Poster #62 - The Development of Adolescent Emotion Regulation: The Role of Negative Emotionality and Inconsistent Discipline

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to internalizing and externalizing disorders (Kessler et al., 2005). As adolescents start to experience more emotion-laden events and conflict, those with difficulty regulating their emotions may be at greater risk for developing enduring emotional and behavioral problems.
Emotion regulation (ER) refers to the “extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions” (Thompson, 1994). Prior research supports the role of poor ER skills as both a risk and maintenance factor for various maladaptive outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Aldao & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2010; McLaughlin et al., 2011). However, less is known about how ER is shaped throughout development, particularly during adolescence (Yap, Allen, & Sheeber, 2007). This study considers two antecedent processes that may influence the continued development of ER, namely individual differences in negative emotionality and inconsistent parenting practices.
Negative emotionality (NE) refers to the propensity to experience distress and negative emotions and involves sadness, fear, discomfort, anger, and difficulty to soothe (Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans, 2000). If certain youth are more reactive to negative emotions, they are met with more frequent challenges of regulating these aversive emotions and may struggle to acquire adaptive regulatory skills. Nevertheless, youth are embedded in dynamic social contexts that may influence the development of their repertoire of ER capabilities.
Parents serve pivotal roles in socializing youth throughout development (Zeman et al., 2006). One way in which parents may shape youth ER is through parenting practices, namely inconsistent discipline. When youth receive inconsistent discipline, such as when parents fail to follow-through on threats or punishments and negotiation of punishments, youth may make misattributions between negative emotion expression and consequences of unpredictable parenting. These transactions over time may hinder youth from developing effective ways of dealing with negative emotions. When youth with high NE experience frequent and intense negative emotions coupled with inconsistent discipline, this may lead to poorer ER skills.
The present study aims to explore the interactive effect of youth’s dispositional emotionality and inconsistent discipline in predicting adolescent ER. It is hypothesized that higher levels of NE in youth will predict lower ER, particularly in youth whose parents endorse greater use of inconsistent discipline.
227 families participated in a longitudinal study of youth emotional and social development. Mothers completed measures on youth’s NE at age 5 and inconsistent discipline at age 10. Adolescents completed self-reports of ER at age 15.
A multiple regression analysis revealed that inconsistent discipline moderated the link between NE and ER (B=-.145, p=.039). NE was negatively related to ER for youth whose mothers endorsed high levels of inconsistent discipline (B=-.134, p=.01; see Figure 1). However, at low and mean levels of inconsistent discipline, there were no significant associations between NE and ER (B=.021, p=.711; B=-.057, p=.148).
These results suggest that youth with higher NE who experience greater inconsistent discipline are placed at greater risk of developing poor ER in adolescence. These findings can inform future research and interventions by way of targeting parenting practices in at-risk youth.

Authors

• Yuji Kim, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Susan Phillips Keane, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Susan Calkins, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lilly Shanahan, Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich
  Non-Presenting Author