Poster #54 - The Influence of Negative Parenting on the Development of Infant Emotion Regulation

• In Event: Poster Session 16

Abstract

Better emotion regulation (ER) in infancy is associated with a variety of childhood outcomes (e.g., increased self-regulation, fewer internalizing and externalizing problems; Frick et al., 2019; Halligan et al., 2013; Sidor et al., 2017). Results from existing studies indicate strong negative associations between child ER and negative parenting behaviors (Mathis & Bierman, 2015; Mortensen & Barnett, 2019; Williams & Woodruff-Borden, 2015). However, no studies have been identified that utilized growth modeling to examine how negative parenting influences the trajectory of a specific ER strategy – gaze aversion - in infancy. To the examine the influence of parental negative affect and behavior on the use of gaze aversion across the latter half of the first year of life, the current study utilized latent growth modeling to examine infant gaze aversion across four time points: 6, 8, 10, and 12 months postpartum. As part of a larger longitudinal study, data was collected from a community sample of infant-mother dyads (N= 179, 47% males), with an average maternal age of 27.49 (SD = 6.07) years. Approximately a quarter of the sample (25.69%) reported income below the poverty line (INR<1.00), and 59.22% reported being economically stress (income-to-needs-ratio [INR] < 2.00). At each time point, dyads participated in the Gentle Arm Restraint task of the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery pre-locomotor version (Lab-TAB; Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1999), which was later coded for infant gaze aversion. At 6 months postpartum, dyads completed two parent-child interaction tasks (free play with and without toys), which were watched and coded for the quality of parental negative affect and behaviors using the Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment coding scheme (PCERA; Clark, 1985).

Results of t-tests did not indicate significant sex differences in gaze aversion at any time point (p > .05), as such infant sex was excluded as a covariate. Results indicated that the linear model was a good fit (χ2 [15] = 14.02, p = 0.52, CFI = 1.00., RMSEA = 0.00, SRMR = 0.05), and better fit compared to a quadratic model (χ2 [4] = 5.78, p = 0.22). The intercept and slope growth factors had a non-significant covariance (B = -0.03, p = 0.64). There was nonsignificant variation across infants for the intercept (Var = 0.28, SE = 0. 18, p = 0.12) and slope (Var = 0.05, SE = 0.04, p = 0.21). Negative parenting significantly predicted the slope of infant gaze aversion (i.e., increased the growth, B = 0.30, p = .01), taking into account cumulative risk. Negative parenting did not predict the intercept factor (B= -0.28, p = .12).

These results coincide with previous work that have found infants who experience negative parenting exhibit greater amounts of time looking away from an upsetting stimulus as they grow older (e.g., Ekas et al., 2013). This implications of these findings, and important future directions will be discussed.

Authors

• Sabrina Ung, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author

• Jordan R Kaye, Northern Illinois University

• Chynna Michelle Dubuclet, Northern Illinois University

• David J Bridgett, Northern Illinois University