Mother Difficulties in Emotion Regulation: Associations with Parental Conditional Regard and Child Emotion Regulation

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

Parents’ conditional regard, as an emotion socialization behavior, is the withholding (conditional negative regard; CNR) or display (conditional positive regard; CPR) of affection based on whether their children meet desired expectations (Assor et al., 2004). Among kindergarten-aged children and high school adolescents, parental conditional regard is associated with worse emotional skills (Roth & Assor, 2010) and greater regulation difficulties (Roth et al., 2009). Although there is limited data assessing these practices with toddlers, the associations between conditional regard and child ER may extend to this age range, as toddlers start to comprehend expressive and emotion cues from their caregiver as ways to ensure that their needs are met. Indeed, according to Morris and colleagues’ (2007) tripartite model of parent and family factors related to child emotion regulation (ER), a parent’s own ability to regulate emotion may be relevant to how they engage in emotion socialization behaviors such as conditional regard and also to how children regulate their emotions. However, few studies have explored associations between parental difficulties in ER and both parent conditional regard and child ER.

Our study aimed to examine the association of mothers’ self-reported ER difficulties with (1) self-reported conditional regard of child anger and behavior and (2) child ER as observed in a behavioral task meant to elicit negative affect in the child (N = 153). We hypothesized that mothers’ difficulties in ER would be associated with (H1) greater conditional positive and negative regard towards child anger and behavior, and (H2) greater child distress and engagement in maladaptive ER (i.e., aggression) but not adaptive ER (i.e., mother orientation or task-coping). We also hypothesized that mothers’ conditional regard towards child anger and behavior would be associated with child distress and child maladaptive ER (H3). Mothers and their toddlers (16-25 months) were recruited to participate in a parenting intervention study. For the purposes of our study, we focus on the baseline visit prior to the intervention. Mothers completed questionnaires about their ER and parenting while toddlers completed a behavioral task with the experimenter.

Using hierarchical linear regression, we found partial support for our hypotheses. Mother’s ER difficulties were positively associated with CNR (e.g., restricting parental affection) but not CPR towards child’s displays of anger, and CPR (e.g., displaying parental affection) but not CNR towards child’s displays of good behavior. Mothers’ ER difficulties were not associated with child distress or ER behaviors. In partial support of hypothesis 3, mothers’ CNR toward child anger as well as both CNR and CPR toward child behavior were associated with greater displays of child aggression. These findings may implicate mothers’ ER difficulties as a precursor of mixed signaling of affection/acceptance towards their toddlers’ emotions and behaviors, and toddlers’ mixed interpretations of parental signals, such that toddlers engage in more disapproved behaviors in order to garner affection, or alternatively, engage in them to see if their parents will offer affection should they stop these behaviors. Further studies are necessary to explore the indirect effects of mothers’ ER difficulties and child ER through conditional regard.

Authors

• Jocelyn Lai, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Patricia A Smiley, Pomona College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica L Borelli, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author