low sensitivity, and child gender was expected to moderate associations. Also, mothers' child abuse risk was examined as a unique correlate of sensitivity and children's symptoms, and a moderator of associations of distress with sensitivity and symptoms. Associations showed a pattern of gender‐moderated mediation with the link between mothers' distress and internalizing mostly direct for boys, and equally direct and indirect via sensitivity for girls. The association of mothers' distress with externalizing was mostly direct for boys and girls. Mothers' child abuse risk was not uniquely associated with sensitivity or symptoms and did not moderate any associations. There were no differences in model paths between mothers referred from child welfare/mental health compared with other sources or self‐referred. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of maternal optimality and infant temperament on parenting stress at 12 months among mothers with substance abuse and psychiatric problems

The present prospective longitudinal study aimed to investigate the long‐term impact of maternal optimality assessed during pregnancy on parenting stress at infant age 12 months. In this study the concept of optimality was utilized to investigate maternal variations regarding resources during pregnancy in relation to later parenting stress, among three different groups of mothers that were recruited from substance abuse treatment, psychiatric outpatient treatment and well‐baby clinics respectively. The influence of infant temperament on parenting stress was also examined. All mothers were interviewed during pregnancy. At 12 months, infant temperament (Colorado Childhood Temperament Inventory; Rowe & Plomin, 1977) and stress in the parent and child domain (Parenting Stress Index; Abidin, 1955) were assessed. Results demonstrated higher levels of parenting stress among mothers in the clinical groups, compared to the non‐clinical group. Furthermore, it was the maternal psychiatric optimality index in combination with child temperament characteristics (child emotionality) that contributed uniquely to stress in the parent domain, while stress in the child domain was significantly associated only with child temperament characteristics (both child emotionality and soothability). The association between maternal psychiatric optimality assessed in pregnancy, infant temperament and parenting stress when the infants were 12 months old, points to the importance of simultaneously addressing the mothers' own psychological distress, and to support positive mother–infant interactions. Each woman's individual optimality profile may be used to display needs of follow‐up in order to prevent enduring effects of non‐optimality on parenting stress.     

Like mother,like child? Maternal determinants of children's early social-emotional development

Social-Emotional competencies evolve early in life. For example, early emotion regulation is learned primarily in the context of mother–child interaction, which may allow for maternal influences to shape children's social-emotional development. The aim of the current study was to longitudinally examine maternal determinants of children's early social-emotional development in a community-based sample of first-time mothers (N = 61, aged 22–39 years). Specifically, we used structural equation modeling to examine how maternal emotion regulation difficulties and subclinical depression directly and indirectly, through sensitivity and postnatal bonding, assessed at 6 to 8 months predicted child outcomes at 12 to 16 months. We found that mothers’ sensitivity predicted fewer social-emotional and behavioral problems and that stronger bonding predicted fewer problems and more social-emotional competencies. Emotion regulation difficulties were significantly associated with depressive symptoms; yet, when accounting for shared variances, both factors differentially predicted less positive child outcomes such that more difficulties indirectly, through poorer bonding, predicted greater delay in competencies, and more symptoms indirectly, through less sensitivity, predicted more problems. Current findings underline the significance of maternal factors impacting the quality of mother–child interaction for children's positive development. Potential implications for early prevention programs to support children who are otherwise at risk for negative emotional outcomes due to mothers’ emotional state postpartum are discussed.     

Parent Socialization of Coping and Child Emotion Regulation Abilities: A Longitudinal Examination

This study examined the hypothesis that parent socialization of coping (SOC) would have a longitudinal relation with child emotion regulation abilities. Participants included a sample of 256 parents of 5- to 12-year-old children (child M age = 8.36, SD = 2.03, 54.7% male; parent M age = 34.49, SD = 6.20, 59% female). Data on demographic information, parenting behaviors, and child emotion regulation abilities were collected via online questionnaires at baseline and 12 months. Results from longitudinal structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses suggested that parent SOC, measured at baseline, predicted child adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation, measured 12 months later. More specifically, parental engagement coping suggestions predicted child's adaptive emotion regulation, whereas parental disengagement coping suggestions predicted child's maladaptive emotion regulation. Further, child gender emerged as a moderator in the longitudinal association between socialization of engagement coping and child adaptive emotion regulation: Whereas this association was small and marginally significant for girls, it was large and statistically significant for boys. Results highlight the importance of parent SOC as potentially contributing to emotion regulation abilities of 5- to 12-year-olds.     

Heterogeneity in Maltreated and Non‐maltreated Preschool Children's Inhibitory Control: The Interplay Between Parenting Quality and Child Temperament

This study examined the contribution of child temperament, parenting, and their interaction on inhibitory control development in a sample of maltreated and non‐maltreated preschool children. One hundred and eighteen mother–child dyads were drawn from predominantly low‐income, rural communities. Dyads participated in a laboratory session in which maternal warm autonomy support, warm guidance, and strict/hostile control were observationally coded during a joint teaching task. Independent assessments of children's inhibitory control were obtained, and observers rated children's temperament. After relevant covariates, including income, maternal education, and child age and IQ were controlled for, there were no differences between the maltreatment and non‐maltreatment groups in either children's inhibitory control or mothers' behaviours in the laboratory session. Even after much of the variance in children's inhibitory control was accounted for from the covariates, children's temperamental negativity moderated the effects of warm autonomy support on inhibitory control in both maltreatment and non‐maltreatment groups. Temperamentally negative children whose mothers displayed more warm autonomy support showed greater inhibitory control, at levels on par with low‐negative children. Findings suggest that heterogeneity in children's self‐regulation may be due in part to individual differences in sensitivity to caregiver support for children's independence, even among those exposed to maltreatment. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Associations between mothers' sensitivity to their infants' internal states and children's later understanding of mind and emotion

This study investigated associations between mother–infant interactions and children's subsequent understanding of mind and emotion. Mothers' tendency to comment on their infants' internal world and their general sensitivity to their infants' internal states were measured through coded play interactions at 10 months. The latter measurement included ratings on four aspects of maternal behaviour: mindful facilitation, joint attention commenting, pacing, and affect catching. In contrast to mothers' internal state language, these behaviours did not tap mothers' explicit linguistic representation of their infants' mental states. At 54 months, children's understanding of mind and emotion was measured through a range of false‐belief tasks and an emotion‐understanding task. Multivariate analysis revealed direct positive links between mothers' sensitivity to their infants' internal states and children's later understanding of mind. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.