Reflective Functioning in Caregivers: Links to Adverse Childhood Experiences and Emotion Socialization Behaviors

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Caregivers with a childhood history of abuse and neglect are at a greater risk to maltreat their own children due to the reenactment of maladaptive parenting behaviors. Some parents, however, are able to break this cycle by establishing secure and supportive relationships with their children. Theory and research suggest that reflective functioning (RF), the ability to understand and interpret one’s own and others’ behavior as an expression of thoughts and feelings, offers a framework to understand how early experiences with caregivers play a role in the intergenerational transmission of caregiving. Parents’ ability to reflect on their child’s state of mind (parental RF) is proposed to help them understand and respond to their child’s emotional needs, and has been linked to infant attachment. Another form of RF involves parents’ capacity to reflect on their own experiences with childhood caregivers (adult RF), and has been shown to predict greater parental sensitivity. Much of the research to date has separately examined these two types of RF, making it unclear whether adult and parental RF play similar or unique roles in caregiving. Further, RF primarily has been evaluated in relation to general supportive behaviors, and it is not clear if RF is related to caregivers’ use of more specific emotionally responsive strategies. In effort to illuminate the unique and joint contribution of adult and parental RF in caregiving, the present study used multiple, converging measures to assess the associations between caregivers’ adverse experiences with childhood caregivers, adult and parental RF, and emotion socialization strategies with their preschoolers.

Families (N=64 dyads) were recruited from Head Start preschools in a Midwestern city (Mchildage=4; 53% male; 81% Black). Caregivers’ adverse experiences with childhood caregivers were measured with self-report; caregivers’ RF abilities were assessed via interview; and caregivers’ emotion socialization strategies were measured with self-report and observation. Results indicated that adult and parental RF together accounted for significant variance in caregiver reports of effective emotion socialization practices and observed emotion socialization strategies, including total validating behaviors, congruent affect, total invalidating behaviors, and incongruent displays of emotions. Adult and parental RF also were shown to uniquely predict specific caregiving behaviors (see Table 1). Further, adult RF moderated the association between caregivers’ exposure to maladaptive parenting in childhood and observed emotion socialization behaviors (reflecting children’s point of view, ignoring, and total invalidating behaviors). Simple slope analyses showed that higher levels of adverse experiences with childhood caregivers significantly predicted fewer reflections of children’s point of view (β=-.72, p=.004) and greater invalidating (β=.69, p=.007) and ignoring (β=.59, p=.02) behaviors under low levels of adult RF but not under high levels (see Figure 1). These results demonstrate that adult and parental RF uniquely and jointly contribute to caregivers use of specific emotion socialization strategies, suggesting that both types of reflective functioning are important for caregivers’ ability to accept and validate children’s emotions. Further, current findings suggest that reflecting on the type and quality of caregiving received in childhood can act as a protective mechanism and help stop the intergenerational transmission of maladaptive parenting.

Authors

• Kristen Yule, CHOC - Children’s Health of Orange County
  Presenting Author

• John Grych, Marquette University
  Non-Presenting Author