Adult Intimate Relationships and Psychological Adjustment

This study explored relations among perceived acceptance and behavioral control by intimate partners, remembrances of parents’ acceptance and behavioral control in childhood, and adults’ psychological adjustment. The study was conducted on 98 American adults (50 men and 48 women) between ages 18 and 50 (mean 26 years). Measures used were the Adult version of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire for Mothers and Fathers(Adult PARQ/Control: Mother and Father); Intimate Partner Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire (IPAR/CQ); and, the Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Adult PAQ). Results showed significant positive correlations between psychological adjustment and perceived partner acceptance and parental acceptance for both women and men. Results also showed significant negative correlations between psychological adjustment and perceived partner control and parental control for both women and men. Regression analyses, however, revealed a significant independent effect of only paternal acceptance (but not of maternal and partner acceptance) on the psychological adjustment of men. Regression analyses also revealed significant independent effects of both paternal and maternal acceptance (but not partner acceptance) on the psychological adjustment of women.     

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Child Social Preference During the Early School Years: Mediation by Maternal Warmth and Child Emotion Regulation

This longitudinal study examined processes that mediate the association between maternal depressive symptoms and peer social preference during the early school years. Three hundred and fifty six kindergarten children (182 boys) and their mothers participated in the study. During kindergarten, mothers reported their level of depressive symptomatology. In first grade, teachers rated children’s emotion regulation at school and observers rated the affective quality of mother-child interactions. During second grade, children’s social preference was assessed by peer nomination. Results indicated that mothers’ level of depressive symptomatology negatively predicted their child’s social preference 2 years later, controlling for the family SES and teacher-rated social preference during kindergarten. Among European American families, the association between maternal depressive symptoms and social preference was partially mediated by maternal warmth and the child’s emotion regulation. Although the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and children peer preference was stronger among African American families than Europrean American families, its mediation by the maternal warmth and child’s emotion regulation was not found in African American families.     

Examining Temporal Associations between Perceived Maternal Psychological Control and Early Adolescent Internalizing Problems

The present study examined a) the associations between adolescent-reported maternal psychological control and self-reported internalizing problems one year later, while simultaneously examining the opposite direction of effects and b) the equivalence of these associations across gender. Participants were 479 10-to-14-year old adolescents (55% female) participating in two waves of a study. Results from multi-group, cross-lagged panel analyses indicated that although early adolescents’ depressive symptoms and social anxiety predicted change in perceived maternal psychological control one year later, perceived maternal psychological control did not predict change in early adolescents’ internalizing problems. Elevated levels of depressive symptoms were associated with increased levels of perceived maternal psychological control one year later, whereas elevated levels of social anxiety were associated with decreased levels. Aforementioned findings were consistent across boys’ and girls’ data. Study findings extend limited research on adolescent effects, demonstrating that early adolescents’ internalizing problems play a role in perceived maternal psychological control.     

Predictors of Health Locus of Control in Older Adults

Health locus of control has been shown to influence how individuals approach their health and health-related decisions. The present study examined the variables predictive of older adults’ health locus of control. A total of 261 adults aged 54–84 years completed a questionnaire about their health, approach to health, and background information about themselves. The results revealed that demographic indicators, health-related variables, and psychological variables—particularly health risk tolerance, future time perspective, health self-efficacy, and emotional instability—were related to older adults’ health locus of control. Findings have implications for programs aimed at modifying older adults’ health locus of control.     

Depressive Symptoms in Young Adults: The Role of Attachment Orientations and Romantic Relationship Conflict

Although romantic involvement in adulthood has generally been associated with enhanced well-being, some aspects of adults’ romantic relationships (e.g., maladaptive conflict behaviors) have been linked with depressive symptoms. In order to better understand the role of romantic involvement in well-being, the present study examined links among attachment orientations, conflict behaviors with romantic partners, and depressive symptoms in an undergraduate sample of young adults (N = 110). Correlational analyses generally supported the hypothesized links. When a regression series was applied to the data in order to determine whether young adults’ conflict behaviors serve as a mediator in the link between their attachment orientations and depressive symptoms, mediation was not supported. Instead, results supported a model wherein attachment orientations and conflict behaviors (attacking) were independent predictors, explaining unique variance in young adults’ depressive symptoms. Findings underscore the importance of considering specific aspects of young adults’ romantic relationships in the prediction of their depressive symptoms and illuminate the role attachment orientations and conflict behaviors in their depressive symptoms.     

Parental Negative Control Moderates the Shyness–Emotion Regulation Pathway to School-Age Internalizing Symptoms

Models of developmental psychopathology emphasize both mediation and moderation processes among child and caregiving attributes; however, little research has examined both these processes simultaneously on the development of internalizing problems. This study tested a moderated mediation model that related early childhood shyness, emotion regulation and maternal negative control to school-age internalizing problems among 257 boys from low-income families. Shyness and maternal negative control was assessed at ages 1.5–2, emotion regulation was observed at age 3.5, and internalizing symptoms were assessed by mothers and teachers at age 6 or 7. Results indicated that 1) the active distraction regulation strategy mediated the relations between early shyness and maternal report of internalizing symptoms; 2) the passive/dependent regulation strategy mediated the relations between shyness and teacher report of internalizing symptoms; and 3) both mediation processes were moderated by maternal negative control. The results are discussed in relation to implications for early prevention and intervention.     

Emotion Regulation and Attachment: Unpacking Two Constructs and Their Association

This study examined the association between the security of attachment and processes influencing the development of emotion regulation in young children. A sample of 73 4 1/2-year-olds and their mothers were observed in an emotion regulation probe involving mild frustration for children, and mothers and children were later independently interviewed about how the child had felt. Fewer than half the mothers agreed with children’s self-reports in the emotion they attributed to children (a lower rate than the concordance of observer ratings with children’s self-reports), and higher mother-child concordance was associated with secure attachment and mother’s beliefs about the importance of attending to and accepting their own emotions. Mother-child conversations about recent events evoking children’s negative emotion were also analyzed. Children were less likely to avoid conversing about negative feelings when they were in secure attachments and when mothers were more validating of the child’s perspective. Children’s greater understanding of negative emotions was also significantly associated with higher mother-child concordance and less child conversational avoidance. Taken together, these findings underscore the multiple influences of attachment on emotion regulation and the importance of children’s emotion understanding to these processes.     

Maternal Depression,Locus of Control,and Emotion Regulatory Strategy as Predictors of Preschoolers’ Internalizing Problems

Childhood internalizing problems may occur as early as preschool, tend to be stable over time, and undermine social and academic functioning. Parent emotion regulatory behaviors may contribute to child internalizing problems and may be especially important during the preschool years when parents model emotion coping and regulation for their children. Parents who feel out of control of their preschoolers’ behavior and emotional states may adopt avoidant emotion regulatory strategies. We proposed that parent depression, perceived locus of control, and experiential avoidance would be linked with internalizing symptoms in a high-risk sample of preschool-aged children. We also expected that locus of control would mediate the relationship between maternal depression, experiential avoidance, and child internalizing problems. Seventy-four urban, low-income, diverse mothers of Head Start preschool children completed rating scales measuring their own depression, locus of control, experiential avoidance, and their children’s internalizing behaviors. Correlational analyses revealed that mothers reporting higher levels of depression were more likely to report experiential avoidance, feeling out of control in their parenting role, and internalizing symptoms in their children. Hierarchical multiple regressions showed that locus of control explained additional unique variance in child internalizing problems over and above that explained by maternal depression. Locus of control mediated the relationship between maternal depression and child internalizing symptoms. The importance of considering parent locus of control and its relation to children’s internalizing symptoms is discussed as a potential target for early childhood prevention programs.     

The effects of frontal lobe functioning and age on veridical and false recall

Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri Older adults’ heightened susceptibility to false memories has been linked to compromised frontal lobe functioning as estimated by Glisky and colleagues’ (Glisky, Polster, & Routhieaux, 1995) neuropsychological battery (e.g., Butler, McDaniel, Dornburg, Price, & Roediger, 2004). This conclusion, however, rests on the untested assumption that young adults have uniformly high frontal functioning. We tested this assumption, and we correlated younger and older adults’ frontal scores with veridical and false recall probabilities with prose materials. Substantial variability in scores on the Glisky battery occurred for younger (and older) adults. However, frontal scores and age were independent contributors to recall probabilities. Frontal functioning is not the sole cause of older adults’ heightened susceptibility to false memories.     

Childhood Healthcare Experience,Healthcare Attitudes,and Optimism as Predictors of Adolescents’ Healthcare Behavior

Late adolescence and early adulthood is a time when people establish many of their life-style behaviors. Thus, in order to promote optimal health, it is important to identify factors predictive of young adults’ healthcare behavior. This study evaluated the relationship between measures of childhood healthcare experience, healthcare attitudes, and optimism with young adults’ healthcare behavior in a sample of college students (n = 100). Results suggested that prior healthcare experience, attitudes about healthcare, and optimism are associated with current healthcare behavior. In addition, the relation between childhood healthcare experience and current healthcare behavior was moderated by optimism, such that those who reported both more negative childhood healthcare experiences and low levels of optimism reported the least adaptive healthcare behaviors and those who reported the most positive childhood healthcare experience and the highest levels of optimism reported the most adaptive healthcare behavior.     

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.     

The effects of emotional arousal and gender on the associative memory deficit of older adults

In this study we assessed the potential moderating roles of stimulus type (emotionally arousing) and participants’ characteristics (gender) in older adults’ associative memory deficit. In two experiments, young and older participants studied lists that included neutral and emotionally arousing word pairs (positive and negative) and completed recognition tests for the words and their associations. In Experiment 1, the majority of the word pairs were composed of two nouns, whereas in Experiment 2 they were composed of adjective–noun pairs. The results extend evidence for older adults’ associative deficit and suggest that older and younger adults’ item memory is improved for emotionally arousing words. However, associative memory for the word pairs did not benefit (and even showed a slight decline) from emotionally arousing words, which was the case for both younger and older adults. In addition, in these experiments, gender appeared to moderate the associative deficit of older adults, with older males but not females demonstrating this deficit.     

Electronic Diaries: A Feasible Method of Assessing Emotional Experiences in Youth?

The primary goal of this study was to examine whether electronic diaries are a feasible method of monitoring transitory emotional states with a school-age, community sample of youth. A second goal was to examine preliminary relations between indices of emotional functioning captured via electronic diaries and other measures of child emotional and psychological functioning. Participants included 38 youth between the ages of 7 and 12 (51% males, M age = 9 [1.52] years and 49% females, M age = 9 [1.94] years) and their mothers (M age = 39 years) and fathers (M age = 42 years). Children were prompted to indicate the intensity of their current emotion four times a day for 1 week using Palm Tungsten E2s. Youth also completed self-report measures of emotion intensity, awareness, and dysregulation. Parents completed measures of child emotion regulation and symptoms of externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. Sixty percent of the prompts were answered as intended. Higher levels of positive emotion intensity based on electronic diary ratings were negatively related to parent reports of adaptive emotion regulation and were positively related to youths’ reports of emotion dysregulation and poor emotion awareness. Given that the electronic diary data offered unique information on youth emotional functioning, strategies to increase compliance with the diaries are suggested.     

The Relation of Maternal Behavior and Attachment Security to Toddlers' Emotions and Emotion Regulation

In this study, we examined characteristics of the mother-child context that may support young children's emotion expressions and emotion regulation. We observed children (N = 154) in four emotion-eliciting episodes to measure their emotion expressions and mother-focused regulation strategies. Mothers reported on the toddlers' attachment security. Lower levels of maternal controlling behaviors and higher levels of attachment security were associated with more adaptive emotion expressions by toddlers, and more maternal positive behavior was associated with more mother-focused regulation. Toddlers' use of mother-focused regulation was also associated with decreased levels of negative affect in positive and fear emotioneliciting tasks but not in frustration tasks. The associations differed for boys and girls and differed depending on the context of the specific emotion elicited.     

父母行为控制、心理控制与青少年早期攻击和社会退缩的关系

考察父母行为和心理控制与青少年早期攻击和社会退缩有无特异性联系、是否存在非线性关系、是否以情绪调节策略(认知重评和表达抑制)作为中介。694名青少年(平均年龄13.67岁)完成了父母控制问卷、情绪调节量表、青少年攻击以及社会退缩量表。结果表明:(1)行为控制和心理控制均与两类结果有关,未表现出"一对一"的特异性联系;(2)行为控制与两类结果呈倒U型曲线关系,心理控制与两类结果呈线性关系;(3)认知重评在心理控制与攻击之间具有部分中介作用,表达抑制在心理控制与社会退缩之间具有部分中介作用。     

Parenting Practices and Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: Moderating Effects of Socially Demanding Kin Relations

Association of socially demanding kin relations, mother’s emotional support, behavioral control/monitoring, family organization and psychological control with adolescent’s internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed in 200 economically disadvantaged, African American mothers and adolescents. Demanding kin relations and mother’s psychological control were positively associated with adolescent’s internalizing problems. Demanding kin relations also moderated the association of control/monitoring, family organization, and psychological control, with internalizing. For mothers with more demanding kin relations, increased control/monitoring was associated with increased adolescent internalizing. In comparison, increased control/monitoring was associated with decreased adolescent internalizing for mothers with less demanding kin relations. Negative association of family organization with internalizing was more apparent for mothers with more compared to less demanding kin relations. Positive association of mother’s psychological control with internalizing was more apparent for mothers with more compared to less socially demanding kin relations. Demanding kin relations and mother’s psychological control were positively associated with adolescent’s externalizing problems. Mother’s emotional support and family organization were negatively associated with externalizing. Also, negative association of family organization with externalizing was more apparent for families with more compared to less demanding kin relations. The need for research on the factors associated with negative relation with kin was discussed.     

Performance and learning goals for emotion regulation

Goal orientation theory is concerned with performance and learning goals in academic, athletic, and other ability areas. Here we examine performance and learning goals for emotion regulation. We define performance goals for emotion regulation as seeking to prove one’s ability to manage emotions; learning goals for emotion regulation are defined as seeking to improve one’s ability to manage emotions. In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that performance goals for emotion regulation would be associated with greater use of defensive emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms. Results from both studies showed that individuals with greater performance goals for emotion regulation reported higher levels of rumination and thought suppression and greater depressive symptoms, while individuals with greater learning goals reported greater use of cognitive reappraisal. The findings suggest that goals for emotion regulation may help explain individual differences in use of defensive versus constructive emotion regulation strategies.     

The Mediational Role of Effortful Control and Emotional Dysregulation in the Link Between Maternal Responsiveness and Turkish Preschoolers' Social Competency and Externalizing Symptoms

This cross‐sectional study relied on circumscribed measures of emotion regulation and dysregulation to examine their role in mediating the associations of maternal responsiveness and effortful control with social competency and externalizing symptoms. We examined those associations in an understudied cultural context, Turkey, with 118 preschoolers. Emotion regulation and dysregulation showed differential associations with broad indices of self‐regulation such that emotion dysregulation predicted both low social competency and high externalizing symptoms but emotion regulation was only associated with high social competency. Effortful control was unrelated to emotion regulation but was associated with lower levels of emotion dysregulation. Effortful control had both direct and mediated associations with externalizing and social competency (mediated by lower emotion dysregulation). Findings also showed that maternal responsiveness was associated with better social competency and lower externalizing. Those associations were both singly (through effortful control) and doubly mediated (through effortful control and lower emotion dysregulation), similar to US samples. The study contributes to a better understanding of the factors and mechanisms that speak to children's self‐regulation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Emotion in Parent-Child Relationships: Children’s Emotionality,Maternal Meta-Emotion,and Children’s Attachment Security

This study was intended to examine the relationship among children’s emotionality, parental meta-emotion, and parent–child attachment. The sample consisted of 546 5th and 6th grade children and their mothers. The test instruments used in this study were the Emotionality subscale of the EAS Temperament Survey (mothers’ ratings only), the Parental Meta-Emotion Survey (mothers’ ratings only) and the Attachment Security Scale (children’s ratings only). Our results showed that maternal meta-emotion (emotion coaching plus emotion dismissing) was associated with children’s attachment security vis-à-vis their mothers. Mothers who tended to adopt an emotion-coaching philosophy were more likely to achieve secure parent–child attachments, as reported by their children. Children whose mothers tended to adopt an emotion-dismissing philosophy reported lower levels of attachment security. There were no direct or indirect effects of children’s emotionality on their attachment security. Parental meta-emotion, but not children’s emotionality, was significantly associated with children’s attachment security. The results indicate the importance of parenting factors in determining the parent–child relationship. Parental education programs that focus on parental attitudes and practices related to emotion should be advocated.     

Dynamic Associations between Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Adolescents’ Depressive and Externalizing Symptoms

The current prospective study investigated transactional relations between maternal depressive symptoms and children’s depressive and externalizing symptoms. Participants included 240 children (M age = 11.86 years, SD = 0.56; 53.9% female) and their mothers who were part of a 6-year longitudinal study. Measures of maternal depression (Beck Depression Inventory), child depression (Children’s Depression Inventory), and children’s externalizing symptoms (Youth Self-Report Form) were assessed annually. Data analyses using dynamic latent difference score structural equation models indicated that the observed relations between mothers’ and adolescents’ symptoms were stable across the 6 years. Higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms predicted subsequent elevations in children’s depressive symptoms and in their externalizing problems over time. Among mothers with high initial levels of depression, children’s depressive symptoms predicted subsequent declines in mothers’ depressive symptoms. Children’s externalizing problems were not related to subsequent change in maternal symptoms.