Depressive Symptoms among Children with ODD: Contributions of Parent and Child Risk Factors in a Chinese Sample

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a developmental disorder characterized by serious and persistent social impairment, especially stressful interactions with parents. Although previous studies demonstrated associations between parent mental health and children’s ODD symptoms, less attention has been paid to integrating both parent and child risk factors. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the associations among parent emotion regulation, child emotion regulation, parental depression, and child depression in Chinese children with ODD. A total of 234 children with ODD ranging in age from 6 to 13 years, along with their fathers or mothers, completed questionnaires. Results indicated that: (1) Parent emotion regulation, parental depression and child emotion regulation were significantly correlated with children’s depressive symptoms. (2) Parent emotion regulation was related to children’s depression indirectly through parental depression and child emotion regulation. (3) Child emotion regulation fully mediated the relationship between parent emotion regulation and child depression, and also fully mediated the relationship between parental and child depression. These findings highlight the need to improve parent emotion regulation and pay attention to parental mental health, because both risk factors may exacerbate their children’s emotion regulation difficulties and further associate the high level of depressive symptoms among children with ODD.     

Measuring Parents’ Elaborative Reminiscing: Differential Links of Parents’ Elaboration to children’s Autobiographical Memory and Socioemotional Skills

ABSTRACT

Parents’ elaboration plays an important role in autobiographical memory and socioemotional development. Two types of coding approaches have been used to assess parents’ elaboration: a frequency-based coding (absolute frequencies of different types of elaborative utterances) and a scale-based coding (a 5-point scale based on relative frequencies of types of questions). We examined whether these two coding approaches were related and whether they were differentially associated with child autobiographical memory and socioemotional skills. Sixty-eight preschoolers (M = 50.32) reminisced about positive and negative past events, with their parents and with a researcher. Parents’ elaboration was assessed using the frequency- and scale-based coding approaches. Child autobiographical memory and emotion references were assessed in shared recall (parent–child conversations). Child autobiographical memory was also assessed in independent recall (researcher-child conversations). Child emotion regulation was assessed using the Challenging Situation task. The two coding approaches were moderately related. Parents’ elaboration was related to child autobiographical memory and emotion references in shared recall, regardless of the coding approach. Whereas the frequency-based coding was uniquely related to child memory in the independent recall, the scale-based coding was uniquely related to child emotion regulation. Implications of using diverse coding approaches to understand the role of parents in child development are discussed.     

父母严厉管教与儿童问题行为的关系:儿童自我控制的中介作用

为探讨父母严厉管教、儿童自我控制与儿童问题行为间的关系,采用中文版亲子冲突解决策略量表、社会技能评定量表和儿童行为核查量表对济南市两所公立学校的1097名小学四到六年级儿童及其父母双亲进行测查。结果发现：（1）父母心理攻击和体罚与儿童自我控制均呈显著负相关,与儿童内化和外化问题行为均呈显著正相关,儿童自我控制与其内化和外化问题行为均呈显著负相关;（2）父亲心理攻击可以显著正向预测儿童内化和外化问题行为,母亲体罚可以显著正向预测儿童外化问题行为;（3）儿童自我控制在父亲心理攻击和母亲体罚与儿童内外化问题行为之间起中介作用,在母亲心理攻击和父亲体罚与儿童内外化问题行为关系间的中介作用不显著,中介作用模型不存在显著的儿童性别差异。综上,本研究发现父母严厉管教不仅直接影响儿童的内外化问题行为,而且会通过降低儿童自我控制水平间接导致儿童问题行为的增多。     

父母严厉管教与儿童问题行为的关系:儿童自我控制的中介作用

为探讨父母严厉管教、儿童自我控制与儿童问题行为间的关系,采用中文版亲子冲突解决策略量表、社会技能评定量表和儿童行为核查量表对济南市两所公立学校的1097名小学四到六年级儿童及其父母双亲进行测查。结果发现：（1）父母心理攻击和体罚与儿童自我控制均呈显著负相关,与儿童内化和外化问题行为均呈显著正相关,儿童自我控制与其内化和外化问题行为均呈显著负相关;（2）父亲心理攻击可以显著正向预测儿童内化和外化问题行为,母亲体罚可以显著正向预测儿童外化问题行为;（3）儿童自我控制在父亲心理攻击和母亲体罚与儿童内外化问题行为之间起中介作用,在母亲心理攻击和父亲体罚与儿童内外化问题行为关系间的中介作用不显著,中介作用模型不存在显著的儿童性别差异。综上,本研究发现父母严厉管教不仅直接影响儿童的内外化问题行为,而且会通过降低儿童自我控制水平间接导致儿童问题行为的增多。     

Intrusive parenting,teacher sensitivity,and negative emotionality on the development of emotion regulation in early head start toddlers

Toddler emotion regulation develops within the context of relationships but is also influenced by toddlers’ individual characteristics. Drawing on transactional and differential susceptibility frameworks, this study examined direct and interactive associations of intrusive parenting, teacher sensitivity, and negative emotionality on toddler emotion regulation development in a sample of Early Head Start families utilizing center-based child care. Latent growth models indicated that, after controlling for a series of family and child care covariates, intrusive parenting at 14 months had diminishing effects on trajectories of emotion regulation across toddlerhood (14 to 36 months), whereas teacher sensitivity in child care was promotive for emotion regulation growth. Toddlers with high negative emotionality were not more susceptible to the effects of intrusive parenting or teacher sensitivity on emotion regulation development, however, results suggested emerging evidence for individual differences in the protective nature of teacher sensitivity in the context of high intrusion at home. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for informing parents and early care and education providers in nurturing relationships with the children who may be the most challenging to care for but may stand to make the greatest gains in emotion regulation development in quality caregiving settings.     

Mother-Child Interactions and Preschoolers’ Emotion Regulation Outcomes: Nurturing Autonomous Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation is a complex process that begins in infancy and continues through childhood with parents’ support. Early parent-child interactions shape the way children learn emotion management. We took a sociocultural and social learning approach to exploring the specific components of mother-child interactions that are related to mothers’ perceptions of her child’s regulatory ability and the child’s observed emotion regulation. Thirty mothers and their preschool children were recruited from two New England urban areas: one community sample and one head start sample. Dyads engaged in a free play session, children completed an observed compliance task, and mothers completed a set of questionnaires assessing their perceptions of their child’s regulation. Regression analyses revealed that maternal behaviors during free play predicted child’s observed hostility (F _(2,29)?=?3.137, p?<?.05) and mothers’ perceptions of her child’s regulatory ability predicted observed child compliance (F _{(2, 17)}?=?4.990, p?<?.05). Child behaviors during play significantly predicted child’s compliance (F _(3,20)?=?4.722, p?<?.05) and child’s hostility (F _{(1, 26)}?=?9.220, p?<?.001). Maternal modeling and intentional scaffolding as well as perceptions of her child’s regulatory capacity have a powerful impact on her child’s observed regulation. Results indicate that it is particularly important for mothers of preschoolers to support autonomy while guiding socially appropriate behavior. Interventions that target improving mothers’ negative perceptions of their children, educating on appropriate preschool expectations, and facilitating preschoolers’ mature play may help mothers interact with their children in the ways that foster children’s autonomous emotion regulation.     

Self-control,parenting, and problem behavior in early childhood: A multi-method,multi-informant study

BackgroundEarly childhood self-control and parenting are suggested to play key roles in the development of child problem behavior. The current study aims to 1) replicate earlier work by examining the unique and combined effects of child self-control and parenting on child problem behavior and 2) extend earlier work by including both mother and father reports.MethodsData were used from 107 Dutch families: mothers, fathers, and their two-year old child. Child self-control was measured using both father’s and mother’s reports of effortful control and with an observed behavioral task (i.e., gift-in-bag task). Similarly, parenting (i.e., emotional availability and discipline) and child problem behavior (i.e., externalizing and internalizing problems) were measured by using both father’s and mother’s reports.ResultsChild self-control reported by fathers and mothers, but not observed self-control, was related to fewer externalizing and (mother-reported) internalizing problems. Paternal emotional availability showed a modest association with fewer child externalizing problems, maternal emotional availability was related to fewer internalizing problems. Finally, there was an interaction between father- (but not mother) reported self-control and paternal emotional availability in the prediction of child internalizing problems. No main or interaction effect was revealed for discipline.ConclusionFindings confirm prior work on self-control, parenting, and child problem behavior. Most importantly however, the current study adds to the literature by highlighting the need for additional research including maternal as well as paternal data. Specifically, insight in the unique role of fathers may shed light on aspects of child adjustment not covered by mother reports alone.     

Maternal Emotion Socialization,Depressive Symptoms and Child Emotion Regulation: Child Emotionality as a Moderator

This study tested a model of children's emotionality as a moderator of the links between maternal emotion socialization and depressive symptoms and child emotion regulation. Participants were 128 mother–preschooler dyads. Child emotion expression and emotion regulation strategies were assessed observationally during a disappointment task, and a principal component analysis revealed three factors: passive soothing (including sadness and comfort seeking), negative focus on distress (including anger, focus on distress and low active distraction) and positive engagement (including positive emotion, active play and passive waiting, which was loaded negatively). Hierarchical linear regression models revealed that child positive emotionality (PE) and negative emotionality (NE) moderated the links between maternal support/positive emotion expression and child emotion regulation strategies. In particular, children's low PE exacerbated the association between lack of maternal support and child passive soothing, whereas high PE enhanced the association between maternal positive expression and reduced negative focus on distress. Furthermore, the associations of mothers' support and reduced passive soothing and negative focus on distress, as well as the association between mothers' positive expression and child positive engagement, were stronger for children with low levels of NE, compared with those with average and high levels of NE. Findings partially support a diathesis–stress model in understanding the effects of both child characteristics and the familial influence on child emotion regulation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reference to Emotion States During Narrative Co‐Construction With Three‐Year‐Old Kibbutz Children: Comparison of Mother–Child and Metapelet–Child Dyads

In this study of young kibbutz children, we considered similarities and differences between mother–child dyads and metapelet (nonmaternal female caregiver)–child dyads on their rates of mentioning positive and negative emotion states and emotion calls during narrative co‐construction from a text‐free picture book illustrating emotionally charged situations. Thirty‐two kibbutz children approximately 3 years of age, their mothers, and their metaplot (i.e., plural of metapelet) were observed during co‐construction from the picture book. All participants (mothers, metaplot, children with mothers, and children with metaplot) mentioned more negative emotion states and emitted more negative emotion calls than positive ones. Children mentioned less emotion states than adults. No differences were found between mothers and metaplot in the number of emotion states mentioned, but mothers used significantly more emotion calls than did the metaplot, and their children tended to reciprocate. The influence of the context and type of relationship on emotion regulation is discussed.     

Relations Between Emotion Regulation, Parenting, and Psychopathology in Young Maltreated Children in Out of Home Care

Young maltreated children, birth to three years, represent the age group with the highest rates of maltreatment in the United States (ACYF 2007). There are few studies to date that have investigated early childhood maltreatment and its effects on emotion regulatory processes and psychopathology. In response, the current investigation uses a dyadic assessment procedure to examine the relationship between parenting, emotion regulation, and symptoms of psychopathology among maltreating and non-maltreating parent–child interactions. The participants in this study were 123 children (66 maltreated and 57 nonmaltreated) from ages 1–3. Child and parent affect and child effortful control were observed during a parent–child interaction task. Symptoms of psychopathology were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist. The maltreated children exhibited more anger, more internalizing symptomatology, and less positive affect compared to non-maltreated children. Among maltreated children, emotion dysregulation was associated with internalizing symptomatology. Moreover, these data reveal parental positive affect was associated with lower child internalizing symptomatology and parental anger was associated with higher child internalizing symptomatology in the entire sample. This investigation offers evidence that emotion dysregulation subsequent to poor dyadic interactions is associated with early child maltreatment. These data suggest that maltreated children experience difficulties in emotion regulation which may be related to their higher levels of behavioral symptomatology.     

Child care and mother-child interaction in the first 3 years of life. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network

Relations between nonmaternal child care and ratings of maternal sensitivity and child positive engagement during mother-child interaction at 6, 15, 24, and 36 months were examined for 1,274 mothers and their children participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care. In longitudinal analyses that controlled for selection, child, and family predictors, child care was a small but significant predictor of maternal sensitivity and child engagement. For the whole sample, including families who did and did not use child care, more hours of child care predicted less maternal sensitivity and less positive child engagement. For children who were observed in child care, higher quality child care predicted greater maternal sensitivity, and more child-care hours predicted less child engagement. The effects of child care on mother-child interaction were much smaller in the analytical models than the effects of maternal education but were similar in size to the effects of maternal depression and child difficult temperament. Patterns of association with child care did not differ significantly across ages of assessment.     

The Effect of Praise, Positive Nonverbal Response, Reprimand, and Negative Nonverbal Response on Child Compliance: A Systematic Review

Lack of compliance has both short- and long-term costs and is a leading reason why parents seek mental health services for children. What parents do to help children comply with directives or rules is an important part of child socialization. The current review examines the relationship between a variety of parenting discipline behaviors (i.e., praise, positive nonverbal response, reprimand, negative nonverbal response) and child compliance. Forty-one studies of children ranging in age from 1? to 11?years were reviewed. Reprimand and negative nonverbal responses consistently resulted in greater compliance. Praise and positive nonverbal responses resulted in mixed child outcomes. The findings are discussed based on theory and populations studied. The authors propose a mechanism that may increase children’s sensitivity to both positive and negative behavioral contingencies.     

Trajectories of externalizing behavior from age 2 to age 9: relations with gender, temperament, ethnicity, parenting, and rater

Trajectories of children's externalizing behavior were examined using multilevel growth curve modeling of data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. According to ratings by both mothers and caregivers/teachers when children were 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9 years old, externalizing behavior declined with age. However, mothers rated children as higher in externalizing behavior than did caregivers and teachers. Higher levels of age 9 externalizing behavior were predicted by the following factors: child male gender (for caregiver/teacher reports only), infant difficult temperament (for children with harsh mothers only), harsher maternal attitude toward discipline, higher level of maternal depression (for maternal reports only), and lower level of maternal sensitivity (especially for boys). Caregivers and teachers reported higher levels of externalizing behavior in African American children than in European American children, increasingly so over time; mothers' ratings revealed the reverse. The declining slope of externalizing behavior was predicted by infant difficult temperament for mother reports only. Additional analyses suggested that the association between parenting and externalizing behavior was bidirectional.     

Mother–child and father–child mutuality in two contexts: consequences for young children's peer relationships

This study examines the role that context plays in links between relative balance, or mutuality in parent–child interaction and children's social competence. Sixty‐three toddlers and their parents were observed in a laboratory play session and caregiving activity (i.e. eating snack). Mutuality was operationalised as the relative balance in (a) partners' compliance to initiations, and (b) partners' expression of positive emotion. Caregivers rated children's social competence with peers, and children's prosocial and aggressive behaviour with peers was observed in their childcare arrangement. Contextual differences were observed in the manifestation of parent–child mutuality, with both mother–child and father–child dyads displaying higher mutual compliance scores in the play context than in the caregiving context. Father–child dyads also displayed higher levels of shared positive emotion during play than during the caregiving context. There were no differences in a way that parent–child mutuality during play and caregiving was associated with children's social competence with peers. Overall, the results suggest that parent–child mutuality is a quality of parent–child interaction that has consistent links to children's peer competence regardless of the context in which it occurs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

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.     

Caregiver Behaviors and Child Distress in Trauma Narration and Processing Sessions of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is an effective treatment for children impacted by trauma, and non-offending caregivers play an important role in this treatment. This study aims to identify correlates of four caregiver variables that have been identified as predictors of child outcomes in TF-CBT: support, cognitive-emotional processing, avoidance, and blame/criticism. Audio recorded sessions were coded from a community effectiveness trial of TF-CBT that included 71 child-caregiver dyads participating in the trauma narration and processing phase of treatment. Regression analyses were conducted to examine caregiver trauma history and child baseline symptoms (internalizing, externalizing, and posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] symptoms) as predictors of caregiver behavior during the trauma processing sessions. Caregivers who reported exposure to more trauma types exhibited more in-session avoidance and also processing during the trauma processing phase of treatment. Child symptoms at baseline did not predict caregiver in-session behaviors. Bivariate correlations were used to investigate concurrent associations between mean levels of in-session caregiver behaviors and in-session child distress (negative emotion, hopelessness, negative behaviors). More caregiver blame/criticism was associated with more in-session child distress on all three measures. Caregiver avoidance was associated with more child negative emotion and hopelessness. Findings may help identify therapeutic targets when working with caregivers to promote change and enhance TF-CBT outcomes.     

Child-care structure-->process-->outcome: direct and indirect effects of child-care quality on young children's development

With data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, we used structural equation modeling to test paths from structural indicators of child-care quality, specifically caregiver training and child-staff ratio, through a process indicator to child outcomes. There were three main findings: (a) Quality of maternal caregiving was the strongest predictor of cognitive competence, as well as caregivers' ratings of social competence; (b) quality of nonmaternal caregiving was associated with cognitive competence and caregivers' ratings of social competence; and (c) there was a mediated path from both caregiver training and child-staff ratio through quality of nonmaternal caregiving to cognitive competence, as well as to caregivers' ratings of social competence, that was not accounted for entirely by family variables. These findings provide empirical support for policies that improve state regulations for caregiver training and child-staff ratios.     

Caregivers’ emotional competence and behavioral responsiveness as correlates of early childcare workers’ relationships with children in their care

In the current study, we examined associations among early childcare workers’ emotional competence, observed responsiveness, comfort with socioemotional teaching practices, and the quality of their relationships with children in their care. The participants were 100 early childcare workers (72 center-based Early Head Start teachers and 28 family childcare providers). Results showed that caregivers’ emotion regulation ability was positively associated with caregiver–child relational closeness. Understanding and regulation of emotion were both positively associated with childcare workers’ comfort with socioemotional teaching practices. Their observed responsiveness was positively related to relational closeness and negatively related to relational conflict. Findings are consistent with aspects of the prosocial classroom model, which asserts that educators high in emotional and social competence tend to adopt childcare practices that result in supportive relationships with children. Results provide insight into whether childcare workers’ responsiveness to young children and their perceived socioemotional teaching practices provide a pathway between emotional competence and the quality of caregiver–child relationships.     

On Traumatically Skewed Intersubjectivity

ABSTRACT

Beginning with his Interpersonal World of the Infant (1985), Daniel Stern suggested that the infant is driven from birth to connect intersubjectively with his caregivers. By the final three months of the first year of life, as the infant begins to use protodeclarative pointing and jointly attends to the outer world, he also begins to jointly attend with his caregiver to their respective intrapsychic worlds, the mental states of his caregiver and himself. Clinically, analysts observe at this crucial point of development of secondary intersubjectivity mothers who, more often than not, respond only selectively and often unpredictably to their infants. In many instances, this may be motivated out of a mother’s own need for regulation of emotion and arousal as we have shown in our empirical research. This article elaborates on clinical observations that, for the infant or young child to feel his traumatized mother’s affective presence, he must try to enter mother’s state of mind, while simultaneously, mother is seeking to self-regulate in the wake or the revival of trauma-associated memory traces, this at the expense of mutual regulation of emotion and arousal. We call this phenomenon traumatically skewed intersubjectivity. We find that children coconstruct with their traumatized mothers a new, shared traumatic experience by virtue of the toddler’s efforts to share an intersubjective experience with a mother who is acting in response to posttraumatic reexperiencing. The problem is that the infant or young child has no point of reference to decipher the traumatized mother’s social communication. And so, what is enacted leads to a new, shared traumatic event. Both the child’s anxiety and aggression can, in this setting, easily become dysregulated, further triggering mother’s anxiety and avoidance, leading thus to a vicious cycle that contributes to intergenerational transmission of trauma. Clinical examples and implications for psychoanalytically-oriented parent-infant psychotherapy will be discussed.