Longitudinal Associations Among Parental Response to Negative Affect, Emotion Regulation, and Depression in Preadolescent Girls

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Introduction: Females are at higher risk of experiencing depressive and internalizing symptoms than their male counterparts (Piccinelli & Wilkinson, 2000). This disparity starts in early adolescence and persists into adulthood (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2002). Parent behavior and emotion socialization may impact the development of early emotion regulation skills, which are linked to depressive and internalizing symptoms (Sanders et al., 2015). The current study examined the effects of parental supportive responses to negative affect on the development of emotion regulation competency and depression in their daughters.

Methods: Participants were girls and their biological mothers recruited for an emotion-specific sub-study of the larger, community-based Pittsburgh Girls Study. The Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (Fabes et al., 2002), a parent self-report measure, was used to assess mothers’ supportive and/or non-supportive responses to their daughters’ negative affect. Adaptive emotion regulation and emotion inhibition were measured by child self-report using the Children’s Sadness Management Scale (Zeman et al., 2001). Self-reported depressive symptoms in the past year were assessed using the Child Symptom Inventory (Gadow & Sprafkin, 1994). Interrelationships between constructs were examined in cross-lagged path models using data from ages 11, 12, and 13 years. Separate models were fitted for emotion regulation and inhibition.

Results: The emotion regulation model demonstrated good fit (RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .07, CFI = .95, TLI = .94). Within-construct stability was high (p < .001). Cross-lagged effects were observed such that supportive parenting at age 11 increased engagement in adaptive emotion regulation at age 12 (β=.04, p < .01). Additionally, depressive symptoms at age 11 predicted less engagement in adaptive emotion regulation at age 12 (β=-.04, p < .05). Similarly, the emotion inhibition model demonstrated good fit (RMSEA = .05, SRMR = .06, CFI = .96, TLI = .95) with high within-construct stability (p < .001). Supportive parenting at age 11 reduced likelihood of engaging in emotion inhibition at age 12 (β=-.03, p < .05). Additionally, depressive symptoms at age 11 predicted emotion inhibition at age 12 (β=.14, p < .05) and age 12 depressive symptoms predicted age 13 inhibition (β=.12, p < .05).

Discussion: Results demonstrate the role of maternal emotion socialization in the development of capacity to modulate negative affect during early adolescence, a skill that is associated with emotional health and reduced risk of depression. Future studies should examine whether there are parental characteristics and/or contextual family factors that facilitate maternal support of emotion development. Additionally, it should be explored whether this pattern of effects operates in a domain-specific fashion, or in a generalized manner with regard to regulation of different types of emotion (e.g., sadness and anger) and psychopathology outcomes (e.g., emotion and behavioral disorders).

Authors

• Anna Wiktoria Sroka, University of Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Johnny Berona, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alison E. Hipwell, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kate Keenan, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author