Hiding How You Really Feel: Child and Parent Attachment Predict Expressive Suppression in Middle Childhood

• In Event: 2-006 - Attachment Styles: A Window Into Emotional Processes Across Development

Integrative Statement

BACKGROUND: Among the many factors that shape children’s capacity to express and regulate emotions is the quality of the parent-child attachment relationship (Calkins & Leerkes, 2011; Cassidy, 1994). Parents’ adult attachment as well—particularly attachment avoidance—predicts more negative parenting emotions and behaviors that impact children’s emotional development (Jones, Cassidy, & Shaver, 2015). Considerably less is known, however, about the contribution of both children’s and their parents’ attachment to children’s expressive suppression (ES), an emotion regulation strategy involving concealment of ongoing emotion-expressive behavior. Insecure children, as well as children with an attachment-avoidant parent, may be more likely to hide their emotions, as they have learned that negative emotions are typically rejected, or that their parent is uncomfortable with emotional displays.

The present study investigated whether: (a) child attachment security is associated with dispositional ES, observed state ES, or both; and (b) parents’ adult attachment insecurity is associated with their children’s dispositional ES, observed state ES, or both. Additionally, given gender differences in emotion expression during middle childhood, we investigated whether these links differed for boys and girls.

METHOD: This study included 117 parents and their 9- to-11-year-old children. Before coming into the laboratory, children reported their dispositional ES using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA; Gullone & Taffe, 2012). During their visit, parents reported their adult attachment insecurity (anxiety and avoidance) on the Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire (ECR; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998). In a separate room, children viewed a previously validated sad movie scene (Gross & Levenson, 1995) and rated the sadness they felt during the scene (4-point scale). Children’s facial expressions during the movie scene were video-recorded and coded by blind coders for emotional expressiveness (5-point scale; Krippendorff’s α=.80). The discordance between children’s subjective sadness and outward facial expressions served as the measure of observed state ES (e.g., reporting high levels of sadness but showing little facial expression). Before leaving the laboratory, children rated their attachment security to their mother using the Security Scale (Kerns, Klepac, & Cole, 1996).

RESULTS: A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS v24 (Hayes, 2013). Children’s attachment security was negatively related to their dispositional suppression, but not to their observed state suppression, and only among girls (b=-.71, SE=.28, p=.011). Conversely, parents’ attachment avoidance was positively related to their children’s observed state suppression (b=.35, SE=.14, p=.013), but not to dispositional suppression. Additionally, the significant main effect of parents’ avoidance on children’s observed ES was moderated by child gender, such that the link was significant for boys only (b=.80, SE=.20, p<.001). As hypothesized, parents’ attachment anxiety was not related to children’s dispositional or observed ES.

CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that both parent and child attachment are linked to expressive suppression in middle childhood. Attachment security generally predicted lower ES, though differently for boys and girls. Findings are discussed in terms of their important implications for understanding the dynamic process of emotion expression and regulation in middle childhood, and for informing practice to support child well-being.

Authors

• Jacquelyn Gross, University of Maryland, College Park
  Presenting Author

• Jessica A Stern, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erica Kelman, University of Maryland-College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jude Cassidy, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland-College Park
  Non-Presenting Author