Intimate partner violence and preschool self-regulation: Examining the role of maternal emotion socialization

• In Event: Processes contributing to impaired regulatory responses after childhood trauma

Abstract

Introduction
Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a significant public health issue in the United States, disproportionately affecting Black women (Black et al., 2011) and children under age six (Fantuzzo & Fusco, 2007). Because of the timing of exposure, witnessing IPV in early childhood may disrupt the development of foundational self-regulatory abilities (Howell et al., 2016). While much of the parenting literature has focused on the spillover of violence from parents to children (Grasso et al., 2016), parent-child interactions in the context of IPV may also be a source of resilience. Emerging evidence suggests that emotion socialization practices, the ways that parents help children understand, express, and regulate their emotions, may buffer harmful effects of IPV on child mental health (Katz & Windecker-Nelson, 2006). However, this finding has not been replicated in a majority Black sample where systemic racism and discrimination have shaped how parents approach emotion socialization (Dunbar et al., 2017). The objective of this study was to examine child self-regulation in the context of IPV exposure, investigating effects of emotion socialization practices that 1) encourage expression of and problem-solving around negative affect (“supportive”), and 2) encourage suppression of affective displays (“suppressive”).

Methods
Participants included 158 mother-child dyads recruited from agencies serving low-income families, oversampled for violence exposure. Caregivers predominantly self-identified as Black or African American (84%). Children were preschool-aged (M= 51.56 months; SD= 9.18). Caregivers self-reported on experiences of partner-perpetrated psychological and physical IPV using the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale and their emotional socialization practices using the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale. The Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment Assessor Report provided an observational, global measure of self-regulation, coded from videotape by two independent raters (30% double-coded; item ICCs = .63-.86; α = .96).

Results
A significant interaction effect was observed between psychological IPV and supportive reactions (see Fig. 1; estimate=.350, [.287-.745]). At high levels of psychological IPV, children demonstrated higher self-regulation when mothers reported validating children’s emotions and engaging in problem-solving behaviors. For suppressive reactions, significant interactions were observed for both psychological IPV (estimate=.065, [.014-.116]) and physical IPV (estimate=.306, [.136-.475]). For physical IPV, mothers who reported more suppressive behaviors (e.g. minimization, punishment) had children who demonstrated higher self-regulation, but this was true only in families with high physical IPV. Suppressive reactions were inversely related to self-regulation when physical IPV was not present. For psychological IPV (see Fig 2), suppressive reactions again showed a buffering effect at high levels of psychological IPV. When psychological IPV occurred more frequently, children had higher self-regulation if mothers used more suppressive emotional reactions.

Discussion
Taken together, these results highlight the buffering effects of parent emotion socialization practices in the context of IPV. Surprisingly, both suppressive and supportive reactions were associated with higher child self-regulation in contexts of higher psychological IPV; findings for physical IPV were mixed. Suppressive reactions may therefore serve a protective function in high-stress family environments. These results also align with prior research suggesting that the simultaneous celebration and restriction of children’s emotional expression in Black families may promote positive adaptation (Labella, 2018).

Authors

• Renee Lamoreau, Tulane University
  Presenting Author

• Jae eun Park, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hilary Skov, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Victoria Ross Parker, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah A.O. Gray, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author