Parent Emotion Regulation Mediates the Relation Between Parent Trauma History and Child Emotion Regulation

• In Event: Developmental Pathways Toward Emotional Risk and Resilience: the Role of Parent Characteristics

Abstract

Emotion regulation (ER) is a foundational construct in the field of child development that predicts myriad positive socioemotional and cognitive outcomes (Eisenberg et al., 2010; Graziano et al., 2007). While parenting factors and strategies that promote young children’s ER development have been widely studied (Baker, 2018; Morelen et al., 2016), less is known about how a parent’s history of early trauma may interfere with their use of such strategies, despite the wealth of literature supporting the next-generation impact of early adversity (Letourneau et al., 2019; Treat et al., 2020). The present study evaluates the mediating role of parent ER and parent emotion-related socialization behaviors (ERSBs) in the relation between parent ACEs and child ER. Authors hypothesized that parent ER and ERSBs would sequentially statistically mediate the relation between parent ACEs and child ER.
Data come from a sample of 214 caregivers (72.0% female) of children ages 2 through 5 (inclusive, M = 3.9) collected as a part of a larger online cross-sectional study examining parenting and family factors that influence children’s self-regulation development. Measures used in the present study include the Expanded Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Scales (Cronholm et al., 2015), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Short Form (DERS-SF; Kaufman et al., 2016), the Coping with Toddlers’ Negative Emotions Scale (CTNES; Spinrad et al., 2007), and the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti, 1997). Based on principal component factor analytic work conducted by CTNES developers (Spinrad et al., 2007), “unsupportive” and “supportive” ERSB subscales were calculated to evaluate different types of socializing behaviors. A total child ER score was calculated by combining the Emotion Regulation and reverse-scored Lability/Negativity subscales of the ERC.
Data did not support a mediational role for ERSBs (supportive or unsupportive). Likewise, sequential mediation was not supported. However, results indicated that that parent difficulties in ER do mediate the association between parent ACEs and child ER (bindirect = -0.037, CI95 = -0.077 to -0.0082) when controlling for parent age, gender, and subjective socioeconomic status, such that a higher expanded ACEs score was associated with more parent difficulties in ER, and these difficulties were related to lower child ER (see Figure 1). Additionally, results suggested that, despite no support for a mediational role of ERSBs, parent ER and supportive ERSBs both independently contribute to child ER (see Figure 2).
Study findings implicate parent ER as a key target for parenting interventions aiming to promote child ER among parents with a history of adversity, suggesting that parent ER may be one avenue for the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Given that many parenting interventions promoting child ER currently primarily target ERSBs (England-Mason & Gonzalez, 2020), these findings underscore the importance of attention to and promotion of parents’ own ER abilities, particularly when they may be compromised by parents’ own traumatic histories. Such an approach has the capacity to have both primary and secondary prevention effects for families.

Authors

• Sarah E. Freeman, Eastern Michigan University
  Presenting Author

• Angela D Staples, Eastern Michigan University

• Tamara M. Loverich, Eastern Michigan University

• Jamie Lawler, Eastern Michigan University