Poster #61 - The Difficult Child and the Dysregulated Parent: Bidirectional Effects of Child Behavior on Maternal Emotion Dysregulation

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Despite substantial evidence for the influence of maternal mental health and parenting stress in predicting child mental health and behavioral outcomes (Goodman et al., 2011; Robinson & Neece, 2015), there is considerably less understanding of how parenting a difficult child may impact mothers’ mental health over time. It has been suggested that the examination of bidirectional emotional regulatory influences in parent-child relationships is a critical area of future research (Rutherford, Wallace, Laurent, & Mayes, 2015). Further, while many studies focus on maternal mood symptoms, the construct of maternal emotion dysregulation is of particular importance because this is a transdiagnostic feature that characterizes numerous forms of psychopathology. The purpose of the current study was to examine the reciprocal influence of child behavior and maternal emotion dysregulation on each other, and examine the role of parenting stress in this relationship. A multimethod approach that included self-report and observational data was employed.
At time 1 (T1), participants were 68 dyads of mothers and their children (aged 3-4) in which half of the sample was overrecruited for symptoms of borderline personality disorder, a disorder marked by greater levels of emotion dysregulation. Forty dyads returned for time 2 (T2) when children were aged 5-6. Maternal emotion dysregulation was measured using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004) and parenting stress was measured using the Parenting Stress Scale (Berry & Jones, 1995). Child emotion dysregulation was measured using the locked box task, an observational task designed to elicit frustration. Child internalizing/externalizing behaviors were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist and non-compliance was measured from observational codes from a parent-child interaction task.
Cross-lagged path models were utilized to examine the direction and magnitude of effects between child behavior problems (internalizing, externalizing, noncompliance, and emotion dysregulation) and maternal emotion dysregulation over time, and the relationship between parenting stress and maternal emotion dysregulation. Child gender and family income were included as covariates.
Results supported a unidirectional relationship in which maternal emotion dysregulation at T1 predicted child internalizing (β = .39, p = .015) and externalizing behaviors at T2 (β = .40, p = .001), but not noncompliance or emotion dysregulation. Bidirectional effects were not supported as child behavior at T1 did not significantly predict maternal emotion dysregulation at T2. Finally, parenting stress at T1 was predictive of higher levels of maternal emotion dysregulation at T2 (β = .27, p = .072).
These study findings demonstrate that maternal emotion dysregulation may negatively impact child behavior. While the role of child behavior on maternal emotion dysregulation was not supported, there was evidence that parenting stress was associated with increased maternal emotion dysregulation. This may suggest that it is mother’s parenting stress level, and not necessarily child difficult behaviors that are more predictive of increases in maternal mental health issues over time. These findings highlight the importance of attending to parental emotion regulation in parenting interventions, assessing for and targeting parenting stress, and potentially increasing awareness around parenting stress for clinicians who work with adult clients who are parents.

Authors

• Nicole Diane Musser, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

• Maureen Zalewski, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer Lewis, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yoel Everett, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author