Findings, issues, and new directions for research on emotion socialization

Emotion regulation strategies and depression in mother-adolescent dyads: An actor-partner interdependence model approach

Parent-adolescent emotion dynamics have attracted increasing attention in recent years because adolescence is a challenging period for both adolescents and parents. However, how emotions are coconstructed between parents and adolescents is less clear. This study examined whether mothers' and adolescents' emotion regulation strategy was linked with their own and each other's depression using the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM). The participants were 173 mother-adolescent pairs (Mother: Mage = 43.05 years old, SD = 3.78; Adolescent: Mage = 13.00 years old, SD = 0.90). The results showed that the more mothers used cognitive reappraisal, the lower their depression levels were; and the more mothers and adolescents used expressive suppression, the higher their levels of depression were. Additionally, maternal expressive suppression was associated with adolescent depressive symptoms. Moreover, the results revealed that for mothers with higher levels of expressive suppression, their adolescents' usage of expressive suppression was significantly positively related to adolescents' depression, while for those mothers with lower levels of expressive suppression, there was no significant correlation between adolescents' usage of expressive suppression and depression. The findings underscore the significance of recognising the interdependence and interconnected nature of emotions within parent-adolescent relationships for a comprehensive understanding of their emotional well-being.

Up you get: Norwegian parents' reactions to children's negative emotions

INTRODUCTION

Developmental research suggests that children learn to regulate their emotions and behavior through a process of emotion socialization. The main body of literature is based on samples from the United States, and very little is known about the socialization of emotions in Nordic settings.

OBJECTIVES

The current study aimed to explore associations between mothers' and fathers' reactions to children's negative emotions and externalizing behavior problems in a Nordic cultural context, and to explore gender differences in these associations.

METHODS

Parent-report data on the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) and the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory 6 (ECBI) was collected in a large sample of Norwegian preschool-aged children (mothers, n = 242; fathers, n = 183; N = 257; M = 54 months, SD = 4.54; 49% boys). Teacher-report data was collected using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) conduct scale (n = 117).

RESULTS

Both parents' supportive and non-supportive reactions were associated with child externalizing difficulties in expected directions as evidenced by path models, controlling for socioeconomic status and age. A pattern emerged in which non-supportive reactions to a greater extent predicted an increase in externalizing problems in girls, and supportive reactions predicted lower levels of externalizing problems in boys.

CONCLUSION

Our findings supported the basic assumptions of emotion socialization theory in a Nordic cultural context in which parental supportive and non-supportive responses are related to child externalizing difficulties. Nordic parents are important socialization agents for their children, but their behaviors had a differential effect on boys' and girls' externalizing behavior problems.

Chinese Mothers' Reactions to Adolescents' Positive Emotions: Relations to Adolescents' Emotional Adjustment and Mothers' Socialization Goals

When adolescents have positive emotions, parents' reactions that enhance or dampen the intensity or duration of adolescents' emotions have been documented to play a critical role in adolescents' emotional adjustment in Western societies. These parental reactions are theorized to be culturally embedded parenting practices in the emotion socialization process. However, research is limited in examining the implications of parents' enhancing and dampening reactions for adolescents' emotional adjustment in non-Western societies. Moreover, it remains to be explored how these parental reactions might be guided by parents' culturally shaped socialization goals for adolescents, and further influence adolescents' adjustment. To address these key issues, a two-wave longitudinal study spanning approximately 1.5 years was conducted among adolescents in China (N = 233; Mage = 12.19 years, SD = 0.60; 48% girls). Based on adolescents' reports, it was found that Chinese mothers' enhancing reactions to adolescents' positive emotions, which were related to their greater endorsement of self-development socialization goals (i.e., wanting adolescents to develop confidence, autonomy, and uniqueness), predicted adolescents' increased emotional well-being (i.e., self-esteem, vitality, and experience of positive emotions) and decreased emotional ill-being (i.e., depression, anxiety and experience of negative emotions) over time. Contrastingly, mothers' dampening reactions to adolescents' positive emotions, which were related to their less endorsement of self-development and greater endorsement of filial piety socialization goals (i.e., wanting adolescents to respect and obey parents), predicted adolescents' decreased emotional well-being over time. The findings broaden the cultural understanding of parents' emotion-related socialization practices, and provide insights into practical endeavors at optimizing parents' reactions to adolescents' positive emotions in culturally sensitive ways and ultimately promoting adolescents' mental health.

Etch the Emotional Life: Mother-Child Emotion Socialization from Age 3 to 6 Years

Emotion socialization is conceptualized as a relational process, yet children's role in socializing parents' emotions is rarely considered. This study explored longitudinal patterns of mother-child emotion socialization from early to middle childhood. Participants were 349 children (51% boys, 49% girls) and their mothers from the southeastern United States. Children were 79.4% White, 12% Black or African American, and 8.3% multi-racial or other; 6.3% were Hispanic/Latino. Mother-child dyads completed an etch-a-sketch task when children were 3, 4, and 6 years old. At each time, mothers' and children's expression, coaching, and dismissing of positive and negative emotions were observed. Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses identified developmental trajectories and within-dyad associations of emotion coaching and dismissing with emotion expression. Over time, expression of positive emotions decreased and expression of negative emotions showed no change for both mothers and children. Mothers decreased in coaching children's positive emotions and showed no change in coaching children's negative emotions. Children increased in coaching mothers' positive emotions and showed no change in coaching mothers' negative emotions over time. Both mothers and children decreased in dismissing emotions over time. Within dyads, mothers' increases in coaching and in dismissing related to children's increased expression. Children's increases in coaching related to mothers' increased expression. Findings highlight complexity and dynamics of emotion socialization processes over time.

Family-Centered Early Intervention Deaf/Hard of Hearing (FCEI-DHH): Support Principles

This article is the sixth in a series of eight articles that comprise a special issue on Family-Centered Early Intervention (FCEI) for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and their families, or FCEI-DHH. The Support Principles article is the second of three articles that describe the 10 Principles of FCEI-DHH, preceded by the Foundation Principles, and followed by the Structure Principles, all in this special issue. The Support Principles are composed of four Principles (Principles 3, 4, 5, and 6) that highlight (a) the importance of a variety of supports for families raising children who are DHH; (b) the need to attend to and ensure the well-being of all children who are DHH; (c) the necessity of building the language and communication abilities of children who are DHH and their family members; and (d) the importance of considering the family's strengths, needs, and values in decision-making.

Caregiving relationships are a cornerstone of developmental psychopathology

The interdisciplinary field of developmental psychopathology has made great strides by including context into theoretical and empirical approaches to studying risk and resilience. Perhaps no context is more important to the developing child than their relationships with their caregivers (typically a child's parents), as caregivers are a key source of stimulation and nurturance to young children. Coupled with the high degree of brain plasticity in the earliest years of life, these caregiving relationships have an immense influence on shaping behavioral outcomes relevant to developmental psychopathology. In this article, we discuss three areas within caregiving relationships: (1) caregiver-child interactions in everyday, naturalistic settings; (2) caregivers' social cognitions about their child; and (3) caregivers' broader social and cultural context. For each area, we provide an overview of its significance to the field, identify existing knowledge gaps, and offer potential approaches for bridging these gaps to foster growth in the field. Lastly, given that one value of a scientific discipline is its ability to produce research useful in guiding real-world decisions related to policy and practice, we encourage developmental psychopathology to consider that a focus on caregiving, a modifiable target, supports this mission.

Longitudinal coupling of emotional wellbeing in parent-adolescent dyads: Evaluating the role of daily life positive affect socialization processes

This study evaluated the role of bidirectional micro- and macro- level positive affect-related processes in the longitudinal coupling of depressive symptoms in parent-adolescent dyads. Using a measurement-burst design, including dyadic experience sampling methods (ESM) and monthly follow-ups over one year, this work investigated associations between (1) parental depressive symptoms and anhedonia and parental daily-life enhancing and dampening responses to youth positive affect; (2) parental daily-life enhancing and dampening and trajectories of youth positive affect, negative affect, and depressive symptoms across one year; and (3) youth developmental trajectories and prospective parental daily-life enhancing and dampening, and parental depressive symptoms and anhedonia at one-year follow-up. Participants included 146 early adolescents (52.1% girls, 47.9% boys; Mage[SD] = 12.71[.86]) and 139 parents (78.7% mothers; Mage[SD] = 44.11[5.08]). Parental enhancing and dampening were measured using a dyadic ESM procedure at baseline and 12-months. Youth completed monthtly questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms and trait positive and negative affect across 12 months. Parents reported on depressive symptoms and anhedonia at baseline and 12-months. Results showed that parental anhedonia negatively related to parental daily-life enhancing, and youths' perceptions of their parents' enhancing and dampening reciprocally related to youth emotional development across one year, with downstream implications for parents' own symptoms of depression.

Stress and emotion recognition predict the relationship between a history of maltreatment and sensitive parenting behaviors: A moderated-moderation

Our study proposes to examine how stress and emotion recognition interact with a history of maltreatment to influence sensitive parenting behaviors. A sample of 58 mothers and their children aged between 2 and 5 years old were recruited. Parents' history of maltreatment was measured using the Child Trauma Questionnaire. An emotion recognition task was performed. Mothers identified the dominant emotion in morphed facial emotion expressions in children. Mothers and children interacted for 15 minutes. Salivary cortisol levels of mothers were collected before and after the interaction. Maternal sensitive behaviors were coded during the interaction using the Coding Interactive Behavior scheme. Results indicate that the severity of childhood maltreatment is related to less sensitive behaviors for mothers with average to good abilities in emotion recognition and lower to average increases in cortisol levels following an interaction with their children. For mothers with higher cortisol levels, there is no association between a history of maltreatment and sensitive behaviors, indicating that higher stress reactivity could act as a protective factor. Our study highlights the complex interaction between individual characteristics and environmental factors when it comes to parenting. These results argue for targeted interventions that address personal trauma.

Parent and Friend Emotion Socialization in Early Adolescence: Their Unique and Interactive Contributions to Emotion Regulation Ability

During early adolescence, parental influence diminishes, whereas friends' influence increases in shaping emotion regulation abilities. However, it is unclear how parents and friends jointly contribute to emotion regulation abilities and how their joint effects vary by gender. This study examines fathers, mothers, and friends as simultaneous emotional socializers and considers the young adolescents' gender. The analysis drew on 438 young Chinese adolescents (55.7% girls, Mage = 11.39, SD = 1.28) who participated in a longitudinal survey over one year. Results showed that parental and friend emotion socialization have both distinct and joint effects. Friends' responses provided a unique contribution to emotion regulation abilities across gender, whereas parents' responses displayed unique contributions among girls. In predicting girls' emotion regulation abilities, mothers' supportive responses explained the additional variance beyond friends' responses, whereas fathers' unsupportive responses moderated the predictive power of friends' responses. These findings clarify emotion-related socialization theories and emphasize the importance of gender specific prevention programs focusing on emotion socialization from both parents and friends in early adolescence.

Associations Between Adult Attachment, Maternal Emotion Socialization and Child Behavior

BACKGROUND

Attachment theories suggest that the adult attachment styles of mothers may influence behavior problems among their children; however, empirical studies examining the direct role of maternal adult attachment styles and the mechanisms through emotion-related parenting are scarce.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the influence of maternal adult attachment styles and emotion-related parenting on child internalizing and externalizing problems.

METHODS

The participants were 409 mothers with children aged 4-5 years. A questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain their adult attachment styles to their mothers, maternal emotion socialization, and their children's behavior problems.

RESULTS

The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) analyses revealed that maternal adult attachment influenced child behavior problems directly and indirectly through maternal emotion socialization. (1) Maternal attachment anxiety directly affected child externalizing problems, and indirectly affected them via mothers' higher unsupportive emotion socialization (dismissing and dysfunction). Moreover, attachment anxiety influenced child internalizing problems directly, and indirectly via mothers' higher unsupportive emotion socialization (dysfunction). (2) Furthermore, attachment avoidance indirectly impacted child externalizing problems via mothers' lower supportive emotion socialization (coaching).

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggested that maternal adult attachment styles and emotion-related parenting have important implications for the development of child behaviors. Future interventions should target parental factors to mitigate the risk of behavior problems among preschoolers.

Emotional Dysregulation Mediates the Association Between Unsupportive Maternal Socialization Strategies of Overjoy and Psychopathological Symptoms in Adolescent Boys but not Girls

Mothers play an important role in the emotion socialization of their teenage children, with implications for psychological adjustment. However, studies on maternal socialization of positive emotions in adolescence are still scarce and inconclusive. In this study, we aim to deepen our understanding on the association between unsupportive maternal socialization strategies of overjoy and internalization but also externalization symptoms as mediated by emotion dysregulation, and moderated by adolescents' gender. The study was conducted with 418 adolescents (M age = 14.75; 57.7% girls). Moderated mediation analysis indicated the effect of punishment and override of overjoy on internalization (punishment: b = 1.38, 95% CI [0.63, 2.31]; override: b = 1.36, 95% CI [0.59, 2.31]) and externalization (punishment: b = 0.71, 95% CI [0.20, 1.34]; override: b = 0.77, 95% CI [0.26, 1.46]) was mediated by emotional dysregulation in the case of boys. Contrary to expectations, for girls this effect was not found, indicating that further analysis are required.

Development and validation of a scale assessing parental varied responses to Chinese adolescents' negative emotions

OBJECTIVES

Parental responses to children's negative emotions (PRCNE) constitute a critical construct in the study of emotion socialization in children and adolescents. The objective of this research was to develop and validate a concise scale for assessing how adolescents perceive PRCNE in a Chinese context, resulting in the creation of the parental varied responses to Chinese adolescents' negative emotions (PVRCANE) scale. The PVRCANE aims to evaluate seven forms of PRCNE, including the six types encompassed by the commonly used Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale-Adolescent Version (CCNES-AV), as well as an additional, culturally specific category frequently seen in Chinese families: didactic talk and teaching.

METHODS

In Study 1, a group of participants (N = 901, Mage  = 13.39 years, SD = 0.92) completed the initial PVRCANE and the CCNES-Adolescent Version. In Study 2: A separate group of participants (N = 320, Mage  = 13.54 years, SD = 0.57) filled in PVRCANE and scales evaluating parental socialization goals and adolescents' depressive symptoms.

RESULTS

In Study 1, factor analyses showed that a four-factor structure best fit the data, leading to the final version of the PVRCANE, which includes 35 items. PVRCANE scores exhibited good internal consistency (Omega > 0.79) and convergent validity, demonstrated by their close correlation with traditional CCNES scores. Study 2 confirmed the PVRCANE's measurement invariance for both male and female parents and demonstrated criterion validity by showing significant relationships between PVRCANE scores, parental socialization goals, and adolescents' symptoms of depression.

CONCLUSION

The PVRCANE is a brief, valid, and reliable scale for assessing PRCNE in Chinese adolescents. The study concludes with a discussion on future directions and how this research enhances the existing literature on emotion socialization, with a particular emphasis on the scale's potential application in other cultural settings.

Maternal supportive responses to adolescents' negative emotions serve as protective factors for adolescents' hostile attribution bias longitudinally

Existing literature has documented that parenting links to children's hostile attribution biases (HAB). However, little is known about the role played by parental emotion socialization in children's HAB. To address this research gap, the present study investigated the role of parental responses to children's negative emotions (PRCNE) in predicting adolescents' HAB using a longitudinal study. Adolescents (N = 203; Mage  = 13.61 years old at Time 1), who were recruited from a city in mainland China, reported on their mothers' PRCNE and their own HAB at two waves over a year. The results showed that mothers' supportive responses (composed of emotion-focused responses and problem-focused responses) significantly predicted adolescents' reduced HAB over time; however, PRCNE including expressive encouragement, minimization, and nonsupportive responses (composed of punitive responses and parental distress) had no significant relation with adolescents' HAB. These findings add to the existing literature investigating antecedents to adolescents' social information processing deficits and biases.

Prospective within-family bidirectional effects between parental emotion socialization practices and Chinese adolescents' psychosocial adjustment

Previous research indicates that parental emotion socialization (ES) practices play important roles in adolescents' social and emotional development. However, longitudinal studies testing bidirectional effects are relatively scarce. Additionally, most studies have focused on people from Western societies. In the current 3-year, multi-informant, longitudinal study of Chinese adolescents and their parents, we investigated prospective bidirectional effects between parental positive ES practices and adolescents' psychosocial adjustment (i.e., self-esteem and depressive symptoms). Adolescents (N = 710 at T1, 50% boys, Mage = 12.41, SD = 0.59) reported on parental positive ES practices and their own depressive symptoms and self-esteem when they were in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. Mothers and fathers reported on their own use of positive ES practices at all three time points. We utilized a random intercept cross-lagged panel model to examine between- and within-family effects. Overall results showed robust effects of adolescent depressive symptoms on parental positive ES practices and bidirectional effects between parental ES and adolescent self-esteem. Effects differed by informants whether using adolescent-perceived data, or mother- or father-reported data. However, these child effects and bidirectional effects did not differ by adolescent sex. Our findings add to the understanding of parental ES and adolescent psychosocial adjustment.

Do Emotion Regulation Strategies Mediate the Relationship of Parental Emotion Socialization with Adolescent and Emerging Adult Psychological Distress?

A child's ability to cope with stress is shaped by experiences in a parent-child relationship. In this study, the direct effect of a parent's response to anger and happiness in childhood on adolescents' and emerging adults' psychological distress and the indirect effect through the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies-specifically, cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression-were measured. To achieve our research aim, we tested four parallel mediation models using the bootstrapping method. A group of 497 participants aged between 14 and 35 years (M = 18.62; SD = 3.32), 66% female (n = 332) and 34% male (n = 165), completed a questionnaire comprising self-reporting measures. The results indicate direct effects between emotion socialization and distress for seven independent variables. The mother's and father's positive responses to anger and happiness are significant negative predictors of distress; the negative responses of both parents to happiness, and the mother's negative response to anger-but not the father's-are significant positive predictors of distress. The findings also provide support for the mediating role of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal for the mother's positive response to both anger and happiness, as well as for the mother's negative response to the child's expression of happiness. None of the father's responses-positive or negative, in relation to anger or happiness-are mediated by emotion regulation strategies in relation to distress. Our findings have practical implication for a preventative intervention program focused on the psychological growth of adolescents by adaptative emotional responses.

The Future of Affective Science: Introduction to the Special Issue

Modern affective science-the empirical study of emotional responding and affective experience-has been active for a half-century. The Future of Affective Science special issue considers the history of this field and proposes new directions for the decades ahead. Contributors represent diverse theoretical perspectives, methodological expertise, and domains of study, and the special issue includes both literature reviews and new empirical studies as illustrations. This introductory article synthesizes the contributions, articulating the broader context of the current status of our field and highlighting common themes across articles as well as gaps notable even in this special issue. Sections of the article address theoretical and conceptual issues, research methodology, the questions we ask, and translation of basic affective science to applied domains. We conclude that much has been learned from the first 50 years of affective science, and it is now time for new theories, new research questions, and innovative methods for the decades ahead.

A person-based approach to emotion socialization in toddlerhood: Individual differences in maternal emotion regulation, mental-health and parental sense of competence

Mothers adopt various emotion socialization strategies and sometimes exhibit contradictory responses. Thus, it is essential to understand how mothers differentiate in their use of emotion socialization strategies, and whether a set of emotion socialization responses is associated with individual differences in emotion regulation, mental health, and parental sense of competence during toddlerhood. Therefore, we used a person-centred approach to identify mothers' emotion socialization responses and then compared mothers based on the aforementioned characteristics. The mothers (N = 680) with toddlers (M = 23.56 months) responded to the Coping with Toddlers' Negative Emotions Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Brief Symptom Inventory, and the Parental Sense of Competence Scale. The 3-profile-solution revealed: Unspecified (moderate scores in all emotion socialization strategies), supportive (high scores in supportive emotion socialization strategies) and mixture profiles (high in all emotion socialization strategies). The supportive and mixture profiles scored highly in cognitive reappraisal. Unspecified and mixture profiles did not vary in expressive suppression and mental health symptoms, but they scored lower than supportive profile mothers. In the parental sense of competence, the supportive profile scored higher than the mixture profile. The results showed mothers mainly using supportive emotion socialization strategies can demonstrate adequate emotion regulation and benefit from psychological well-being that potentially boosts parenting competence.

Mothers' emotional expressivity in urban and rural societies: Salience and links with young adolescents' emotional wellbeing and expressivity

This research aims to investigate the salience of mothers' emotional expressivity and its links with adolescents' emotional wellbeing and expressivity in an urban society endorsing more individualism and a rural society ascribing to more collectivism. By comparing Chinese urban (N = 283, M age = 14.13) and rural (N = 247, M age = 14.09) adolescents, this research found that urban mothers' expression of positive-dominant and positive-submissive emotions (PD and PS) were more common while expression of negative-dominant (ND) emotions was less common than rural mothers'. PD and PS had significant links with urban and rural adolescents' increased emotional expressivity and self-esteem, however, only significantly related to urban adolescents' decreased depression but not with rural adolescents'. ND had significant links with both urban and rural adolescents' expression of negative emotions, however, only significantly correlated with urban adolescents' less level of self-esteem and rural adolescents' more expression of positive emotions. No significant difference was found in the salience of urban and rural mothers' expression of negative-submissive (NS) emotions, which positively related to both urban and rural adolescents' depression and emotional expressivity. Moreover, we found that adolescents' emotional wellbeing (i.e., self-esteem and depression) mediated the relationship between mothers' emotional expressivity and adolescents' expressivity in both societies. Overall, the study findings document that the salience of mothers' emotional expressivity and its relations with adolescents' emotional adjustment differ between urban and rural societies.

Maternal negative affect moderates behavioral and physiological synchrony in Latinx and Black mother-child dyads

Positive behavioral synchrony (PBS) between mothers and children involves the bidirectional exchange of verbal and nonverbal communication. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) synchrony reflects the concordance between mother-child physiological states. Both PBS and RSA synchrony can be undermined by psychopathology symptoms. Latinx and Black families may experience contextual stressors that contribute to heightened symptoms of psychopathology, yet minimal research has examined relations between psychopathology symptoms with PBS and RSA synchrony in these families. The present study assessed associations between maternal depressive and child internalizing symptoms, mother and child negative affect (NA), and PBS and RSA synchrony in a sample of 100 Latina and Black mothers (M_age  = 34.48 years, SD = 6.39 years) and their children (M_age  = 6.83 years, SD = 1.50 years). Dyads engaged in a video-recorded stress task where RSA was collected continuously. Videos were later coded for PBS and mother and child NA. Mothers reported on their depressive and child's internalizing symptoms. Maternal NA was associated with weak PBS and negative RSA synchrony. Neither depressive and internalizing symptoms nor child NA were associated with PBS or RSA synchrony. Results highlight the potency of maternal NA on behavioral and physiological synchrony in Latinx and Black families.

Intergenerational effects of childhood maltreatment: The relationships among parental childhood emotional neglect, emotional expressiveness and children's problem behaviors

BACKGROUND

Childhood maltreatment has a severe impact on both the health and parenting styles of abused individuals in adulthood, and it even has a negative impact on the offspring of abused individuals. Although studies have confirmed the intergenerational effects of childhood maltreatment, relatively few have emphasized emotional neglect and its mechanism of intergenerational effects. Additionally, few studies have examined the unique role of fathers and how mothers and fathers interact with one another.

OBJECTIVE

The current study aimed to employ the actor-partner interdependence mediation model to investigate the relationship between parental childhood emotional neglect and children's problem behaviors, as well as whether parents' positive and negative emotional expressiveness plays a mediating role.

METHODS, PARTICIPANTS, AND SETTING

In total, 397 dyads of mothers and fathers of children aged 6-9 were recruited and reported their childhood emotional neglect experience and emotional expressiveness, and mothers also rated their children's problem behaviors.

RESULTS

The findings revealed that (a) maternal childhood emotional neglect was associated solely with mothers' own negative emotional expressiveness, followed by their children's problem behavior and (b) paternal childhood emotional neglect showed no effect on children's problem behavior through fathers' own or their spouses' positive and negative emotional expressiveness.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study suggest that childhood emotional neglect has intergenerational effects and that mothers' parenting behaviors are relatively important in preventing adverse effects on their children.

A Dynamic Systems Analysis of Dyadic Flexibility and Shared Affect in Preschoolers with and Without Major Depressive Disorder

Preschool onset Major Depressive Disorder (PO-MDD) is a severe disorder often leading to chronic impairment and poor outcomes across development. Recent work suggests that the caregiver-child relationship may contribute to PO-MDD symptoms partially through disrupted caregiver-child interactions. The current study uses a dynamic systems approach to investigate whether co-regulation patterns in a dyad with a child experiencing PO-MDD differ from dyads with a child without the disorder. Preschoolers between the ages of 3-7 years-old (N = 215; M(SD) = 5.22(1.06); 35% girls; 77% white) were recruited for a randomized controlled trial of an adapted version of parent-child interaction therapy. An additional sample (N = 50; M(SD) = 5.17(.84)' 34% girls; 76% white) was recruited as a control group. Dyads completed two interactive tasks and affect was coded throughout the interaction. State Space Grids (SSG) were used to derive measures of dyadic affective flexibility (i.e., affective variability in dyadic interactions) and shared affect. PO-MDD dyads did not differ from controls in dyadic affective flexibility. However, there were significant differences in shared positive and neutral affect. PO-MDD dyads spent less time and had fewer instances of shared positive affect and spent more time and had more instances of shared neutral affect than the community control group. These comparisons survived multiple comparisons correction. There were no differences for shared negative affect. Findings suggest that children experiencing PO-MDD have differing dyadic affective experiences with their caregivers than healthy developing children, which may be a mechanism through which depressive states are reinforced and could be targeted for treatment.

Parent-Child Discrepancies in Perceived Parental Emotion Socialization: Associations with Children's Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Chinese Families

Parental emotion socialization is highly associated with children's internalizing and externalizing problems. However, research on parent-child discrepancies in parental emotion socialization perceptions and their relationship with children's developmental outcomes remains limited. This study explores the relationship between parent-child discrepancies in their reports of parental emotion socialization and children's internalizing/externalizing problems in Chinese families. The participants were 390 children (55% girls, M_age = 11.70 years, SD_age = 1.17) and their primary caregivers (68% mother, M_age = 39.52 years, SD_age = 5.23). A latent profile analysis identified three profiles of parent-child discrepancies in supportive parental emotion socialization and four profiles in non-supportive parental emotion socialization. Children with more negative perceptions of parental emotion socialization than their parents exhibited the most internalizing and externalizing problems. The parent-child perception difference of the supportive dimension connected to internalizing and externalizing problems, while the perception difference of the non-supportive dimension connected only to internalizing problems. These findings advocate for the conceptualization of perceptions of parent-child discrepancies within family dynamics, which may predict children's developmental outcomes.

Conceptualizing the Role of Parent and Child Emotion Regulation in the Treatment of Early-Onset Behavior Disorders: Theory, Research, and Future Directions

Behavior disorders (BDs) are common and costly, making prevention and early-intervention a clinical and public health imperative. Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is the standard of care for early-onset (3-8 years old) BDs, yet effect sizes vary and wane with time suggesting the role of underlying factors accounting for variability in outcomes. The literature on emotion regulation (ER), which has been proposed as one such underlying factor, is reviewed here, including a brief overview of ER, theory and research linking ER, externalizing symptoms, and/or BDs, and still largely preliminary work exploring the role of parent and child ER in BPT outcomes. Research to date provides clues regarding the interrelationship of ER, BDs, and BPT; yet, determining whether adaptations to BPT targeting ER are necessary or useful, for whom such adaptations would be most important, and how those adaptations would be implemented requires addressing mixed findings and methodological limitations. To guide such work, we propose a conceptual model elucidating how standard BPT may impact ER and processes linked to ER, which we believe will be useful in organizing and advancing both basic and applied research in future work.

Supportive Emotion Socialization Mitigates Risk Between Maternal Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Preschooler Emotion Regulation

Few studies have examined protective maternal factors that may mitigate the intergenerational transmission of risk of maternal emotion regulation difficulties on child outcomes. The current study tested whether supportive maternal emotion socialization moderated the association between maternal emotion regulation difficulties and child emotion regulation behaviors. Participants were 68 mother-preschooler (aged 36-60 months) dyads that were oversampled for maternal symptoms of borderline personality disorder, in order to achieve greater variability in the range of maternal emotion regulation difficulties. Maternal emotion regulation difficulties and supportive emotion socialization behaviors were measured using self-report questionnaires, and child emotion regulation was coded during a frustration-eliciting blocked goal task. Results partially supported study hypotheses, such that trait maternal emotion regulation difficulties were associated with child displays of sadness at low levels of supportive maternal emotion socialization, but not when mothers engaged in higher levels of supportive emotion socialization. These findings suggest that maternal emotion regulation and emotion socialization are distinctly related to child emotion expression and regulatory actions, and that adaptive maternal emotion socialization may mitigate some of the adverse transgenerational impacts of impaired emotion regulation.

Emotion socialization parenting interventions targeting emotional competence in young children: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND

Although emotion socialization parenting interventions are supported by a growing body of literature, their effects have yet to be systematically examined. The present systematic review and meta-analysis assesses the evidence for emotion socialization parenting interventions for parents of young children.

METHODS

Six electronic databases were systematically searched from inception to October 5th, 2022. We conducted random effects meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of emotion socialization interventions delivered to parents of children aged 18 months to 6 years 11 months.

RESULTS

Twenty-six studies which reported data from 15 individual trials met the inclusion criteria. Interventions had a positive effect on positive and negative emotion socialization parenting practices (g's = 0.50) and child emotional competence (g = 0.44). Interventions also had a positive effect on positive (g = 0.74) and negative parenting behaviors (g = 0.25), parent psychological well-being (g = 0.28), and child behavioral adjustment (g = 0.34). Findings remained significant after considering potential publication bias and conducting sensitivity analyses. Two significant moderating factors emerged.

CONCLUSIONS

Emotion socialization parenting interventions are effective for improving emotion socialization parenting practices and child emotional competence. Additional methodologically rigorous trials are needed to buttress the current evidence and provide evidence for additional moderating factors.

Commonality and Specificity in Chinese Parental Emotion Socialization and Adolescents' Psychological Functioning: A Bifactor Approach

Understanding of the conceptual relations among different parental emotion socialization processes (i.e., whether and how they are distinct or share common components) and their developmental implications for adolescents is limited, especially within Asian cultural contexts. Guided by the parental emotion socialization framework, this study aimed to: (1) investigate a conceptual model that delineates general and specific components in parental emotion socialization with both adolescents and parents within a contemporary Asian cultural context-Beijing, China, and (2) examine whether the common and specific processes predicted adolescents' psychological functioning six months later for both informants. Participants included 1486 Chinese adolescents (M_age = 15.11 years; 52.6% males) and their primary caregivers (M_age = 44.93 years; 44.9% males). Both adolescents and parents self-reported on parental emotion socialization and adolescents completed a measure of their psychological functioning at two time-points. We evaluated the fit of one-factor, first-order factor, and bifactor models for both informants separately. Results indicated a good fit of the bifactor model with a proposed general factor of parent meta-emotion philosophy and specific factors of parental reaction and emotional expressivity, with partial factorial invariance of the parental reaction factor across informants. The common and specific factors uniquely predicted adolescents' psychological functioning. Findings inform the parental emotion socialization framework, particularly our conceptual understanding of the different processes with Asian samples, and have practical implications for the design and implementation of comprehensive and culturally relevant parenting interventions in support of adolescent psychological functioning.

Inclusive Socialization? The Relationships between Parents' and Their Child's Attitudes toward Students with Disabilities

Promoting social and school inclusion of children with disabilities has been associated with their health-related quality of life. This study aimed to analyze the connection between parents and children's attitudes toward disabilities as one factor contributing to the inclusion and well-being of individuals with disabilities. Three types of disabilities-i.e., attitudes toward a child with a sensory disability (hearing), a child with an intellectual disability (Down syndrome), and a child with problems with aggressiveness and angry outbursts (behavioral problems)-were examined. A sample of 598 White Italian elementary school students (303 boys and 295 girls) aged 6 to 11 years 33tudes toward students with disabilities, rather than each parent's attitude, contributed to a better understanding of the child's attitudes toward students with disabilities. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Pathways from Maternal Harsh Discipline Through Rumination to Anxiety and Depression Symptoms: Gender and Normativeness of Harsh Discipline as Moderators

This study examined gender-specific longitudinal pathways from harsh parenting through rumination to anxiety and depression symptoms among early adolescents from three countries and six subgroups. Participants were 567 mothers, 428 fathers, and 566 children (T1: Mage = 10.89; 50% girls) from Medellín, Colombia (n = 100); Naples, Italy (n = 95); Rome, Italy (n = 99); Durham, North Carolina, United States (Black n = 92, Latinx n = 80, and White n = 100). Parent reported maternal and paternal harsh parenting were measured at T1. Adolescent reported rumination was measured at T2 (Mage = 12.58) and anxiety and depression symptoms were measured at T1 and T3 (Mage = 13.71). Rumination mediated the pathway from maternal harsh discipline to girls' anxiety and depression symptoms, controlling for baseline anxiety and depression symptoms. The more harsh discipline mothers used, the more their daughters ruminated, which in turn was associated with increased anxiety and depression symptoms. Exploratory moderated mediation analyses indicated that the strength of the mediational pathway from maternal harsh discipline through girls' rumination to anxiety and depression symptoms decreased as the normativeness of harsh parenting increased. Mediational pathways for boys and for paternal harsh discipline were not significant. Our findings expand knowledge on specific contexts in which rumination is a mechanism for understanding pathways to anxiety and depression symptoms.

Neural Activity and Emotion Socialization as Predictors of Later Emotion Regulation Difficulties in Children With and Without Hyperactivity/Impulsivity

OBJECTIVE

This study examined emotion socialization and neural activity during frustration as predictors of emotion regulation (ER) difficulties, and the interplay of emotion socialization and neural activity, in children with and without hyperactivity/impulsivity (H/I).

METHOD

At Time 1, neural activity (P1, N2, P3) during a frustration task, H/I symptoms, and emotion socialization were assessed in 68 children (aged 4-7 years old). At Time 2 (1.5-2 years later), child-report, maternal-report, and observation measures of ER difficulties were assessed.

RESULTS

H/I symptoms moderated the relation between predictors and ER difficulties; there were significant relations for children with high, but not low, levels of H/I. Further, as emotion socialization quality increased, relations between event-related potentials and later ER difficulties became weaker.

CONCLUSION

The processes underlying ER difficulties differ for children with H/I symptoms. High quality emotion socialization may have a protective effect for children whose neural patterns indicate risk for later ER difficulties.

Children's oppositional defiant disorder symptoms make parents difficult to be nice: Longitudinal association among parent emotion regulation, child emotion regulation and children's oppositional defiant disorder symptoms in Chinese children with oppositional defiant disorder

The current study aims to clarify the longitudinal relations among parent emotion regulation (ER), child ER, and children's oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms. In the current study, parents of 275 children (195 boys, 70.1%) with ODD symptoms (M_age = 9.32 years, SD = 1.64) reported their ER using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, child ERs using the Emotion Regulation Checklist, and children's ODD symptoms using the eight symptoms indicated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) at three time points (T1, T2, and T3) within 2 years. Results indicated the longitudinal relationships between parent ER and children's ODD symptoms were directly influenced by each other. Children's ODD symptoms had important effects on both child ER and parent ER. Findings suggested that to reduce children's ODD symptoms, it is necessary not only to improve child ER but also to improve parent ER.

The Influence of Parents on Emotion Regulation in Middle Childhood: A Systematic Review

Emotion regulation (ER) has been identified as a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology, making it an ideal target for prevention and treatment. This study explores how parents can nurture the development of child ER. In April 2022, a systematic review was executed focusing on malleable factors in the parental emotion-socialization process during middle childhood. Papers in PubMed, Web of Science and Medline were screened on content-related and methodological criteria. Their methodological quality was assessed. Knowledge was assembled using a summarizing framework encompassing four factors involved in emotion socialization. Fifty papers shed light on modifiable factors at the level of parental meta-emotion philosophy, emotion-related socialization behaviors, the ER skills of parents and the emotional climate of the family. Adaptive socialization appears to be context- and child-specific, thereby taxing parents’ ER skills and their ability to put them into practice flexibly. The four changeable factors in the emotion-socialization process are highly intertwined, resulting in four possible entries for parent-directed interventions. Importantly, time should be devoted to the ER capacities of parents and their ability to attune to the situation and their child. Regarding the latter, replication studies are necessary. Recommendations for clinical interventions are provided.

Child internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic among maltreating and non-maltreating families: Examining the effects of family resources and the Reminiscing and Emotion Training intervention

BACKGROUND

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on child functioning have been especially pronounced among low-income families. Protective factors, including sensitive reminiscing and sufficient family resources, may reduce the negative effects of the pandemic on child adjustment.

OBJECTIVE

The current study investigated how family resources during the pandemic, race, maltreatment, and pre-pandemic involvement in an emotion socialization intervention (M_{years ago} = 4.37, SD = 1.36) were associated with child internalizing symptoms during the pandemic.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

The study utilized longitudinal data following 137 maltreating and low-income nonmaltreating mother-child dyads (M_age = 9.08, SD = 1.88; 54.7% Male).

METHODS

Mother-child dyads engaged in a randomized controlled trial of the Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET; Valentino et al., 2019) intervention prior to the pandemic. Dyads discussed shared, past emotional experiences, and during the pandemic, mothers reported on their family resources and their child's internalizing symptoms. A path analysis examined the effects of family resources, race, maltreatment, and the RET intervention on child internalizing symptoms.

RESULTS

Family resources during the pandemic were significantly and inversely associated with child internalizing symptoms, b = -0.07, SE = 0.02, p < .01. There was a significant indirect effect of RET on child internalizing symptoms through sensitive reminiscing and a prior assessment of child maladjustment (95% CI [-0.294, -0.001]).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest adequate family resources and sensitive maternal emotion socialization may be protective against child internalizing symptoms during the pandemic.

Patterns of Parental Reactions to Their Children's Negative Emotions: A Cluster Analysis with a Clinical Sample

Parents’ emotion socialization practices are an important source of influence in the development of children’s emotional competencies This study examined parental reactions to child negative emotions in a clinical sample using a cluster analysis approach and explored the associations between clusters of parents’ reactions and children’s and parents’ adjustment. The sample comprised 80 parents of Portuguese children (aged 3–13 years) attending a child and adolescent psychiatry unit. Measures to assess parental reactions to children’s negative emotions, parents’ psychopathological symptoms, parents’ emotion dysregulation, and children’s adjustment were administered to parents. Model-based cluster analysis resulted in three clusters: low unsupportive, high supportive, and inconsistent reactions clusters. These clusters differed significantly in terms of parents’ psychopathological symptoms, emotion dysregulation, and children’s adjustment. A pattern characterized by high supportive reactions to the child’s emotions was associated with higher levels of children’s adjustment. On the other hand, an inconsistent reactions pattern was associated with the worst indicators of children’s adjustment and parental emotion dysregulation. These results suggest the importance of supporting parents of children with emotional and behavioural problems so that they can be more responsive to their children’s emotional manifestations.

It's not always binary: Connecting the continuum of caregiver depression with child adjustment in children who are high risk for maltreatment

BACKGROUND

Young children living with a depressed parent are at risk for developing social, behavioral, and emotional problems. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an increase in subclinical caregiver depression scores was associated with increases in internalizing and externalizing behavior in children who are at high risk for maltreatment.

METHODS

The 1019 U.S.-based dyads consisted of predominantly single (45.53%) and Black/African American (53.29%) caregivers and high-risk 4-year-olds from the LONGSCAN study. Multivariate regression analyzes were used to evaluate the relationship between caregiver Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scores, above and below the at-risk for depression CES-D score, and preschooler internalizing, externalizing, and total problem behaviors, measured with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).

RESULTS

Caregiver CES-D score increases, above and below the at-risk for depression score, were significantly associated (p < 0.05) with increased child internalizing, externalizing, and total problem behaviors. After adjusting for covariates, among dyads whose caregivers had subclinical (CES-D < 16) scores, a one-unit score increase was significantly associated with a 0.43 increase (p = 0.00) in children's CBCL internalizing score.

LIMITATIONS

These findings are restricted to preschool children who are at risk for maltreatment, limiting generalizability.

CONCLUSIONS

Low and moderate levels of caregiver depressive symptomatology were associated with a negative influence on preschoolers' adjustment. Practitioners should consider that the link between caregiver depression and child wellbeing may lie on a continuum. With consideration of the full continuum of symptoms, early intervention and anticipatory guidance may decrease the impact of depression on the caregiver, child, and system.

The Apple Doesn't "Feel" Far From the Tree: Mother-Child Socialization of Intergroup Empathy

Like adults, children experience less empathy toward some groups compared with others. In this investigation, we propose that mothers differ in how much empathy they want their children to feel toward specific outgroups, depending on their political ideology. We suggest that how mothers want their children to feel (i.e., the motivation for their child's empathy), in turn, is correlated with children's actual experience of empathy toward the outgroup. Across four studies in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (N_Total = 734), the degree of empathy mothers wanted their children to experience in the intergroup context varied as a function of their political ideology. Mothers' motivation for their child's empathy toward the outgroup (but not in general) was further associated with how they chose to communicate messages to their children in a real-life context and how children actually felt toward the outgroup. We discuss implications for the socialization of intergroup empathy.

Parenting dimensions/styles and emotion dysregulation in childhood and adolescence: a systematic review and Meta-analysis

Emotion dysregulation is a transdiagnostic factor in the development of various mental and behavioral disorders, thus requiring ample evidence for prevention and intervention approaches. The aim of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the association between parenting dimensions/styles and emotion dysregulation in childhood and adolescence. Following the PRISMA guidelines, the review was registered (PROSPERO CRD42021251672) and search terms were entered in Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, and PubMed in May 2021. Articles needed to report on empirical studies that examined the association between parenting dimensions/styles and emotion dysregulation in children/adolescents with primary data, and be published in English in a peer-reviewed journal. Additionally, articles were excluded based on certain designs and focus on special populations. The narrative synthesis includes 30 articles, and of which 27 are included in the meta-analysis. An NHLBI tool with 14 items (e.g., validity) was utilized for assessing the quality of the included studies. General trends indicate that positive parenting (e.g., warmth, supportiveness) is negatively associated with emotion dysregulation, whilst negative parenting (e.g., psychological control, authoritarian) is positively associated. The meta-analysis reveals an overall small yet significant effect, however, the heterogeneity of the studies is moderate to high. A funnel plot demonstrated no evidence of publication bias. Limitations include the varying conceptualizations of emotion dysregulation, as well as a lacking focus on specific types of emotion. Although more research is needed, addressing factors such as culture, gender, and age, the review provides first indications of the significance of parenting dimensions/styles for emotion dysregulation.

Relations between parental response to children's negative emotions and suicidal ideation in chinese adolescents: Internalizing problems, emotion regulation, and perceived relationship quality with parents as mediators

Past work points to the crucial role of parents' responses to children's negative emotions (PRCNE) in adolescents' socioemotional adjustment. The presence of suicidal ideation (SI) is an important sign of significant distress and suicide risk. However, research on the relations between PRCNE and adolescents' SI is lacking. This research aimed to investigate whether parental reactions to children's negative emotions (PRCNE) was related to adolescents' SI and, if so, through which processes. This research utilized data from a sample of Chinese adolescent families (N = 4,574; Parents: 35.81% males, M = 44.07 years old; Adolescents: 55.40% males, M = 16.28 years old), with parents giving their reports on PRCNE and adolescents self-evaluating their psychosocial development (i.e., internalizing problems, emotion regulation, perceived relationship quality with parents) and SI. We examined the relations between six types of PRCNE and adolescents' SI, and analyzed the mediating roles of adolescents' internalizing problems, emotion regulation (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), and perceived relationship quality with parents. The results showed that emotion-focused response, problem-focused response, and expression encouragement negatively predicted, while punitive response and distress response positively predicted adolescents' SI. However, no statistically significant association emerged between minimization and adolescents' SI. Moreover, adolescents' internalizing problems, usage of expressive suppression, and perceived relationship quality with parents could mediate the relations between PRCNE and adolescents' SI. Contrary to our hypothesis, the results did not support an indirect effect of PRCNE on adolescents' SI through adolescents' cognitive reappraisal. The present research illuminates adolescents' SI by emphasizing the roles of PRCNE. The findings also highlight the importance of paying attention to adolescents' internalizing problems, expressive suppression, and perceived relationship quality with parents in relation to PRCNE in interventions aimed at reducing adolescents' SI.

Parent Emotion Socialization and Positive Emotions in Child and Adolescent Clinical Samples: A Systematic Review and Call to Action

The majority of the emotion socialization behaviors (ESB) literature has focused on community samples and socialization of negative emotions. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that ESB are also critical in setting the foundations for the healthy development of positive emotions, with implications for developmental psychopathology. We conducted a systematic review of research examining parent ESB and youth positive emotions in clinical child and adolescent samples. A literature search was conducted in March 2021, resulting in 563 abstracts being reviewed. Two reviewers independently screened the titles and abstracts to identify relevant papers, with 53 articles being reviewed in full. Seven articles (four cross-sectional and correlational, three intervention) were included in the current review, of which one was with an internalizing sample, three were with an externalizing sample, and three were with a neurodevelopmental disorder sample. Results varied regarding the role of parent ESB in youth positive emotions across clinical populations. In correlational studies, minimal evidence was found for the association between parent ESB and youth positive emotions, but across the three intervention studies, there was evidence that both parent ESB and children's positive emotions can be improved through intervention. We present a preliminary model of relations between youth psychopathology, parent ESB, and child positive emotions, with consideration of potential moderators of links between ESB and positive emotions. Finally, we discuss limitations of the existing body of research, and offer specific recommendations for future research directions.

Empirical benchmarks for changes in social and emotional skills over time

This study provides empirical benchmarks that quantify typical changes in students' reports of social and emotional skills in a large, diverse sample. Data come from six cohorts of students (N = 361,815; 6% Asian, 8% Black, 68% White, 75% Latinx, 50% Female) who responded to the CORE survey from 2015 to 2018 and help quantify typical gains/declines in growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness. Results show fluctuations in skills between 4th and 12th grade (changes ranging from -.33 to .23 standard deviations). Growth mindset increases in fourth grade, declines in fifth to seventh grade, then mostly increases. Self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness decline in sixth to eighth grade. Self-management and social awareness, but not self-efficacy, show increases in 10th to 12th grade.

Effects of Parent Emotion Socialization on the Neurobiology Underlying Adolescent Emotion Processing: A Multimethod fMRI Study

Parents' emotion socialization (ES) practices impact socioemotional development throughout adolescence. Little is known, however, regarding the neurobiology underlying these effects. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how parent ES practices relate to adolescent brain function during emotion processing. Thirty-three adolescents (ages 14-16) reported on ES practices of a focal parent (primarily mothers) using the Emotions as a Child (EAC) Scale. Adolescents also completed a conflict discussion task with this parent, and parents' statements were coded for emotional valence. Adolescents performed two fMRI tasks: a standard emotion processing (EP) task (n = 32) and the Testing Emotional Attunement and Mutuality (TEAM) task (n = 27). The EP task consisted of viewing emotional pictures and either reacting naturally or using cognitive reappraisal to regulate emotional responses. The TEAM task was performed with the parent and included trials during which adolescents were shown that their parent made an error, costing the dyad $5. Parent negative verbalizations during the conflict discussion were associated with greater activity in the thalamus during the emotion reactivity condition of the EP task and in the thalamus, superior medial and superior frontal gyri, anterior insula, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during the costly error condition of the TEAM task. Unsupportive ES was associated with greater activity in the supplementary motor area and less activity in the paracentral gyrus and amygdala during the costly error condition of the TEAM task. This study supports the premise that ES influences adolescents' emotion-related neural processing, particularly when using ecologically valid tasks in social contexts.

A Multi-Method Investigation of Parental Responses to Youth Emotion: Prospective Effects on Emotion Dysregulation and Reactive Aggression in Daily Life

Parental responses to negative emotion, one key component of emotion socialization, may function to increase (or decrease) reactive aggression over time via indirect effects on emotion dysregulation. However, despite its transdiagnostic relevance, very little research has examined this developmental risk pathway, and no studies have done so during the volatile and vulnerable transition to adolescence. The current study uses a sample of clinically referred youth (N = 162; mean age = 12.03 years; 47% female) and their parents to examine supportive and non-supportive parental responses to negative emotion using a multi-method (questionnaire, ecological momentary assessment [EMA], observation), multi-informant approach (child-, parent-, clinician-rated). Emotion dysregulation and reactive aggression were assessed via child report during a 4-day EMA protocol completed concurrently and 9 months later. Multivariate structural equation modeling was used to examine direct and indirect paths from parental responses to emotion to daily reports of emotion dysregulation and reactive aggression. Consistent with hypotheses, parental responses to emotion predicted reactive aggression via effects on emotion dysregulation. This indirect effect was present for supportive and non-supportive parental responses to emotion, such that supportive parental responses decreased risk, and non-supportive responses increased risk. Moreover, findings indicated differential prediction by informant, and this was specific to supportive parental responses to emotion, whereby child-reported support was protective, while parent-reported support, unexpectedly, had the opposite effect. The clinical significance of integrating supportive and non-supportive parental responses to negative emotion into etiological and intervention models of reactive aggression is discussed.

Origins of Anhedonia in Childhood and Adolescence

Anhedonia reflects a reduced ability to engage in previously pleasurable activities and has been reported in children as young as 3 years of age. It manifests early and is a strong predictor of psychiatric disease onset and progression over the course of development and into adulthood. However, little is known about its mechanistic origins, particularly in childhood and adolescence. In this chapter, we provide a socio-cognitive model of the development of anhedonia. This model is substantiated by past literature presented in this chapter to account for how the individual trajectories of emotion knowledge, autobiographical memory, and self-concept representations contribute to the onset, persistence, and progression of anhedonia from early childhood through adolescence.

Longitudinal Effects of Reminiscing and Emotion Training on Child Maladjustment in the Context of Maltreatment and Maternal Depressive Symptoms

Exposure to child maltreatment and maternal depression are significant risk factors for the development of psychopathology. Difficulties in caregiving, including poor emotion socialization behavior, may mediate these associations. Thus, enhancing supportive parent emotion socialization may be a key transdiagnostic target for preventive interventions designed for these families. Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET) is a brief relational intervention designed to improve maternal emotion socialization behavior by enhancing maltreating mothers' sensitive guidance during reminiscing with their young children. This study evaluated associations between maltreatment, maternal depressive symptoms, and the RET intervention with changes in children's maladjustment across one year following the intervention, and examined the extent to which intervention-related improvement in maternal emotion socialization mediated change in children's maladjustment. Participants were 242 children (aged 36 to 86 months) and their mothers from maltreating (66%) and nonmaltreating (34%) families. Results indicated that RET intervention-related improvement in maternal sensitive guidance mediated the effects of RET on reduced child maladjustment among maltreated children one year later. By comparison, poor sensitive guidance mediated the effects of maltreatment on higher child maladjustment among families that did not receive the RET intervention. Direct effects of maternal depressive symptoms on child maladjustment were also observed. This suggests RET is effective in facilitating emotional and behavioral adjustment in maltreated children by improving maltreating mothers' emotional socialization behaviors.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Transdiagnostic Implications of Parental Socialization of Child and Adolescent Emotions

Developmental research suggests that parent emotion socialization plays a critical role in children's development of emotion-related skills and their risk for psychopathology. Adaptive emotion socialization practices can shape children's capacities to understand and regulate their own emotions, and when maladaptive, these practices can confer risk for both internalizing and externalizing problems, suggesting transdiagnsotic significance. Yet, emerging work suggests that the effects of parent emotion socialization are not universal and may differ based on children's unique vulnerabilities, highlighting the need to examine both parent and child factors within transactional models. Given the developmental shifts in emotion regulation capacities and autonomy across development, there is a great need for longitudinal emotion socialization research, as well as work that accounts for alternative interpretations, in this domain. Additionally, to-date much of the work in this regard has utilized parental report in isolation, making the need for cutting-edge, multi-method approaches highly salient. Further, translating scientific research into parent emotion socialization interventions is still in its infancy, with the majority of available treatments focusing on young children. As such, contributors to this special issue help address these gaps in the literature and examine the implications of a range of parent emotion socialization behaviors in the context of both adaptive and maladaptive child and adolescent emotional development. In this introduction, we highlight major themes of the special issue; further discussion and future directions are offered in the commentary accompanying this special issue.

Childhood ADHD Symptoms, Parent Emotion Socialization, and Adolescent Peer Problems: Indirect Effects Through Emotion Dysregulation

Although parent reactions to children's negative emotions are important to the development of adolescent social and emotional functioning, there is a lack of research examining this aspect of parenting in samples that include youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study addresses this gap in the research by examining the independent effects of childhood ADHD symptoms and parent reactions to negative emotions in the longitudinal prediction of adolescent emotion dysregulation and peer problems. A sample of 124 youth (52% female) with and without clinical elevations in ADHD symptoms were assessed in childhood (8-12 years; M = 10.50) and followed up 5-6 years later in adolescence (13-18 years; M = 16.15). Path models tested the direct effects of childhood ADHD symptoms, supportive parent reactions, and non-supportive parent reactions on adolescent peer problems (friendship quality, deviant peer affiliation, peer aggression) and the indirect effects via adolescent emotion dysregulation. Emotion dysregulation mediated the effects of greater ADHD symptoms and of less parent supportive reactions on adolescent peer problems; parent reactions also independently predicted specific adolescent peer problems. Even for youth with clinical elevations in ADHD symptoms, parent reactions to children's negative emotions may be important in understanding adolescent emotion dysregulation and peer problems.

A Pilot Study of a Parent Emotion Socialization Intervention: Impact on Parent Behavior, Child Self-Regulation, and Adjustment

Adequate emotion regulation in children is crucial for healthy development and is influenced by parent emotion socialization. The current pilot study aimed to test, for the first time in a Scandinavian population, whether an emotion-focused intervention, Tuning in to Kids (TIK), had positive effects on parent emotion-related socialization behaviors (ERSBs), and children's self-regulation, anxiety, and externalizing behavior problems. We conducted a controlled trial of the 6-week evidence-based TIK parenting program with 20 parents of preschool children aged 5–6 years and 19 wait-list controls. Assessments at baseline and 6 months after the intervention included parent-report questionnaires on parent ERSBs and child adjustment, as well as aspects of children's self-regulation assessed with two behavioral tasks, the Emotional Go/No-Go task (EGNG) and the AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT). Results showed a significant increase in reported parent emotion coaching behavior and an uncorrected significant decrease in parents' report of child externalizing problems in intervention participants compared to controls. The behavioral data showed an uncorrected significant improvement in child emotion discrimination in the control condition compared to the intervention condition, while measures of children's executive control improved from baseline to follow-up for both conditions but were not significantly different between conditions. These findings suggest that this emotion-focused parenting intervention contributed to improvement in parents' emotion coaching and their appraisal of child externalizing problems, while children's self-regulation showed mainly normative developmental improvements. Further research with a larger sample will be the next step to determine if these pilot findings are seen in an adequately powered study.