Bidirectional, Dynamic Association Between Mother’s Regulatory Behavior and Child Emotion Expression

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

Abstract

Maternal emotion socialization, the socialization of children’s emotion understanding and expressions, is a bidirectional process meaning that not only mothers’ behaviors impact children’s emotions, but children’s emotions also influence mothers’ parenting behaviors (Eisenberg et al., 1998; Sameroff, 2010). Additionally, emotion socialization is a dynamic process that involves moment-to-moment changes. Hence, it is important to assess mutual, temporal effects in immediate mother-child interaction. The current study examined both temporal and bidirectional relations between mother’s regulatory strategies and child emotions. We expected that maternal approval would increase likelihood of child positive emotion; at the same time, children’s positive emotion may also increase mothers’ approval (Belsky et al., 2007). We also expected that mothers’ problem solving and comforting reduce the likelihood of children’s negative emotion in subsequent time intervals (Wang et al., 2017); inversely children’s negative emotion may increase mothers’ problem solving and comforting.
One hundred-thirty-six mothers with their 5-year-olds (46.1% boys) completed three puzzles together, which were video recorded and coded second-by-second for mother’s regulatory strategies including problem solving (i.e., help the child understand and complete the task), providing approval (i.e., affirm and reinforce children’s desirable behaviors), and comforting (i.e., sooth the child physically or verbally) as well as child’s positive and negative emotion (including sadness and anxiety). The beginning and end of each code was marked initially; coded data were later converted to 0 (absence) or 1 (presence) of the behavior/emotion at each second during the observation. A two-second lag was used to test the predictive associations between maternal strategies and child emotions, as parents’ behaviors are found to influence child affect within 2 seconds (Ekas et al., 2011). Multilevel modelling analyses were conducted to examine how maternal behavior at a given time predicted the within-dyad variations of child positive and negative emotion 2-second later, controlling for the child’s own prior emotion, as well as child emotion predicting subsequent maternal behaviors 2-second later, controlling for mother’s prior behaviors. Given the moderating effects of child sex, child temperament, and maternal mental health found in literature of emotion socialization (Denham, 2007; Premo & Kiel, 2014; Silk et la., 2011), child sex and negative emotionality as well as maternal depressive symptoms were included as between-dyad predictors in all models, whereas maternal race and education were included as covariates.
Results suggested that maternal approval (b=.77, SE=.18, p<.01) increased subsequent likelihood of child’s positive emotion. However, child’s positive emotion did not increase maternal approval. Maternal problem-solving and comforting did not decrease child’s negative emotion; however, child’s negative emotion led to more comforting (b=1.26, SE=.51, p<.05). Further bidirectional effects appeared: Maternal problem solving reduced likelihood of child’s positive emotion (b=-.85, SE=.20, p<.01) and child’s positive emotion led to less subsequent use of mothers’ problem solving (b=-.94, SE=.20, p<.01), Finally, child’s negative emotion led to less subsequent use of mothers’ approval (b=-1.58, SE=.53, p<.01). Maternal depressive symptoms moderated the relations between prior and subsequent strategy uses for all three maternal behaviors. Our study revealed the bidirectional relations between mother’s behaviors and child emotion in the emotion socialization process.

Authors

• Meingold Hiu-Ming Chan, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Presenting Author

• Xin Feng, The Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Micah Gerhardt, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karis Inboden, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emma Hooper, California Lutheran University
  Non-Presenting Author