Pathways to emotion regulation in young Black children: An attachment perspective.

Attachment theory proposes that a central function of caregivers is to provide protection and co-regulation of children's distress in the context of threat, and that children's secure attachment (confidence in a secure base/safe haven when needed) precipitates positive developmental cascades in part by supporting children's emotion regulation. Yet the field of attachment has rarely considered the unique experiences of African American families, including the context of systemic racism in which caregivers must provide physical and emotional protection for their children, and in which children must learn to regulate emotion across different sociocultural contexts (emotional flexibility and "code-switching"; Dunbar et al., 2022a; Lozada et al., 2022; Stern et al., 2022b). This chapter brings attachment theory into conversation with the field of positive Black youth development to explore pathways to emotion regulation in African American children during early childhood. In doing so, we (a) highlight the strengths of African American caregivers in providing unique and specific forms of protection via racial and emotional socialization; (b) review research on predictors and consequences of secure caregiver-child relationships in Black families, with a focus on the outcome of child emotion regulation; (c) present a theoretical framework for understanding cascades of positive Black youth development via healthy relationships and emotion regulation; and (d) outline promising new directions for more inclusive and just attachment research.

Racial disparities in EEG research and their implications for our understanding of the maternal brain.

Racial disparities in maternal health are alarming and persistent. Use of electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) to understand the maternal brain can improve our knowledge of maternal health by providing insight into mechanisms underlying maternal well-being, including implications for child development. However, systematic racial bias exists in EEG methodology-particularly for Black individuals-and in psychological and health research broadly. This paper discusses these biases in the context of EEG/ERP research on the maternal brain. First, we assess the racial/ethnic diversity of existing ERP studies of maternal neural responding to infant/child emotional expressions, using papers from a recent meta-analysis, finding that the majority of mothers represented in this research are of White/European ancestry and that the racially and ethnically diverse samples that are present are limited in terms of geography. Therefore, our current knowledge base in this area may be biased and not generalizable across racially diverse mothers. We outline factors underlying this problem, beginning with the racial bias in EEG equipment that systematically excludes individuals of African descent, and also considering factors specific to research with mothers. Finally, we highlight recent innovations to EEG hardware to better accommodate diverse hairstyles and textures, and other important steps to increase racial and ethnic representativeness in EEG/ERP research with mothers. We urge EEG/ERP researchers who study the maternal brain-including our own research group-to take action to increase racial diversity so that this research area can confidently inform understanding of maternal health and contribute to minimizing maternal health disparities.

Black Lives and Black Research Matter: How our Collective Emotions Continue to Drive a Movement.

The author discusses (1) how the collective emotional experience of the Black community has propelled two parallel movements, Black Lives Matter and Black Research Matters, (2) the state of developmental science as it pertains to Black youth, and (3) suggestions for future research to integrate across fields and to evolve beyond Black pain to incorporate Black joy. The author suggests that the palpable anger collectively felt and expressed as a community has propelled a host of social-political actions to dismantle anti-Black systems of oppression, including within academia. She highlights that the scholarship on Black youth development has driven innovations in theory and methodology that have influenced the field of developmental science broadly and recommends future research areas for consideration.

When is Parental Suppression of Black Children's Negative Emotions Adaptive? The Role of Preparation for Racial Bias and Children's Resting Cardiac Vagal Tone.

Research demonstrates that Black parents attempt to suppress children's expressions of negative emotions (e.g., anger, fear), in part, to protect them from experiencing racial bias from authority figures. The goal of this study was to examine whether the effectiveness of parental suppression strategies in reducing behavior problems depends on whether parents talk to children about the potential of experiencing racism (i.e., preparation for bias) and children's resting cardiac vagal tone as indexed by baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Ninety-four parents (97% mothers) who identified their child as Black (56% girls) completed questionnaires about their punitive and minimizing responses to their child's negative emotions and their child's internalizing and externalizing problems at ages 5 and 6. Children's baseline RSA was assessed at age 5. Results indicated that parents' suppression of children's negative emotions predicted decreased externalizing behaviors (e.g., acting out) only when parents talked to their children about racism. When parents did not contextualize their restrictions on children's emotional expressions with discussions about race, children with higher baseline RSA demonstrated increased externalizing behaviors, whereas those with lower baseline RSA were unaffected. Parental suppression strategies led to increased internalizing symptoms (e.g., anxiety, withdrawal) among children with higher baseline RSA regardless of whether parents discussed racism. Black parents face a conundrum in which suppressing their children's negative emotions, in hopes of subverting racism, may reduce their children's externalizing problems under some circumstances, but may increase the risk of their children developing internalizing problems. Implications for systemic policy change to combat racism are discussed.

Observed dyadic racial socialization disrupts the association between frequent discriminatory experiences and emotional reactivity among Black adolescents.

Understanding the underlying mechanisms by which racism degrades mental health and the factors that disrupt these mechanisms is paramount. Black adolescents (Mage  = 15.5) and their mothers (Mage  = 44) were observed discussing a hypothetical discriminatory situation and surveyed about their discriminatory experiences (N = 110). Results indicated that adolescents' submissive emotional reactivity (e.g., sadness, embarrassment) in direct response to discrimination, rather than dominant reactivity (e.g., anger, frustration), was the primary mechanism explaining the link between discrimination and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Maternal advocacy combined with high levels of dyadic warmth and emotion expression reduced girls' submissive reactivity, whereas a more directive "no-nonsense" advocacy approach reduced boys' submissive reactivity. Findings demonstrate how racial socialization can disrupt the pain of discrimination.

Mothers' preparation for bias and responses to children's distress predict positive adjustment among Black children: an attachment perspective.

Traditional conceptualizations of maternal sensitivity overlook the adaptive function of some parenting behaviors. This study examined mothers' preparation for bias, suppression responses, and supportive responses to their Black children's distress as indicators of secure base provision at age five and predictors of children's age six emotional and behavioral self-regulation. Participants included 91 Black children (52% female) and their mothers. Results indicated a significant 3-way interaction such that mothers' preparation for bias predicted children's greater self-regulation when mothers reported high support and moderate suppression in response to children's distress, b = .40, p < .001. Preparation for bias predicted children's lower self-regulation when mothers were highly supportive yet low on suppression responses to distress, b = -.31, p < .01. Attachment researchers should consider evaluating caregiving behaviors traditionally deemed insensitive (e.g. parental suppression) through the lens of serving an adaptive function within a complex system of protective practices among Black families.

A longitudinal examination of perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms in ethnic minority youth: The roles of attributional style, positive ethnic/racial affect, and emotional reactivity.

Although perceived ethnic/racial discrimination is well established as a risk factor for depressive symptoms in ethnic minority youth, few studies have examined their longitudinal relationship over time. This study examined whether a negative attributional style, positive ethnic/racial affect, and emotional reactivity moderated the longitudinal relationship of perceived peer or adult discrimination and depressive symptoms in a sample of African American and Latino high school students (n = 155). African American and Latino youth who experienced increases in perceived peer discrimination also reported greater depressive symptoms over time, but positive ethnic/racial affect buffered the longitudinal association. Emotional reactivity also served as a significant moderator but only of the baseline association between perceived peer discrimination and depressive symptoms. Thus, perceived ethnic/racial discrimination appears to play a significant role in the development of depressive symptoms for ethnic minority youth, especially those who start high school with lower levels of positive ethnic/racial affect.

African American parents' racial and emotion socialization profiles and young adults' emotional adaptation.

The current study aimed to identify parents' profiles of racial and emotion socialization practices, to determine if these profiles vary as a function of family income and young adult child gender, and to examine their links with young adults' emotional adaptation. Participants included 192 African American young adults (70% women) who ranged in age from 18 to 24 years (M = 19.44 years). Four maternal profiles emerged: cultural-supportive (high cultural socialization and supportive responses to children's negative emotions), moderate bias preparation (moderate preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, and nonsupportive responses to negative emotions), high bias preparation (high preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, and nonsupportive responses), and low engaged (low across racial and socialization constructs). Three paternal profiles emerged: multifaceted (moderate across racial and emotion socialization constructs), high bias preparation, and low engaged. Men were more likely to have mothers in the high bias preparation and to have fathers in the multifaceted or high bias preparation profiles. Individuals with higher income were more likely to have mothers in the cultural-supportive profile and to have fathers in the multifaceted profile. Young adults whose mothers fit the cultural-supportive profile or the moderate bias preparation profile had lower levels of depressive symptoms than young adults whose mothers fit the high bias preparation profile.