Poster #63 - Associations between Child Behavioral Difficulties, Hostile Parenting and Maternal Depression: The Role of Maternal Emotion Regulation

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

Several theories highlight the role of “self-sustaining” processes in depression (e.g., Coyne, 1976; Hammen, 2006). For mothers, the parent–child relationship is a central interpersonal context in which “self-sustaining” cognitive and emotional processes occur, with studies demonstrating that when the parent-child relationship includes frequent negative interactions, mothers show a subsequent increase in depressive symptoms (Derella & Milan, 2021).
Given the important role of emotion regulation (ER) in parenting (Rutherford et al., 2015) and as a transdiagnostic mechanism underlying the course of various mental health symptoms (Sloan et al., 2017), ER may also influence when and how parent-child difficulties influence maternal mental health (i.e., child effects on maternal depression). Identifying specific aspects of ER involved in the relation between parenting and maternal depression can provide targets for intervention. Therefore, the goal of this study was to test a moderated, mediated path over three time points in which maternal ER moderates paths from child negativity to parental hostility and to subsequent maternal depressive symptoms (Figure 1). We hypothesized that the path from child negativity to hostile parenting would vary based on maternal impulse control, and the path from hostile parenting to maternal depression would vary based on maternal emotion nonacceptance.
Participants included 220 mothers (22% non-white; 59% married to biological father) with a previous mental health diagnosis. Mothers chose a target child between ages 3-18 for responses and completed online surveys at three time points in 2020-2021. Analyses for the current study include the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Parenting Hostility (PH), Child Negativity to Parent (CNP), and BASC Behavioral and Emotional Symptoms Screener (BESS). Hayes (2013) process macros were used for testing moderated mediation, controlling for child age, maternal education, marital status, and previous time points of outcome measures.
Table 1 provides results from regression analyses. DERS-Impulse Control moderated the path from Child Negativity T1 and Parenting Hostility T2 (a path in Figure 1). Posthoc simple slopes analyses indicated that more CNP predicted increases in PH from time 1 to time 2 only for mothers high in Impulse Control ER difficulties. No moderating effect was found when using the BASC-BESS in place of the CNP. DERS- Emotion Nonacceptance moderated the path from PH T2 to PHQ-9 Depression at T3 (i.e., moderation of the b path in Figure 1). Simple slopes comparison again indicated that greater PH predicted subsequent increases in maternal depression only for mothers reporting high nonacceptance of negative emotions.
Negativity in the parent child relationship can contribute to maternal depression. In this study, we identified two ER vulnerabilities that may increase the likelihood of child effects on the course of maternal symptoms. Specifically, mothers with less impulse control may be more likely to respond with increased hostility towards their child in response to perceived child negativity towards them. Further, mothers who report more nonacceptance of negative emotions may be more likely to experience increases in depression following displays of parental hostility. Implications for ER focused intervention with parents will be discussed.

Authors

• Ana Luisa Barbosa Torreao Dau, University of Connecticut
  Presenting Author

• Stephanie Milan, University of Connecticut