Maternal Self-Regulation of Emotions in a Challenging Parenting Situation: Linking Strategies to Maternal Responsiveness

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Parental responsiveness – attending and tailoring behaviors to children’s needs - should help young children cope with frustration, and in the long-run contribute to their development of self-regulation (Bernier et al., 2010; Thompson, 2014). However, parents need to manage their own negative emotions in order to respond sensitively to their children. We now appreciate that parental emotion regulation shapes parenting behaviors (Hajal & Paley, 2020), but not how parents self-regulate in parenting moments. This study examined mothers’ use of strategies for managing their own negative emotions in a parenting situation.

Effortful emotion regulation involves engaging cognitive processes to alter emotional reactions (Cole et al., 2019) and tailor behaviors to specific goals (English et al., 2017). When children’s behavior worries or exasperates parents, they must regulate their own emotions to serve the goal of responding to their children’s needs. Thus, the effectiveness of parental regulation can be inferred from the relation between activated negative emotions with potential to interfere with responsiveness and parents’ actual responsiveness. Evidence indicates that cognitive strategies that modify attention to and perception of emotionally-provoking situations (distraction and reappraisal) are more effective in maintaining one’s own emotional well-being than strategies that suppress emotions (Aldao et al., 2010; Gross, 2002). However, it is unclear whether this conclusion applies to parenting moments when self-regulation includes the goal of responsiveness to a child. This study tested two hypotheses: (1) more maternal negative emotion is associated with less parental responsiveness, and (2) maternal use of distraction and reappraisal moderate the association by weakening it, whereas suppression strengthens it.

Mothers (N = 156, 78% college-educated) and their children (ages 30-60 months, M = 45.08 months, 50% male) participated in a wait task. Children were given a broken toy and a gift, and mothers were given work to complete. Mothers told their children they had to wait for mother to complete work before they could open the gift. Mothers sat at an adult-size table to complete a series of questions regarding their emotions and use of strategies to manage emotions related to how their children handled the wait. Maternal responsiveness was coded from videorecords and measured as the average of second-by-second engagement with child that showed genuine attentiveness to, interest in, and concern for the child.

Hierarchical multiple regressions indicated, contrary to hypothesis, that the more negative emotion mothers reported, the more they responded sensitively to their children. This differs from evidence linking mothers’ negative emotions to harsh or disengaged parenting (Hajal et al., 2019; Lorber & O’Leary, 2005). However, as hypothesized, the use of suppression moderated the relation such that among mothers who experienced more negative emotions, those using suppression more showed lower levels of responsiveness (Figure 1). The results underscore the point that negative emotions are not always problematic, but how one regulates them influences behavior (Cole, 2016). Moreover, in the context of parenting, appraisal and distraction did not moderate the relation between maternal negative emotions and responsiveness, highlighting the importance of considering the context-specificity of strategies and their effectiveness.

Authors

• Xutong Zhang, East China Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Pamela M Cole, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lisa M. Gatzke-Kopp, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nilam Ram, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author