Poster #152 - The Intergenerational Transmission of Emotion Socialization

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Drawing from Eisenberg and colleagues’ (1998) model of emotion socialization, we examined the extent to which new mothers’ recollections of their mothers’ emotion socialization practices during childhood predicted supportive responses to their own toddlers in distressing situations both directly and indirectly via effects on mothers’ social information processing of infant distress signals. We hypothesized that mothers who recalled experiencing more non-supportive emotion socialization in childhood by having parents who minimized their emotions, ignored their distress punished them for being upset, and/or got upset when they were upset would engage in more negative, mother-oriented and less infant-oriented processing of cry cues, which in turn would predict less sensitive/supportive responses when their own children were upset. We examined mothers’ adult attachment as a possible moderator and tested the entire model for invariance across racial groups.

Participants were 259 first time mothers (131 African American or bi-racial, 128 European American) followed from pregnancy until children were 14 months old. Expectant mothers were administered the Adult Attachment Interview and completed modified versions of the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) and Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). Two manifest variables reflecting remembered childhood emotion socialization were created: non-supportive emotion socialization is the mean of CCNES non-support and PBI emotion minimization and supportive emotion socialization is the mean of CCNES support and PBI emotional responsiveness. When infants were 6 months old mothers were interviewed using a video-recall method in which they watched videos of their interactions with their infants during distress tasks to assess the extent to which they engaged in infant-oriented (i.e., empathy, infant-oriented cognitions, and accurate distress detection) and mother-oriented cry processing (i.e., negative attributions and negative, mother-oriented cognitions about crying). A multi-method latent factor of supportive emotion socialization at 14 months was created based on observed maternal sensitivity during distress tasks and mothers’ reports of supportive and non-supportive responses to child distress on the Coping with Toddler’s Negative Emotions Scale. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling in MPLUS. Maternal socioeconomic status (age, education and income to needs ratio) and emotional risk (depressive symptoms, emotion regulation difficulties, trait neuroticism and trait positive and negative emotions) were controlled to rule out competing hypotheses.

The model was invariant across racial groups, but race correlated with some primary variables. Thus, the model was re-run with race as a covariate. Consistent with prediction, mothers who recalled their own mothers as high on non-supportive responses to their distress in childhood engaged in higher mother-oriented cry processing, which in turn predicted less sensitive/supportive responding to their own toddlers in distressing situations. This indirect effect was statistically significant, beta = -.14, p < .05, 95% CI [-.54, -.01]. In contrast, supportive emotion socialization and infant-oriented cry processing were unrelated and neither predicted maternal behavior. These effects were not moderated by adult attachment but were independent of the marginal positive association between adult attachment coherence and supportive parenting. Thus, non-supportive childhood emotion socialization experiences have longstanding consequences for subsequent social relationships, including parenting the next generation.

Authors

• Esther Leerkes, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Lauren Bailes, UNC Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mairin Augustine, UNC Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author