The Impact of Parenting on Emotion Regulation During Childhood and Adolescence

Associations among negative life events, changes in cortico-limbic connectivity, and psychopathology in the ABCD Study

Adversity exposure is a risk factor for psychopathology, which most frequently onsets during adolescence, and prior research has demonstrated that alterations in cortico-limbic connectivity may account in part for this association. In a sample of youth from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N = 4006), we tested a longitudinal structural equation model to examine the indirect effect of adversity exposure (negative life events) on later psychopathology via changes in cortico-limbic resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC). We also examined the potential protective effects of parental acceptance. Generally, cortico-limbic connectivity became more strongly negative between baseline and year 2 follow-up, suggesting that stronger negative correlations within these cortico-limbic networks may reflect a more mature phenotype. Exposure to a greater number of negative life events was associated with stronger negative cortico-limbic rsFC which, in turn, was associated with lower internalizing (but not externalizing) symptoms. The indirect effect of negative life events on internalizing symptoms via cortico-limbic rsFC was significant. Parental acceptance did not moderate the association between negative life events and rsFC. Our findings highlight how stressful childhood experiences may accelerate neurobiological maturation in specific cortico-limbic connections, potentially reflecting an adaptive process that protects against internalizing problems in the context of adversity.

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Childhood adversity shapes cortico-limbic connectivity and mental health.

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In the ABCD Study, cortico-limbic functional connectivity changed over time.

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These changes explain the association between adversity and internalizing symptoms.

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Adversity exposure may accelerate corticolimbic development.

Adolescence as a pivotal period for emotion regulation development for consideration at current opinion in psychology

Adolescence is a dynamic period for the development of emotion regulation. For many individuals, emotion regulation skills improve dramatically during adolescence; however, for some youth, adolescence marks the beginning or worsening of psychopathology characterized by difficulties with emotion regulation. In the present review, I describe evidence that caregiving experiences play an outsized role in shaping interindividual variability in emotion regulation during adolescence. After describing work demonstrating links between caregiving - with an emphasis on parental socialization practices - and emotion regulation outcomes, I characterize our current understanding of how behavioral and neurobiological indices of emotion regulation develop normatively across adolescence. Using cognitive reappraisal as an exemplar emotion regulation strategy, I outline ways that caregiving might impact interindividual variability in emotion regulation neurodevelopment. I conclude by identifying two key future directions for adolescent emotion regulation research.

Transdiagnostic Implications of Parental Socialization of Child and Adolescent Emotional Development: Commentary and Future Directions

This special issue consists of 23 articles focusing on parent socialization of emotion in children and adolescents as a transdiagnostic factor for the development of psychopathology. The papers in this special issue span various emotion socialization domains, methodologies, ages, and clinical and non-clinical populations, highlighting the promise, as well as complexities of, such transactional work. Our goals for this commentary include synthesizing the articles, highlighting common themes, and suggesting future research initiatives involving measurement, developmental, and cultural considerations. It is our hope that the research presented in this special issue will inspire future, high-quality research on this topic and ultimately improve outcomes for children and adolescents at risk for poor emotion regulation and psychopathology.

Using mobile eye-tracking technology to examine adolescent daughters' attention to maternal affect during a conflict discussion

Attention to socio-emotional stimuli (i.e., affect-biased attention) is an integral component of emotion regulation and human communication. Given the strong link between maternal affect and adolescent behavior, maternal affect may be a critical influence on adolescent affect-biased attention during mother-child interaction. However, prior methodological constraints have precluded fine-grained examinations of factors such as maternal affect on adolescent attention during real-world social interaction. Therefore, this pilot study capitalized on previously validated technological advances by using mobile eye-tracking and facial affect coding software to quantify the influence of maternal affect on adolescents' attention to the mother during a conflict discussion. Results from 7,500 to 9,000 time points sampled for each mother-daughter dyad (n = 28) indicated that both negative and positive maternal affect, relative to neutral, elicited more adolescent attentional avoidance of the mother (ORs = 2.68-9.20), suggesting that typically developing adolescents may seek to avoid focusing on maternal affect of either valence during a conflict discussion. By examining the moment-to-moment association between in vivo displays of maternal affect and subsequent adolescent attention toward the mother's face, these results provide preliminary evidence that maternal affect moderates adolescent attention. Our findings are consistent with cross-species approach-avoidance models suggesting that offspring respond to affectively charged conversations with greater behavioral avoidance or deference.

Affective Benefits of Parental Engagement with Adolescent Positive Daily Life Experiences

Positive affect and positive parent-adolescent relationships have been found to reinforce one another across youth development in a pattern of an "upward spiral," yet little is known regarding processes facilitating such "upward spirals" of social and emotional wellbeing among parent-adolescent dyads. This study addressed this gap by examining interpersonal capitalization, or the process of sharing positive news with others, as one candidate interpersonal process contributing to increases in both parent and adolescent experiences of positive affect in naturalistic settings. Participants included 146 adolescents (52.1% girls; ages 10-14; M[SD] = 12.71[0.86]) and a participating caregiver (N = 139; 78.7% mothers; ages 33-58; M[SD] = 44.11[5.08]) who completed a dyadic experience sampling method procedure assessing both parent and adolescent momentary affect and patterns of engagement in interpersonal capitalization in daily life settings (31 surveys across 9 days). Multilevel models indicated that adolescent positive affect increased following instances of interpersonal capitalization, and increases in positive affect were specific to high-arousal positive emotions (e.g., excited, energetic) relative to low-arousal positive emotions (e.g., calm, relaxed). Parental high-arousal positive affect also increased following instances in which they provided validating, enthusiastic responses to their children's capitalization attempts. The results of the present study indicate that interpersonal capitalization may be one mechanism facilitating "upward spirals" of positive affect for both parents and adolescents, with implications for health and wellbeing across development.

The Associations of Polygenic Scores for Risky Behaviors and Parenting Behaviors with Adolescent Externalizing Problems

The current study focused on longitudinal effects of genetics and parental behaviors and their interplay on externalizing behaviors in a panel study following individuals from adolescence to young adulthood. The nationally representative sample of Add Health participants of European ancestry included N = 4142 individuals, measured on three occasions. Parenting was operationalized as experiences with child maltreatment and maternal closeness. Externalizing problems were operationalized as alcohol use, cannabis use, and antisocial behaviors. Genetic effects were operationalized as a polygenic score (PGS) of risky behaviors. The results showed significant effects for child maltreatment, maternal closeness, and PGS, above and beyond other factors and previous levels of externalizing behaviors. Furthermore, maternal closeness was found to negatively correlate with PGS. No significant interaction effects of parenting and PGS were found. The results underscore the joint independent effects of parenting and genetics on the change in externalizing behaviors from adolescence to young adulthood.

In school and out of school digital use and the development of children's self-regulation and social skills

More needs to be known about the benefits and risks to the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills in ubiquitous digital environments at school and at home. Nine to 12-year-old students (n = 186) in a 1:1 digital programme serving low SES and culturally diverse communities rated their self-regulation and social skills for both non-digital and digital contexts. Downward trends in self-regulation and related personality dimensions were found. Social skills were more variable. Students had heightened awareness of needing to self-regulate in digital contexts, rating their self-regulation lower than in non-digital contexts. High frequencies and durations of fun activities at home (e.g., posting photos or blogs, chatting, and games) were associated with lower ratings. But fun activities were associated with higher ratings of social skills in digital contexts. High levels of parental monitoring were related to higher ratings of self-regulation. These patterns reflect school-wide norms and practices (students are socialized as digital citizens) as well as more general features of socialization at home. We conclude that self-regulation and social skills are sensitive to contexts over the primary school years. Digital tools may be particularly 'impulsogenic', and students need context-specific self-regulatory strategies, but the tools create opportunities to develop valued social skills under specific conditions.

Into the Unknown: Examining Neural Representations of Parent-Adolescent Interactions

The parent-adolescent relationship is important for adolescents' emotion regulation (ER), yet little is known regarding the neural patterns of dyadic ER that occur during parent-adolescent interactions. A novel measure that can be used to examine such patterns is cross-brain connectivity (CBC)-concurrent and time-lagged connectivity between two individuals' brain regions. This study sought to provide evidence of CBC and explore associations between CBC, parenting, and adolescent internalizing symptoms. Thirty-five adolescents (mean age = 15 years, 69% female, 72% Non-Hispanic White, 17% Black, 11% Hispanic or Latino) and one biological parent (94% female) completed an fMRI hyperscanning conflict discussion task. Results revealed CBC between emotion-related brain regions. Exploratory analyses indicated CBC is associated with parenting and adolescent depressive symptoms.

Family Cohesion and Stress Consequences Among Chinese College Students During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model

Family plays a pivotal role in individuals' mental health. During the COVID-19 epidemic, people were being quarantined at home to prevent the further spread of the virus. Therefore, the influence of family on individuals is more significant than usual. It is reasonable to assume that family cohesion can effectively alleviate the stress consequences during the COVID-19 epidemic. In the present study, a moderated mediation model was constructed to examine the mechanisms underlying the association between family cohesion and stress consequences among Chinese college students. A large sample of Chinese college students (N = 1,254, Mage = 19.85, SDage = 1.29) participated in the study. Results indicated that family cohesion was negatively related to stress consequences. Fear of COVID-19 partially mediated the link between family cohesion and stress consequences. Excessive affective empathy reported by participants served to aggravate the relation between fear of COVID-19 and stress consequences. The study helps us understand how internal and external factors affect individual mental health that provides meaningful implications for promoting mental health.

Ecological stress, amygdala reactivity, and internalizing symptoms in preadolescence: Is parenting a buffer?

Ecological stress during adolescent development may increase the sensitivity to negative emotional processes that can contribute to the onset and progression of internalizing behaviors during preadolescence. Although a small number of studies have considered the link among the relations between ecological stress, amygdala reactivity, and internalizing symptoms in childhood and adolescence, these studies have largely been small, cross-sectional, and often do not consider unique roles of parenting or sex. In the current study, we evaluated the interrelations between ecological stress, amygdala reactivity, subsequent internalizing symptoms, and the moderating roles of parenting and sex among 9- and 10-year-old preadolescents from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study ®. A subset of participants who met a priori quality control criteria for bilateral amygdala activation during the EN-back faces versus places contrast (N = 7,385; Mean Age = 120 months, SD = 7.52; 49.5% Female) were included in the study. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to create a latent variable of ecological stress, and multiple structural equation models were tested to evaluate the association among baseline ecological stress and internalizing symptoms one year later, the mediating role of amygdala reactivity, and moderating effects of parental acceptance and sex. The results revealed a significant association between ecological stress and subsequent internalizing symptoms, which was greater in males than females. There was no association between amygdala reactivity during the Faces versus Places contrast and ecological stress or subsequent internalizing symptoms, and no mediating role of amygdala or moderating effect of parental acceptance on the association between ecological stress and internalizing symptoms. An alternative mediation model was tested which revealed that there was a small mediating effect of parental acceptance on the association between ecological stress and internalizing symptoms, demonstrating lower internalizing symptoms among preadolescents one year later. Given the lack of association in brain function, ecological stress and internalizing symptoms in preadolescents in this registered report, effects from comparable small studies should be reconsidered in larger samples.

Development of Infant High-Intensity Fear and Fear Regulation from 6 to 24 Months: Maternal Sensitivity and Depressive Symptoms as Moderators

This study tested bidirectional relations between infant high-intensity fear and fear regulation over 1.5 years, and maternal sensitivity and depressive symptoms as moderators. Participants were 1,292 mother-infant pairs prospectively assessed at three times when infants were 6, 15, and 24 months old. Infant high-intensity fear and fear regulation (avoidance, orienting to mother, attention regulation, and self-soothing) were observed during the Mask Task at each of these time points. Likewise, mothers reported their depressive symptoms, and their sensitivity was observed in a separate mother-child interaction task at each time point. Conditional multilevel growth models revealed that highly avoidant infants exhibited less initial high-intensity fear, but faster growth in high-intensity fear over time. Furthermore, highly avoidant infants exhibited more concurrent high-intensity fear when their mothers demonstrated low sensitivity. Unexpectedly, when their mothers were highly depressed, infants who used more attention regulation demonstrated more rapid growth of high-intensity fear over time. Finally, when their mothers were not depressed, infants exhibiting more high-intensity fear oriented more to their mothers concurrently. When their mothers reported high depressive symptoms over time, infants with more high-intensity fear initially oriented less to their mothers but more rapidly increased orienting to their mothers over time. Findings reveal the interplay between infant and maternal factors over time in development of infant high-intensity fear. In particular, maternal sensitivity protected highly fearful infants by rapidly reducing fear reactivity despite infant avoidance. In contrast, high maternal depressive symptoms introduced both immediate and enduring risks for infant fear development. Clinical implications are discussed.

Brain structure is linked to the association between family environment and behavioral problems in children in the ABCD study

Children’s behavioral problems have been associated with their family environments. Here, we investigate whether specific features of brain structures could relate to this link. Using structural magnetic resonance imaging of 8756 children aged 9-11 from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental study, we show that high family conflict and low parental monitoring scores are associated with children’s behavioral problems, as well as with smaller cortical areas of the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and middle temporal gyrus. A longitudinal analysis indicates that psychiatric problems scores are associated with increased family conflict and decreased parental monitoring 1 year later, and mediate associations between the reduced cortical areas and family conflict, and parental monitoring scores. These results emphasize the relationships between the brain structure of children, their family environments, and their behavioral problems.

Child behavior has been associated with parenting behavior. Here, the authors investigate associations between child behavior, parental behavior, and structural MRI using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental (ABCD) study dataset.

Postpartum Stress and Neural Regulation of Emotion among First-Time Mothers

Early parenting relies on emotion regulation capabilities, as mothers are responsible for regulating both their own emotional state and that of their infant during a time of new parenting-related neural plasticity and potentially increased stress. Previous research highlights the importance of frontal cortical regions in facilitating effective emotion regulation, but few studies have investigated the neural regulation of emotion among postpartum women. The current study employed a functional neuroimaging (fMRI) approach to explore the association between perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and the neural regulation of emotion in first-time mothers. Among 59 postpartum mothers, higher perceived stress during the postpartum period was associated with less self-reported use of cognitive reappraisal in everyday life, and greater use of emotion suppression. While viewing standardized aversive images during the Emotion Regulation Task (ERT), mothers were instructed to experience their natural emotional state (Maintain) or to decrease the intensity of their negative emotion by using cognitive reappraisal (Reappraise). Whole-brain analysis revealed a two-way interaction of perceived stress x condition in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) at p < .05 cluster-wise corrected, controlling for postpartum months and scanner type. Higher levels of perceived stress were associated with heightened right DLPFC activity while engaging in cognitive reappraisal versus naturally responding to negative stimuli. Higher right DLPFC activity during Reappraise versus Maintain was further associated with elevated parenting stress. Findings suggest that stress and everyday reappraisal use is reflected in mothers' neural regulation of emotion and may have important implications for their adaptation to parenthood.

Factors Influencing Children’s Behavioral Problems: Results from a Longitudinal Study of British Children from Birth to Seven Years

This study explored a longitudinal data set of over 10,663 children at age 7 years to examine various psychological and sociological factors that possibly influenced their behavioural problems. Data were collected when cohort members were born, then 9 months old, and later at later at ages 3 and 7 years. Structural equation modelling showed that the family income, maternal psychological distress, the parent-child relationship, and maternal personality traits all had direct significant effects on children’s behavioural problems, accounting for 42 percent of the total variance. The strongest predictor was parent-child relationship, followed by maternal emotional stability (low neuroticism) and the family poverty indicator.

Developmental Stage-Specific Effects of Parenting on Adolescents' Emotion Regulation: A Longitudinal Study From Infancy to Late Adolescence

The quality of parenting shapes the development of children's emotion regulation. However, the relative importance of parenting in different developmental stages, indicative of sensitive periods, has rarely been studied. Therefore, we formulated four hypothetical developmental timing models to test the stage-specific effects of mothering and fathering in terms of parental autonomy and intimacy in infancy, middle childhood, and late adolescence on adolescents' emotion regulation. The emotion regulation included reappraisal, suppression, and rumination. We hypothesized that both mothering and fathering in each developmental stage contribute unique effects to adolescents' emotion regulation patterns. The participants were 885 families followed from pregnancy to late adolescence. This preregistered study used data at the children's ages of 1 year, 7 to 8 years, and 18 years. At each measurement point, maternal and paternal autonomy and intimacy were assessed with self- and partner reports using the Subjective Family Picture Test. At the age of 18 years, adolescents' reappraisal and suppression were assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and rumination using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Stage-specific effects were tested comparing structural equation models. Against our hypotheses, the results showed no effects of mothering or fathering in infancy, middle childhood, or late adolescence on adolescents' emotion regulation patterns. The results were consistent irrespective of both the reporter (i.e., self or partner) and the parental dimension (i.e., autonomy or intimacy). In addition to our main results, there were relatively low agreement between the parents in each other's parenting and descriptive discontinuity of parenting across time (i.e., configural measurement invariance). Overall, we found no support for the stage-specific effects of parent-reported parenting in infancy, middle childhood, or late adolescence on adolescents' emotion regulation. Instead, our findings might reflect the high developmental plasticity of emotion regulation from infancy to late adolescence.

Effects of the Parental Friendship Coaching Intervention on Parental Emotion Socialization of Children with ADHD

Parental emotion-related socialization behaviors shape children's socioemotional functioning and appear important for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The Parental Friendship Coaching (PFC) intervention teaches parents to coach their children with ADHD in friendship skills, which includes managing emotions. We examined whether PFC, relative to psychoeducation and social support (Coping with ADHD through Relationships and Education; CARE), improved parental emotion-related socialization behaviors, child affect with a friend, and child social behaviors related to emotional difficulties. Participants were 172 families of children with ADHD (ages 6-11, 30% female), randomized to PFC or CARE. At baseline, children and their real-life friends interacted and their affect was coded. Parents coached their child in friendship skills before and after the child-friend interaction, and parents' praise, warmth, criticism, and discussion of emotion-related friendship strategies were coded. Parents and teachers reported children's withdrawn/depressed and aggressive behaviors. Results suggested that PFC (relative to CARE) led to parents providing more emotion strategies and praise at post-treatment and follow-up, and more warmth at follow-up, and to children showing less withdrawn/depressed behavior at follow-up. For bidirectional relationships from baseline to post-treatment, more parental warmth was associated with less child withdrawn/depressed behavior, and more parental criticism with more child aggression. More child withdrawn/depressed behavior and positive affect at post-treatment were associated with more parental criticism at follow-up. After corrections for multiple comparisons, only PFC effects on praise and emotion strategies at post-treatment, and praise and withdrawn/depressed behavior at follow-up, maintained. Implications are discussed for supporting socioemotional functioning in children with ADHD.

Unraveling Prospective Reciprocal Effects between Parental Invalidation and Pre-Adolescents' Borderline Traits: Between- and Within-Family Associations and Differences with Common Psychopathology-Parenting Transactions

The etiology of borderline personality pathology has consistently been framed as an interactional process between child vulnerability (i.e. emotional sensitivity and reactivity; Linehan, 1993) and invalidating parenting strategies, which evolves into increased emotion dysregulation and disinhibited behavior of the child and in turn activates more parental invalidation. Despite the strong theoretical base in support of these high-risk parent-child transactions, invalidating parenting behaviors have mostly been explored as a cause of child dysregulation and disinhibition, rather than as a result of child-driven effects. Also, most transactional research in this regard focused at differences between families, thereby not addressing potential changes within families across time. The current study therefore examines bidirectional between- and within-family effects of childhood borderline-related traits and maternal invalidation in the sensitive developmental phase of pre-adolescence (n = 574; 54.4% girls) along three assessment points. Cross-Lagged Panel Models and Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models indicated detrimental parenting effects of invalidation on subsequent development in borderline-related traits of the child both between and within families, and additional child-driven effects for subsequent invalidating parenting strategies within families. Beyond these transactions between borderline-related traits and parenting, the current study also indicates significant differences in the direction of effects when exploring transactions between more common dimensions of child internalizing/externalizing symptomatology and parental invalidation, suggesting a more substantial parenting etiology in the developmental process of borderline traits throughout pre-adolescence. Future longitudinal research may explore to what extent the transactional nature of borderline personality traits during important developmental stages indeed holds unique aspects compared to more common manifestations of symptomatology at young age.

Daily bidirectional associations between adolescent negative peer interactions and sleep in rural China: The moderating effect of parental migration

Left-behind adolescents' biobehavioral adjustment, such as sleep, is poorly understood by research. Using daily data over one week from 90 middle school students (M_age  = 13.69) in rural China, this study investigated daily bidirectional associations between negative peer interactions and sleep disturbances, and how these associations varied by parental migration. On days when adolescents reported higher levels of negative peer interactions, they also reported greater daytime dysfunction the following day. Conversely, when adolescents had more nighttime disturbances the previous night, they also reported higher levels of negative peer interactions. The effects of other sleep disturbance indicators (poor sleep quality the previous night and daytime dysfunction on the same day) on negative peer interactions were significant for adolescents with at least one parent migrating and for those with both parents migrating. Findings highlight the importance of considering dynamic interrelations between interpersonal and biobehavioral factors for the healthy development of left-behind adolescents.

Affective Development from Middle Childhood to Late Adolescence: Trajectories of Mean-Level Change in Negative and Positive Affect

Adolescence has long been purported to be a period of emotional upheaval, yet relatively little is known regarding normative patterns of change in youth positive and negative affect across the adolescent transition. This study addressed this gap by examining normative patterns of mean-level change in youth positive and negative affect from middle childhood through late adolescence, encompassing the full span of adolescent development. Participants included 665 youth recruited in 3rd, 6th, and 9th grade cohorts (55.0% female; age 9-16 at baseline) who provided self-report ratings of positive and negative affect every 18 months for a period of three years in an accelerated longitudinal cohort design. Multi-level growth curve models revealed that adolescence is characterized by declines in positive affect and non-linear patterns of alternating decreases and increases in negative affect. Patterns of change differed across boys and girls. The findings from this study indicate that adolescence is characterized by normative reductions in positive affect in the context of labile negative affect, with implications for understanding processes of risk and resilience across the adolescent transition.

All in the Family: How Parental Criticism Impacts Depressive Symptoms in Youth

Despite a strong connection between family environment and mood symptoms in youth, little research to date has examined potential underlying mechanisms. We propose an etiological model investigating how parenting (i.e., expressed emotion, or EE) affects youth depression by shaping their emotion regulation abilities. Forty-six youth and caregivers participated in this cross-sectional study. Family environment was assessed using the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) and the Levels of Expressed Emotion Scale (LEE). The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) were used to assess youth emotion regulation and depressive symptoms, respectively. Analyses demonstrated no significant relationships between type of reporter (i.e., independent rater, parent, youth) of parental EE and criticism. Mediation analyses suggested that youth-reported parental EE predicted greater levels of youth depressive symptoms, and that this association was mediated by emotion regulation. This study has direct clinical implications, elucidating the importance of strengthening positive parent-child communication to support the development of emotion regulation skills and psychological well-being for youth.

Negative Parenting Affects Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms Through Alterations in Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuitry: A Longitudinal Twin Study

BACKGROUND

The synergic interaction of risk genes and environmental factors has been thought to play a critical role in mediating emotion-related brain circuitry function and dysfunction in depression and anxiety disorders. Little, however, is known regarding neurodevelopmental bases underlying how maternal negative parenting affects emotion-related brain circuitry linking to adolescent internalizing symptoms and whether this neurobehavioral association is heritable during adolescence.

METHODS

The effects of maternal parenting on amygdala-based emotional circuitry and internalizing symptoms were examined by using longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging among 100 monozygotic twins and 78 dizygotic twins from early adolescence (age 13 years) to mid-adolescence (age 16 years). The mediation effects among variables of interest and their heritability were assessed by structural equation modeling and quantitative genetic analysis, respectively.

RESULTS

Exposure to maternal negative parenting was positively predictive of stronger functional connectivity of the amygdala with the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. This neural pathway mediated the association between negative parenting and adolescent depressive symptoms and exhibited moderate heritability (21%).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight that maternal negative parenting in early adolescence is associated with the development of atypical amygdala-prefrontal connectivity in relation to internalizing depressive symptoms in mid-adolescence. Such abnormality of emotion-related brain circuitry is heritable to a moderate degree.

The Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale in Mothers of Children and Infants: Factor Structure and Associations With Child Internalizing Problems

Objectives: Mindful parenting, measured by the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting scale (IMP), is beneficial for parents and children. However, the IMP has not been validated in English-speaking parents. Further, little is known about whether mindful parenting is similar in parents of children vs. infants, or how it reduces child internalizing problems. We sought to validate the IMP in English-speaking mothers of children and infants, and to examine relationships between the facets of mindful parenting, child internalizing problems and parent variables related to internalizing. Methods: Using confirmatory factor analyses, we examined the fit of various models of mindful parenting in English-speaking community-recruited mothers of children aged 3-18 years (n = 396) and infants aged 0-2 years (n = 320). We used regression analyses to investigate relationships between the facets of mindful parenting, child internalizing problems, and parent variables including parental experiential avoidance, unhelpful beliefs about child anxiety and accommodation of child anxiety. Results: Mindful parenting can be measured in English-speaking mothers, using either a 5- or 6-factor, 29-item version of the IMP. These versions of the IMP operate similarly for mothers of children and infants. Child internalizing problems and related parent variables were best predicted by non-judgmental acceptance of parenting in mothers of children, and emotional self-awareness and non-reactivity in mothers of infants. Conclusions: The IMP is a valid measure of mindful parenting in English-speaking mothers of children and infants. Mindful parenting predicts child internalizing problems and related parent variables, suggesting that mindful parenting programs could benefit families of children with internalizing problems, potentially by reducing parental experiential avoidance, unhelpful beliefs about or accommodation of child anxiety.

Gene x responsive parenting interactions in social development: Characterizing heterogeneity in autism spectrum disorder

Emerging research suggests that caregiving environments and genetic variants independently contribute to social functioning in children with typical development or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, biologically plausible interactive models and complimentary assessment of mechanisms are needed to: (a) explain considerable social heterogeneity, (b) resolve inconsistencies in the literature, and (c) develop and select optimal treatments based on individual differences. This study examined the role of child genotypes and responsive parenting in the social development of 104 children with ASD (ages 4-7 years). We utilized a longitudinal, multi-informant design and structural equation models to evaluate: (a) the additive and interactive effects of biologically plausible candidate genes (5-HTTLPR, OXTR, DRD4) and responsive parenting in predicting prospective social development in ASD across three time points spanning 1.5 years, and (b) whether child emotion regulation mediated observed gene x environment interactions (GxEs). Responsive parenting positively predicted prospective change in child social skills; these associations were moderated by 5-HTTLPR and DRD4 in teacher-report models, and DRD4 in parent-report models. No GxE effects were found for OXTR. Emotion regulation did not significantly mediate the GxEs involving 5-HTTLPR and DRD4. Acknowledging the complexities of GxE research, implications for future research, and targeted intervention efforts are discussed.

Cross-lagged panel analyses of maternal psychological control and young adolescents' emotion regulation

INTRODUCTION

The present study examined the longitudinal relations between maternal psychological control and emotion regulation in Chinese adolescents. Specifically, we examined how emotion regulation was reciprocally associated with multiple dimensions of psychological control, including love withdrawal, guilt induction, and shaming in the Chinese cultural context.

METHODS

Participants consisted of 865 Chinese students from fourth through eighth grade (50.8% girls; M_age = 11.82 years at Wave 1, SD_age = 1.28 at Wave 1, range = 10-15 years). Data were collected at two time-periods over a one-year period. Children reported on their emotion regulation. Mothers rated their engagement in love withdrawal, guilt induction, and shaming.

RESULTS

Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed an adequate model fit. Children's emotion regulation at study onset predicted decreases in all three dimensions of maternal psychological control one year later, whereas the three dimensions of maternal psychological control did not significantly predict emotion regulation one year later.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings revealed the longitudinal associations among child emotion regulation and maternal psychological control within a specific cultural context. Implications for the meaning of psychological control parenting in Chinese culture are discussed.

Cultural Values Influence Relations Between Parent Emotion Socialization and Adolescents' Neural Responses to Peer Rejection

Adolescents' responses to negative social experiences can be influenced by parenting behaviors. This includes how parents react to their child's expression of emotions, an aspect of parenting referred to as emotion socialization. Emotion socialization may intersect with cultural values, particularly collectivism, a socially-relevant attitude that emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relationships. Examination of a neural measure called the feedback-related negativity (FRN), thought to reflect the degree to which feedback is experienced as aversive, could help elucidate neural contributions to and consequences of the role of collectivism in such family dynamics. Thus, this study examined whether adolescents' endorsement of collectivism moderated the association of parents' dismissive emotion socialization responses (called override responses) and FRN following peer rejection. A community sample of 83 Latinx (n = 32), Asian American (n = 20), and non-Latinx White (n = 31) adolescents ages 13-17 completed a computerized peer feedback task while continuous electroencephalogram was recorded. Their parents completed a battery of self-report questionnaires. Regression analyses demonstrated that adolescents' endorsement of collectivism moderated the association of override responses and FRN following peer rejection, such that FRN was enhanced as override responses increased for adolescents endorsing low and moderate levels of collectivism. Results suggest that there is cultural variation in the association of the emotion socialization strategy of override and adolescents' neural responses to socially-salient events. Findings have implications for parenting interventions designed to enhance adolescents' emotion regulation abilities.

Interactive Effects of Parent Emotion Socialization and Child Physiological Reactivity in Predicting Adolescent Borderline Personality Disorder Features

Theories suggest that a transaction between child biological vulnerability and parent emotion socialization underlies the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) features. Yet, few studies have examined the interaction between these factors prospectively in at-risk samples. Consequently, this study tested whether parental reactions to children's negative emotions moderated the effect of the child's physiological reactivity to stress in predicting adolescent BPD features in a sample of youth with and without clinical elevations in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants were 61 children (52% female) and parents (90% mothers). When children were 9-13 years old, their physiological reactivity to a social stressor was assessed based on respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and skin conductance level (SCL) reactivity; parents also reported on their supportive and non-supportive reactions to their child's negative emotions. Children were followed-up four to five years later at ages 14-18 years old and their BPD features were assessed based on parent and adolescent report. Significant interactions between children's SCL reactivity and parental reactions to children's negative emotions were found in predicting adolescent BPD features. Children with low SCL reactivity to social stress and parents high in supportive/low in non-supportive reactions were lowest in adolescent BPD features. However, greater SCL reactivity predicted greater adolescent BPD features specifically when the parent was high in support or low in non-support. Childhood ADHD symptoms also significantly predicted greater adolescent BPD features. Findings suggest that children with different patterns of SCL reactivity may respond differently to parental reactions to their emotions.

Sibling Jealousy and Temperament: The Mediating Effect of Emotion Regulation in China During COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aimed to examine first-born children's sibling jealousy and explore the relationships among first-born children's sibling jealousy, temperament, and emotion regulation in China during COVID-19 pandemic. The research hypotheses of this study are empirically examined through online and offline surveys. A sample of 304 two-child families from China participated in the study; the first-born children were aged between 1.17 and 7 years. The results indicated the following: (1) the older the first-born children and the greater the age difference between siblings, the lower the sibling jealousy. (2) Difficult temperament of first-born children could predict sibling jealousy significantly and positively, and emotion regulation could predict sibling jealousy negatively. (3) There was a partially mediating effect of emotion regulation between temperament and sibling jealousy. Compared with intermediate temperament, first-born children with difficult temperament had weaker emotion regulation and higher sibling jealousy. Overall, findings have important implications for psychological interventions for families of first-born children with difficult temperament.

Developmental patterns of emotion regulation in toddlerhood: Examining predictors of change and long-term resilience

Emotion regulation is critical for optimal functioning across a wide range of domains and may be even more important for individuals in high-risk environments. While evidence suggests that childhood is generally a period of emotion regulation growth and development, research is needed to examine factors that may contribute to deviations from a typical trajectory. In a prospective study of 1,905 children, latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was used to identify trajectory groups of emotion regulation across toddlerhood (age 14-36 months), examine predictors of those trajectory groups from child temperament, parenting behaviors, and environmental risk, and explore predictions of resilience in 5th grade from the identified groups. LGCA supported a three-class model, with a Stable Incline group, a Decline group, and a Catch-Up group. Child negative emotionality, positive and negative parenting, and environmental risk predicted group membership. These trajectory groups in toddlerhood were predictive of child resilient functioning in the 5th grade. Our findings highlight the importance of utilizing developmental models of emotion regulation and provide implications for prevention and early intervention services to enhance emotion regulation development in early childhood.

Changes in self-reported and observed parenting following a randomized control trial of parent-child interaction therapy for the treatment of preschool depression

BACKGROUND

Parenting in early childhood exerts substantial influence over children's emotional health and development. Using data from a randomized controlled trial of a novel treatment for early childhood depression, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Emotion Development (PCIT-ED), we explored two broad dimensions of parenting (behavior and affect) to determine whether any changes could be detected following treatment when compared to those in a waitlist control condition.

METHOD

229 caregiver-child dyads, 114 randomly assigned to PCIT-ED for preschool-onset depression, and 115 assigned to a waitlist completed two structured interaction tasks at baseline and post-treatment. Interactions were later coded by observer's blind to diagnostic and treatment status.

RESULTS

Greater reductions were found in self-reported negative parenting behaviors and observed negative affect and greater increases in self-reported positive parenting behaviors and observed positive affect among the caregivers in the treatment group. Increases in the overall positivity of the observed interactional style of caregivers, but no observed parenting behavior change was found following treatment. Discrepancies between self-reported and observed parenting were greater among caregivers on the waitlist.

CONCLUSIONS

Following PCIT-ED treatment, caregivers self-reported improvements in parenting practices and declines in punitive practices along with observed increases in positive affect and decreases in negative affect when interacting with their child. Moreover, coherence between self-reported and observed parenting was higher in the treatment group. These findings highlight the efficacy of PCIT-ED in improving parenting behaviors and the need to use multiple methods to assess parenting in treatment studies.

Household Chaos, Parental Responses to Emotion, and Child Emotion Regulation in Middle Childhood

Parents' responses to children's negative emotional states play a key role in the socialization of emotion regulation skills in childhood. Much of the prior research on child ER has focused on early development using cross-sectional designs. The current study addresses these gaps by using a longitudinal design to examine individual differences of ER at two times points in middle childhood. We examined the development of children's ER by testing hypotheses about the interplay of parent response to emotions and household chaos in the prediction of individual differences in children's ER. Participants were the mothers of children at 6 and 9 years of age among 224 families in a socioeconomically diverse sample that was part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Mothers completed questionnaires regarding themselves, their children, and their home environment. Mothers' reports of better child ER at both time points were positively associated with mothers' more supportive responses and negatively associated with mothers' less non-supportive responses, as well as lower household chaos. Chaos statistically moderated the link between non-supportive parental responses to emotion and child ER, but only at 6 years of age. The strength of the link between child ER and non-supportive parental responses to emotions was strong only at lower levels of household chaos. At the beginning of middle childhood, family processes linking parent responses to child emotions and children's developing ER may not function at higher levels of household chaos.

Creating "a Safe Haven": Emotion-Regulation Strategies Employed by Mothers and Young Children Exposed to Recurrent Political Violence

Growing evidence underscores the need to counteract the mental health risks for children growing up in traumatic situations of political violence. This study examined the concurrent emotional regulation (ER) strategies employed by mothers and their children in meeting this challenge. Following several incidents of rocket attacks, in southern Israel, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 mothers and their children (ages 5-7). Additionally, mothers completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross and John 2003). The main theme emerging from the qualitative analyses of the interviews with the children was adherence to the perception of the shelter room in the home as a "safe haven", supported by constructed knowledge and acquired skills related to physical safety, as well as the sense of emotional availability of their caregivers. The children used imagination, play and physiological regulation modeled by the mothers. The interviews with the mothers revealed their effort to convey a sense of calm and routine, even when these were interrupted. They used self-talk concerning the children's needs and tried to regulate their own physiological and psychological arousal. Mothers who expressed in the interviews satisfaction with the management of their ER reported significantly higher use of cognitive reappraisal strategies than those expressing dissatisfaction. Mothers help children construct meanings related to stressful events and teach and model evidence-based tactics for ER. Interventions for coping with a toxic reality should involve both psycho-education about children's needs and address mothers' own ER strategies, especially the use of cognitive reappraisal.

Early adversity and children's regulatory deficits: Does postadoption parenting facilitate recovery in postinstitutionalized children?

Children reared in orphanages typically experience the lack of stable, reliable caregivers and are at increased risk for deficits in regulatory abilities including difficulties in inhibitory control, attention, and emotion regulation. Although adoption results in a radical shift in caregiving quality, there remains variation in postadoption parenting, yet little research has examined postadoption parenting that may promote recovery in children experiencing early life adversity in the form of institutional care. Participants included 93 postinstitutionalized children adopted between 15 and 36 months of age and 52 nonadopted same-aged peers. Parenting was assessed four times during the first 2 years postadoption (at 2, 8, 16, and 24 months postadoption) and children's regulation was assessed at age 5 (M age = 61.68 months) and during kindergarten (M age = 71.55 months). Multiple parenting dimensions including sensitivity/responsiveness, structure/limit setting, and consistency in routines were examined. Both parental sensitivity and structure moderated the effect of preadoption adversity on children's emotion regulation while greater consistency was associated with better inhibitory control and fewer attention problems. Results support the notion that postadoption parenting during toddlerhood and the early preschool years promotes better regulation skills following early adversity.

An exploration of amygdala-prefrontal mechanisms in the intergenerational transmission of learned fear

Humans learn about their environments by observing others, including what to fear and what to trust. Observational fear learning may be especially important early in life when children turn to their parents to gather information about their world. Yet, the vast majority of empirical research on fear learning in youth has thus far focused on firsthand classical conditioning, which may fail to capture one of the primary means by which fears are acquired during development. To address this gap in the literature, the present study examined observational fear learning in youth (n = 33; age range: 6-17 years) as they watched videos of their parent and an "unfamiliar parent" (i.e., another participant's parent) undergo fear conditioning. Youth demonstrated stronger fear learning when observing their parent compared to an unfamiliar parent, as indicated by changes in their self-reported liking of the stimuli to which their parents were conditioned (CS+, a geometric shape paired with an aversive noise; CS-, a geometric shape never paired with an aversive noise) and amygdala responses. Parent trait anxiety was associated with youth learning better (i.e., reporting a stronger preference for the CS- relative to CS+), and exhibiting stronger medial prefrontal-amygdala connectivity. Neuroimaging data were additionally acquired from a subset of parents during firsthand conditioning, and parental amygdala and mPFC activation were associated with youth's neural recruitment. Together, these results suggest that youth preferentially learn fears via observation of their parents, and this learning is associated with emotional traits and neural recruitment in parents.

Are the Self-esteem, Self-efficacy, and Interpersonal Interaction of Junior College Students Related to the Solitude Capacity?

Background: Studies on the solitude capacity of university students have been extremely limited and failed to clearly illustrate the correlation of solitude capacity with internal psychological variables and the favorability of interpersonal relationships. The aim of this study was to explore the correlation of college students' solitude capacity with scores for self-esteem, self-efficacy, and interpersonal relationships. Method: A cross-sectional study was adopted for this study. Data were collected from a university in southern Taiwan using a structured questionnaire, the content of which included demographic data and scores from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE), the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), the Interpersonal Relationship Scale (IRS), and the Solitude Capacity Scale (SCS). Results: The final sample comprised 562 participants (mean age = 17.51 ± 1.27 years). Adjustment of the demographic variables yielded a significantly positive correlation in the total RSE and SCS (p < 0.01) scores and that in the total GSE and SCS (p < 0.01) scores. Moreover, the relationship with family (IRS subscale) and total SCS score (p < 0.05) exhibited a significant positive correlation. Conclusion: The findings of this study reveal that solitude capacity is significantly correlated with self-esteem, self-efficacy, and the favorability of family relationships.

Parent-child neural synchrony: a novel approach to elucidating dyadic correlates of preschool irritability

BACKGROUND

Research to date has largely conceptualized irritability in terms of intraindividual differences. However, the role of interpersonal dyadic processes has received little consideration. Nevertheless, difficulties in how parent-child dyads synchronize during interactions may be an important correlate of irritably in early childhood. Innovations in developmentally sensitive neuroimaging methods now enable the use of measures of neural synchrony to quantify synchronous responses in parent-child dyads and can help clarify the neural underpinnings of these difficulties. We introduce the Disruptive Behavior Diagnostic Observation Schedule: Biological Synchrony (DB-DOS:BioSync) as a paradigm for exploring parent-child neural synchrony as a potential biological mechanism for interpersonal difficulties in preschool psychopathology.

METHODS

Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) 4- to 5-year-olds (N = 116) and their mothers completed the DB-DOS:BioSync while assessing neural synchrony during mild frustration and recovery. Child irritability was measured using a latent irritability factor that was calculated from four developmentally sensitive indicators.

RESULTS

Both the mild frustration and the recovery contexts resulted in neural synchrony. However, less neural synchrony during the recovery context only was associated with more child irritability.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that recovering after a frustrating period might be particularly challenging for children high in irritability and offer support for the use of the DB-DOS:BioSync task to elucidate interpersonal neural mechanisms of developmental psychopathology.

Adolescents' perceptions of maternal response to negative affect predict emotional reactivity during mother-daughter interaction: A multi-modal assessment

Parental socialization of emotion consists of parental behaviors that scaffold child emotional reactivity and regulation. The current study examined whether adolescents' perceptions of their mothers' supportive versus non-supportive responses to negative emotions could predict adolescent emotional reactivity. Thirty adolescent girls (M_age  = 14.41 [1.55]) reported on how their mothers typically respond to their negative emotions and then completed a laboratory-based mother-adolescent interaction task. A multi-modal assessment of adolescent emotional reactivity during the interaction included adolescents' skin conductance levels (SCLs) and state anxiety, and mother-daughter interactions were behaviorally coded to assess how often dyads engaged in both negative and positive escalation (i.e., a pattern of negative or positive behavior of one partner being reciprocated by the other). Adolescents who reported that their mothers used more non-supportive responses to their negative emotion tended to exhibit higher SCL and engage in more negative escalation with their mothers during the interaction task. Furthermore, adolescents' SCL was positively correlated with both their state anxiety levels and negative escalation during the task. Together, these findings suggest that adolescents who perceive their mothers as less supportive of negative emotions are more likely to exhibit greater negative emotionality during parent-adolescent interaction, which may relate to risk for emotional disorders.

The Child and Parent Emotion Study: protocol for a longitudinal study of parent emotion socialisation and child socioemotional development

INTRODUCTION

Parents shape child emotional competence and mental health via their beliefs about children's emotions, emotion-related parenting, the emotional climate of the family and by modelling emotion regulation skills. However, much of the research evidence to date has been based on small samples with mothers of primary school-aged children. Further research is needed to elucidate the direction and timing of associations for mothers and fathers/partners across different stages of child development. The Child and Parent Emotion Study (CAPES) aims to examine longitudinal associations between parent emotion socialisation, child emotion regulation and socioemotional adjustment at four time points from pregnancy to age 12 years. CAPES will investigate the moderating role of parent gender, child temperament and gender, and family background.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

CAPES recruited 2063 current parents from six English-speaking countries of a child 0-9 years and 273 prospective parents (ie, women/their partners pregnant with their first child) in 2018-2019. Participants will complete a 20-30 min online survey at four time points 12 months apart, to be completed in December 2022. Measures include validated parent-report tools assessing parent emotion socialisation (ie, parent beliefs, the family emotional climate, supportive parenting and parent emotion regulation) and age-sensitive measures of child outcomes (ie, emotion regulation and socioemotional adjustment). Analyses will use mixed-effects regression to simultaneously assess associations over three time-point transitions (ie, T1 to T2; T2 to T3; T3 to T4), with exposure variables lagged to estimate how past factors predict outcomes 12 months later.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Ethics approval was granted by the Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee and the Deakin University Faculty of Health Human Research Ethics Committee. We will disseminate results through conferences and open access publications. We will invite parent end users to co-develop our dissemination strategy, and discuss the interpretation of key findings prior to publication.

TRIAL REGISTERATION

Protocol pre-registration: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/NGWUY.

Self-control in early childhood: Individual differences in sensitivity to early parenting

OBJECTIVE

This study extends existing research on the role of infant temperament as a moderator of the association between the quality of parent-child relationships and children's self-control during the pre-school years. In particular, we focus on the potential moderating role of a dimension of early infant temperament known as behavioral inhibition. Assumptions formulated within the diathesis-stress, the vantage-sensitivity, and the differential susceptibility models of individual differences in environmental sensitivity are tested.

METHOD

Data are from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of 18,552 infants born in the United Kingdom during 2000/01.

RESULTS

The results show that the quality of both mother-child and father-child relationships are associated with children's development of self-control in early childhood. Additionally, individual differences in infant temperament moderate the association between mother-child conflict and children's development of self-control. Specifically, high behavioral inhibition shows a vantage-sensitivity pattern for mother-child conflict.

CONCLUSIONS

Aspects of both mothers' and fathers' relationships with their young children independently predict variations in self-control. This study also provides an initial indication that behavioral inhibition, a temperamental trait best-known for being a risk factor for anxiety, may provide small benefits in relation to young children's self-control development.

Proximal Interpersonal Processes in Early Childhood, Socioemotional Capacities in Middle Childhood, and Behavioral and Social Adaptation in Early Adolescence: A Process Model toward Greater Specificity

Early proximal interpersonal processes in central microsystems have been widely linked to child subsequent adaptation. What remains sparse is research spanning multiple developmental stages and examining unique, relative implications of distinct early proximal interpersonal processes for child later adjustment in various domains and the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral mechanisms underlying such associations. Using NICHD SECCYD data, a process model was tested in which negativities and positivities in three early proximal interpersonal processes (i.e., mother-child, child care provider-child, and child care peer interactions at 6-36 months) were simultaneously linked to child internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and social relationship quality in early adolescence (6th grade) via child hostile attribution bias, emotion reactivity, and social skills in middle childhood (3rd grade). Social skills mediated the associations between positivities/negativities in early mother-child and peer interactions and later behavioral and social adaptation. Emotion reactivity was identified as a process via which negativities in early peer interactions predicted later behavioral problems. Maternal negativities were positively associated with hostile attribution biases, but such biases did not relate to later adaptation. We also identified a negative direct link between maternal positivities and later externalizing problems and a positive direct link between maternal positivities and later social relationship quality. No effects emerged for child care providers-child interactions. Improving early mother-child and peer interactions may promote adaptation in early adolescence. For children with poor early mother-child and peer interactions, training socioemotional capacities may be a way to diminish consequences of early negative interpersonal processes.

Role of maternal affect and regulatory strategies in toddlers' emotion and behavior regulation

Using a moment-to-moment multilevel approach, we examined the relative effectiveness of (a) toddlers' lagged (i.e., previous-interval) regulatory strategies and toddlers' lagged expression of negative emotion, as moderated by maternal affect, and (b) maternal lagged regulatory strategies, on toddlers' current-interval (1) expression of negative emotion, and, (2) ability to delay gratification during a wait task. Two-level random coefficient models, with twelve repeated-measurement occasions (10 s-intervals) of observed behaviors (N = 1571) nested within 134 mother-toddler dyads from low-income families (67 girls; M_age = 25.77 months, SD_age = 1.60) were examined. Cross-level interactions revealed that maternal positive affect buffered severity of toddlers' expression of negative emotion between lagged and current-intervals, while maternal negative affect disrupted toddlers' effective utilization of lagged regulatory strategies on current-interval expression of negative emotion. However, regardless of maternal affect, toddlers who displayed higher expression of negative emotion and utilized more regulatory strategies in lagged-intervals displayed greater delay of gratification in current-intervals. Also, as mothers displayed greater minimization of toddlers' emotional distress, higher physical restraint, and used fewer distractions, toddlers displayed more intense expression of negative emotion in subsequent intervals. Similarly, as mothers used higher physical restraint and fewer distractions, toddlers were less able to wait in subsequent intervals. Results illustrate the disruptive roles of maternal negative affect and unsupportive regulatory strategies on toddlers' emotion and behavior regulation. Together, these findings point to targeting maternal positive affect in combination with supportive regulatory strategies to promote toddlers' transition from external- to internal-regulation.

Maternal depressive symptoms, rumination, and child emotion regulation

Children of depressed mothers are at risk for maladaptive emotion regulation. This study examined a model of maternal rumination that links maternal depressive symptoms to child emotion regulation. A sample of 126 mother-child dyads (65 girls) participated in the current study, at three assessment points when children were age three, four, and five. At all assessment points, mothers reported their depressive symptoms and ruminative response style. Child emotion regulation was assessed observationally from two laboratory tasks, which were designed to elicit anger and sadness. Elevated maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher concurrent rumination. Maternal rumination at child age four predicted that more child focus on distress during sadness-eliciting tasks and less child active distraction during anger-eliciting tasks 1 year later. Additionally, maternal rumination at child age three and four predicted less child passive behaviors in anger-eliciting tasks prospectively. Findings suggest that maternal rumination is predictive of using maladaptive regulatory strategies among children of depressed mothers. This study has significant implications for intervention programs targeting depressed mothers and their children.

Firm parenting and youth adjustment: Stress reactivity and dyadic synchrony of respiratory sinus arrhythmia

Parental behaviors are potent risk and protective factors for youth development of externalizing problems. Firm control is a parenting strategy that is inconsistently linked to youth adjustment, possibly due to variations in individual biological contexts. Growing research shows that dyadic coregulation of the autonomic nervous system (e.g., parent-child physiological synchrony) is a neurobiological mechanism that links parenting to youth adjustment. However, physiological synchrony may be context-dependent (e.g., adaptive in positive interactions, maladaptive in negative interactions). We aimed to test the role of dyadic synchrony in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) during parent-child conflict as a mediator between parent firm control and youth's externalizing problems. To capture youth's stress reactivity, we also tested how galvanic skin response reactivity (GSR-R) moderated this indirect path. The sample included 101 dyads of low socioeconomic-status at-risk preadolescents and parents. Results indicated that youth higher levels of GSR-R significantly intensified the link between parent firm control and dyadic RSA synchrony during conflict. Dyadic RSA synchrony further predicted youth increased in externalizing problems. Overall, results suggest that when parents employ firm control parenting with highly reactive teens, dyadic RSA synchrony elevates, potentially modeling less optimal coping with conflict for the youth, which is associated with increased externalizing problems.

Depressive symptoms among adolescents in Georgia: the role of ethnicity, low self-control, parents, and peers

OBJECTIVES

The present study tested the role of low self-control, positive parental and peer relationships, and ethnic minority status (Armenian or Azeri), in explaining variability in depressive symptoms in Georgian youth.

METHODS

Self-report data were collected from N = 8254 adolescents in Georgia (55.5% female, M age = 15.57, SD 1.03). Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent constructs.

RESULTS

Low self-control significantly and positively predicted depressive symptoms, while perceived parental warmth did so negatively; peer friendship quality was unrelated. Ethnic minority status explained a very small amount of unique variance in depressive symptoms for Azeri youth only, not for Armenian adolescents. Multi-group SEM moderation tests provided evidence that the links between constructs were invariant across ethnic groups. The model explained 15.6% of variance in depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings support the salience of the tested depressive symptom correlates among Georgian adolescents, consistent with previous evidence from other countries. Adolescent ethnic minority status did not increase risk of depressive symptoms. Self-control emerged as the strongest correlate.