Temporal Change of Toddlers’ Negative Affect as a Consequence of Maternal Regulatory Strategies in US, Turkey, Romania, and India

• In Event: Dynamics of Children’s Emotion Regulation and Mother’s Regulatory Strategies in Relation to Maternal and Child Characteristics

Abstract

Caregivers’ vicarious regulatory attempts of young children’s negative emotions may serve as a model for children to acquire self-regulatory skills (Friedlmeier et al., 2011). Mother-toddler interaction dynamics provide an interesting window to understand moment-to-moment mechanisms. The presentation has three goals. First, this paper aimed to identify maternal regulatory strategies that lead to a contingent decrease of child’s negative emotion. Based on previous research, we expected that: (a) distraction and positive feedback will effectively decrease toddlers’ negative emotions; (b) comforting strategies will have an ambivalent effect as it also could heighten children’s negative emotion; and (c) negative strategies will increase the toddler’s negative emotion. Second, as we expect interdyadic variations regarding the effectiveness of maternal strategies, we aimed to explain these variations based on child characteristics, e.g. temperament and overall negative emotion expressiveness, as well as maternal characteristics, e.g. mothers’ level of education. Finally, there is a lack of cross-cultural studies investigating such dyadic dynamics. We know in general that caregivers in cultures with emphasis on independence prefer an individualistic emotion competence model, e.g., promoting open expression of negative emotions, while caregivers in cultures with emphasis on interdependence are guided by a relational emotion competence model, e.g., teaching control of offensive negative emotions (Friedlmeier et al., 2011). However, caregivers may not yet apply these expectations with young children. As we carried out the study in four countries that vary from strong independence (US) to mixed independence and interdependence (Turkey and Romanina) to strong interdependence (India), our third goal was to explore commonalities and culture-specific variations of the effectiveness of maternal strategies across these cultures.
Mother-toddler dyads participated in a delay of gratification task (N = 200; 52 U.S., 40 Romanian, 58 Turkish, and 50 Indian dyads; 51% boys, Mage=25 months). The four minute task was videotaped. Maternal strategies (presence/absence) and child’s intensity for negative affect (0 to 3) were coded in 5-sec intervals. Six types of strategies were differentiated: distraction, physical and verbal warmth, positive, negative, and task-oriented control. The effects of maternal strategies on the subsequent child’s negative state controlling for the prior emotion state was analyzed with Hierarchical Linear Modelling at level 1. For those maternal strategies that were effective, we computed a two-level model with child characteristics and maternal characteristics, e.g. mother’s age, level of education, at level 2 in order to explain the interdyadic variations of the effectiveness. These analyses were computed separately for each country.
Preliminary results for the US sample showed that maternal negative and task-oriented control were increasing child’s negative state but neither warmth nor distraction were effective. High interdyadic variance occurred for all strategies indicating that strategies were only effective for some types of dyads. Child characteristics, especially temperament, moderated the effectiveness of maternal strategies on child negative emotions more than maternal characteristics. Gender differences were small. Preliminary cross-cultural analyses indicated rather similarities with regard to the effectiveness of strategies but variations in the moderating variables. These results will be discussed in a developmental and cultural perspective.

Authors

• Wolfgang Josef Friedlmeier, Grand Valley State University
  Presenting Author

• Tripti Kathuria, N/A
  Non-Presenting Author

• Feyza Corapci, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi (BOUN)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Georgiana Susa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Oana Benga, University of Bucharest
  Non-Presenting Author