Maternal Emotion Socialization, Depressive Symptoms and Child Emotion Regulation: Child Emotionality as a Moderator (original) (raw)
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Journal of Child and Family Studies, 2013
Research indicates that parents' methods of emotion socialization impact the development of their children's emotion expressivity, which, in turn, is implicated in the emergence of internalizing symptoms. Relatively little research, however, has examined the emotion socialization behaviors that mothers and fathers use to socialize their children's emotion regulation with respect to how these behaviors may differentially predict depressive symptoms in their sons and daughters. In the current study, the relations among these three variables were investigated by having mothers and fathers report on their children's dysregulation and regulation coping of anger and sadness. Sons and daughters reported on their perceived receipt of parents' responses to their anger and sadness expressivity, as well as their own depressive symptoms. Correlational analyses revealed that unsupportive responses to emotional expressivity were related to greater child emotion dysregulation, poorer emotion coping, and depressive symptoms. Moderation analyses revealed that, for both mothers and fathers, at high levels of unsupportive responses to emotions, children were perceived to have more anger dysregulation, less anger coping, less sadness coping, and more depressive symptoms. Regression analyses indicated that mothers' unsupportive responses to sadness and fathers' unsupportive responses to anger are associated with their children's depressive symptoms. These findings support the notion that mothers and fathers play unique roles in children's emotion regulation skills and subsequent risk for depression.
Mothers' depressive symptoms and responses to preschoolers' emotions: moderated by child expression
This study examined a model of children's emotion expression as a moderator of the links between mothers' depressive symptoms and their responses to children's negative emotions. Participants were 127 mother-preschooler dyads. Children's emotion expressions were assessed both by maternal report and through observational tasks when children were three. Mothers were assessed for their depressive symptoms when children were three, and their responses to their children's negative emotions, when children were four. Results revealed that when children's reported submissive emotion expression was low, maternal depressive symptoms were related to lower maternal support; whereas, when children's reported submissive emotion was high, maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher support. Moreover, when children's observed disharmonious emotion expression was low, maternal depressive symptoms were associated with lower maternal magnifying responses. This study enhances our understanding of the interaction between maternal depressive symptoms and child emotional characteristics in contributing to maternal emotion socialization practices.
2009
During the toddler period, children begin to shift from being primarily dependent on parents to regulate their emotions to managing their emotions independently. The present study considers how children's propensity towards negative emotional arousal interacts with mothers' efforts to socialize emotion regulation. Fifty-five low income mothers and their 2-year-old children completed observational assessments measuring mothers' socialization of emotion regulation, children's reactivity propensity, and children's emotion regulation. Children's propensity towards negative reactivity significantly interacted with mothers' use of physical soothing. That is, mothers with less reactive children who used more soothing had children who were more likely to use interactive, distraction-based regulatory behaviors during a frustration situation. Theoretical and child care implications of the finding are discussed.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2007
Background: This study examined preschoolers' emotion regulation (ER) strategies and the association with temperament, maternal interactive style, and maternal history of childhood-onset depression (COD). Methods: Participants were 62 children and their mothers, 37 of whom had mothers with COD. Children's ER was assessed using a disappointment paradigm; temperament assessment also was laboratory-based. Results: Maternal COD was inversely related to offspring's active ER and positive mood. Among children of COD mothers, behavioral inhibition was associated with passive regulation and sadness, and maternal positivity toward these children was associated with child active ER and positive mood. Conclusion: Behavioral inhibition may place children of COD mothers at risk for developing maladaptive ways of regulating negative emotion, whereas mothers' positivity may serve as a protective factor for them.
Developmental Psychology, 2011
In a sample of 153 children from preschool through second grade, relations between the use of emotion regulation strategy and children's expression of anger and sadness were coded during an observational task in which children were intentionally disappointed in the presence of the mother. Multilevel modeling was used to examine strategy use and current and subsequent expressions of anger and sadness. Results indicate that mothers' use of attention refocusing and joint mother-child cognitive reframing lead to lower intensity of expressed anger and sadness. Younger children expressed more sadness than older children, and maternal attention refocusing was less successful among older children than younger ones. Implications of these results for assessing the socialization of emotion regulation in preschool and school-age children are discussed.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 2007
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.
Maternal Depression and Child Internalizing: The Moderating Role of Child Emotion Regulation
Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 2006
This study tests a model of children's emotion regulation as a moderator of the link between maternal depression and child internalizing problems. Participants were 78 children (ages 4-7), including 45 children of mothers with a history of childhood-onset depression (COD) and 33 children of never-depressed mothers (NCOD). Emotion regulation was assessed observationally during a laboratory mood induction. Emotion regulation behaviors were empirically reduced into three categories: (1) negative focus on delay; (2) positive reward anticipation; and (3) behavioral distraction. Linear mixed models indicated that positive reward anticipation moderated the effects of maternal COD on children's internalizing problems, particularly if mothers had current depressive symptoms. Findings suggest that generating positive affect in the face of a potential frustration may be a protective emotion regulation strategy for children at risk for depression.
2017
Emotion regulation in children is associated with various aspects of developmental outcomes. In recent decades, researchers have paid considerable attention to its socialization to identify the manner in which children’s emotion regulation may be facilitated by interaction with adults. Supportive reaction to children’s negative emotions has been found to play a crucial role in enabling children’s emotion regulation. Knowledge of the precursors of adults’ supportive reactions can help control or direct their supportive reactions in a more efficient and productive manner. We conducted this study to examine the effects of young children’s temperament on primary caregivers’ supportive reactions to the children’s negative emotions. In the first year of study (children’s mean age = 11.8 months, SD = 3.58, n=191), both the mothers and the children’s day-time caregivers completed a shortened version of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire to assess child temperament on three broad dispositiona...