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1. Maternal reactions to children’s negative emotions: Relations to children's socio-emotional development among European American and Chinese immigrant children

   https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461520905997  

   Yang, Yang ; Song, Qingfang ; Doan, Stacey_N ; Wang, Qi ( February 2020 , Transcultural Psychiatry)

   This study examined the relations between maternal reactions to children’s negative emotions and children’s socio-emotional outcomes, including psychological adjustment, emotion knowledge, and coping strategies. European American and Chinese immigrant mothers reported on their reactions to children’s ( N = 117, M = 7.14 years) negative emotions and on children’s psychological adjustment. One year later, children were interviewed for emotion knowledge and mothers reported on children’s use of coping strategies. Mothers from the two cultural groups reported the same level of supportive reactions to their children’s negative emotions, whereas Chinese immigrant mothers more often adopted what are commonly considered to be non-supportive strategies than did European American mothers. Whereas supportive maternal reactions were associated with better child outcomes in both cultures, maternal non-supportive reactions were negatively associated with children’s functioning for European American children but not for Chinese immigrant children. The findings shed critical light on the functional meaning of parenting practices in specific cultural contexts in shaping developmental outcomes.

    

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2. A daily diary study of emotion regulation as a moderator of negative affect‐binge eating associations

   https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23768  

   Mikhail, Megan E. ; Fowler, Natasha ; Burt, S. Alexandra ; Neale, Michael C. ; Keel, Pamela K. ; Katzman, Debra K. ; Klump, Kelly L. ( July 2022 , International Journal of Eating Disorders)

   While negative affect (NA) typically increases risk for binge eating, the ultimate impact of NA may depend on a person's ability to regulate their emotions. In this daily, longitudinal study, we examined whether emotion regulation (ER) modified the strength of NA‐dysregulated eating associations.

   Women (N = 311) from the Michigan State University Twin Registry first reported dimensional binge eating symptoms and broad ER difficulties (e.g., limited emotional awareness, difficulty controlling emotional impulses). Participants then rated use of adaptive (cognitive reappraisal, social sharing, situation modification, and acceptance) and maladaptive (rumination, expressive suppression, and self‐criticism) ER strategies, emotional eating (EE), objective binge eating (OBE), and NA once daily for 49 consecutive days.

   There were several main effects of ER on binge‐eating pathology in both between‐person (i.e., comparing women who differed on average) and within‐person (i.e., examining fluctuations in variables day‐to‐day) analyses. Between‐person, greater broad ER difficulties, greater maladaptive strategy use, and lower adaptive strategy use were all associated with greater binge‐eating pathology. Within‐person, greater maladaptive strategy use was associated with greater odds of OBE on that day and on the following day. However, neither broad ER difficulties nor use of specific strategies moderated associations between NA and dysregulated eating in between‐ or within‐person analyses.

   While ER is independently associated with risk for dysregulated eating, it may not fully mitigate the impact of NA. Additional strategies (e.g., decreasing environmental stressors and increasing social support) may be needed to minimize NA and its impact on dysregulated eating.

   Negative affect (NA; e.g., sadness, guilt) increases dysregulated eating risk. Because NA is sometimes unavoidable, we examined whether emotion regulation (ER; i.e., how a person responds to their emotions) might impact whether NA leads to dysregulated eating. Although more effective ER was associated with less dysregulated eating overall, ER did not impact the association between NA and dysregulated eating. Other approaches may therefore be needed to mitigate NA‐dysregulated eating associations.

    

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3. Emotion understanding and maternal sensitivity as protective factors against hostile attribution bias in anger‐prone children

   https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12336  

   Wong, Maria S. ; Chen, Xi ; McElwain, Nancy L. ( October 2018 , Social Development)

   The present research examined children’s anger proneness, emotion understanding, and maternal sensitivity during toddlerhood as predictors of children’s hostile attribution bias (HAB) during the later preschool years. At 2.8 years (N = 128), maternal sensitivity (e.g., child‐centered behavior) was observed during mother–child play and snack, and parents reported on children’s anger proneness. At 3.3 years, emotion understanding (i.e., ability to identify emotional expressions accurately) was measured via an interactive puppet interview. At 4.8 and 5.4 years, children's HAB was assessed via child responses to hypothetical vignettes of ambiguous peer provocations. Path models revealed that maternal sensitivity predicted fewer hostile attributions. In addition, emotion understanding and maternal sensitivity emerged as buffers against the negative effect of anger proneness on HAB. Specifically, greater anger proneness was associated with more frequent hostile attributions, but only when children had lower emotion understanding or had mothers who were less sensitive. The findings highlight the interplay between intrapersonal and interpersonal factors in early childhood that contribute to a hostile attribution bias during the preschool period.

    

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4. Parent and Child Depressive Symptoms and Authoritarian Parenting: Reciprocal Relations From Early Childhood Through Adolescence

   https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026231170871  

   Chad-Friedman, Emma ; Jordan, Leslie_S ; Chad-Friedman, Simone ; Lemay, Edward ; Olino, Thomas ; Klein, Daniel_N ; Dougherty, Lea_R ( May 2023 , Clinical Psychological Science)

   We conducted cross-lagged panel models to examine reciprocal relations between parent and child depressive symptoms and authoritarian-parenting behaviors across development in a community sample of 599 youths (89.1% White, 7.7% Black/African American, 2.3% Asian, 0.7% multiracial/other; 65.3% had at least one parent with a 4-year college degree). Mothers and fathers completed self-report measures about their own depressive symptoms and authoritarian-parenting behaviors during the years their children were 3 to 15 years old. Child depressive symptoms were assessed with a developmentally appropriate semistructured clinical interview at all time points. Results demonstrated reciprocal pathways between maternal and child depressive symptoms from ages 3 to 15 years serial mediators. Moreover, although child depressive symptoms at age 3 years led to greater maternal and paternal negative authoritarian parenting from ages 3 to 15 years, these effects were not reciprocal. Pathways between paternal and child depressive symptoms were not observed. Our findings highlight the importance of examining reciprocal pathways to identify mechanisms in the development of depression within families.

    

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5. Twin Differences in Harsh Parenting Predict Youth’s Antisocial Behavior

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620968532  

   Burt, S_Alexandra ; Clark, D_Angus ; Gershoff, Elizabeth_T ; Klump, Kelly_L ; Hyde, Luke_W ( February 2021 , Psychological Science)

   In the current study, we leveraged differences within twin pairs to examine whether harsh parenting is associated with children’s antisocial behavior via environmental (vs. genetic) transmission. We examined two independent samples from the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Our primary sample contained 1,030 families (2,060 twin children; 49% female; 6–10 years old) oversampled for exposure to disadvantage. Our replication sample included 240 families (480 twin children; 50% female; 6–15 years old). Co-twin control analyses were conducted using a specification-curve framework, an exhaustive modeling approach in which all reasonable analytic specifications of the data are interrogated. Results revealed that, regardless of zygosity, the twin experiencing harsher parenting exhibited more antisocial behavior. These effects were robust across multiple operationalizations and informant reports of both harsh parenting and antisocial behavior with only a few exceptions. Results indicate that the association between harsh parenting and children’s antisocial behavior is, to a large degree, environmental in origin.

    

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