Military Fathers’ Nurturing Parenting: Psychological and Physiological Flexibility Both Matter

• In Event: 2-064 - A Strengths-based Approach to Examining Parenting Within the Context of the Military

Integrative Statement

This study sought to test the roles of parental vagal flexibility and experiential avoidance in observed emotion-related parenting among post-deployed military fathers. Vagal flexibility is a physiological index of emotion regulation and social engagement behaviors, whereas experiential avoidance reflects psychological inflexibility or emotion dysregulation (i.e., avoiding one’s negative feelings and thoughts). The study analyzed data from 92 male military service members who had been deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan since 2001. They were mostly White (88%), in their 30s (M age = 37.37, SD = 6.42), middle-class, and married (92.3%). All fathers participated in home-based assessments with their spouses (if married) and a target child aged between 4-13 years. Emotion-related parenting behaviors were observed during a set of family interaction tasks and quantified into four categories using a macro-level coding system: positive engagement, withdrawal avoidance, reactivity coercion, and distress avoidance. Fathers’ vagal flexibility was measured as the change in cardiac vagal tone from a neutral reading task to a father-child conflict resolution task. Experiential avoidance was self-reported. Results of multiple regression showed no significant main effects of vagal flexibility on any observed parenting measures. Significant moderation effects of experiential avoidance by vagal flexibility were found, showing that among fathers with poorer vagal flexibility, a stronger relationship was evident between experiential avoidance and observed emotion-related parenting behaviors (positive engagement and withdrawal avoidance), whereas among fathers with higher vagal flexibility, no such relationship was shown. The moderation effect was not found for observed reactivity coercion or distress avoidance. These findings have important implications for the linkage between emotion regulation and parenting in military fathers.

Authors

• Na Zhang, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• John Hoch, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Abigail H. Gewirtz, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kadie Ausherbauer, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jingchen Zhang, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author