Examining Relations Between Parental Behaviors and Children’s Self-Regulation with Diverse Samples and Methodologies

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Research on the socialization of emotion and emotion-related regulation has grown exponentially in the past two decades (Eisenberg, 2020). Eisenberg notes that whereas much of the past research has focused on North American, Non-Latinx White samples, researchers are beginning to focus on more diverse samples, and use novel and promising methods to examine the relations between parenting and children’s self-regulation. In light of the more diverse demographics and the increase of new technology in research, this symposium was designed to highlight research that recruited diverse samples and used diverse methods to collect and analyze data on the relations between parental behaviors and children’s self-regulation/dysregulation.
Paper 1 is a meta-analysis on the bidirectional relations between parenting behaviors and children’s effortful control, with the discussion of the moderators of the relations. Paper 2 examines the interaction between child respiratory sinus arrhythmia, a biomarker of self-regulation, and maternal harsh parenting in predicting later child temperament, with participants oversampled for lower income, higher child maltreatment risk, and higher life stress. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to code facial expressions of emotion, Paper 3 examines the protective role of parent-child positive emotion synchrony during a stressful conflict discussion for children's dysregulation. Paper 4 examines the prediction from initial levels and longitudinal growth in parenting across early childhood to child’s later effortful control among racially and ethnically diverse, low-income families. Together, these papers provide striking evidence in the dynamics between parental behaviors and children’s self-regulation/dysregulation with more diverse methodologies and samples.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Xiaoye Xu, University of Southern California

Individual Presentations

• A Meta-Analysis of Bidirectional Relations Between Parenting and Children’s Effortful Control - Presenting Author: Xiaoye Xu, University of Southern California; Tracy L Spinrad, Arizona State University; Nancy Eisenberg, Arizona State University; José M. Causadias, Arizona State University; Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Arizona State University

• Child Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Moderates the Longitudinal Association Between Maternal Harsh Parenting and Child Temperament - Presenting Author: Longfeng Li, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Erika S. Lunkenheimer, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Positive Emotion Synchrony During a Parent-Child Discussion May Protect Against Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Dysregulation - Presenting Author: Amanda Sather, Arizona State University; Mary Davis, Arizona State University; Sierra C. Clifford; Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Arizona State University

• Early Childhood Parenting Growth in Predicting Preschool Effortful Control in a Racially Diverse Sample - Presenting Author: Julia A. Gajewski-Nemes, University of Pittsburgh; Pamela Morris-Perez, New York University; Alan L Mendelsohn, NYU Grossman School of Medicine; Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh