Daily profiles of parents' supportive extrinsic emotion regulation of adolescents' negative emotion.

Parental support for adolescent emotion regulation is critical for adolescents' health. Yet, little is known about parents' daily support of adolescents' emotion regulation. This study aimed to typify daily co-parent supportive extrinsic emotion regulation (EER) profiles directed toward adolescents' daily distress and anger. The sample comprised 153 adolescent-parent triads; adolescents' mean age, 15.71 years (SD = 1.53), 51% girls. Over 7 consecutive days, adolescents self-reported their distress and anger, while parents reported their own negative emotions and their perception of the adolescent's negative emotions. Parents also reported daily on their utilization of seven supportive EER strategies, including problem- and emotion-focused strategies. Multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA) identified four day-level profiles of parental EER; "low" (40% of days), reflecting low EER efforts of both parents across all EER strategies: "high" (12%), reflecting high EER involvement of both parents across all strategies; "mother-high father-low" (26%), reflecting mothers' high and fathers' low use of all strategies; "father-high mother-average" (22%), reflecting fathers' high use of all strategies, and mothers' low to average use of all strategies. The likelihood of specific EER profiles across days did not associate with daily changes in adolescents' anger. However, on days when adolescents felt more distress, the likelihood of a "high" parental EER profile was significantly greater than "low." Findings suggest a dynamic repertoire of co-parent EER profiles, responsive to adolescent heartfelt emotions but not hostility. The lack of parental EER of adolescents' anger might put adolescents at increased risk for anger escalation and the unhealthy discharge of anger. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional integration and reappraisal during goal pursuit: Testing within- and between-person differences.

Goal pursuit is rife with obstacles triggering negative emotions. To persist in goal pursuit, individuals need to regulate these emotions using adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Reappraisal and emotional integration are two such strategies. Reappraisal involves people's attempts to reframe how they are thinking about an emotional situation, whereas emotional integration involves taking an interest in emotions as they arise. In three studies, we examined the distinct effects of these two strategies on goal pursuit at the within-person and the between-person levels. Study 1 (N = 264) was a three-wave, short-term longitudinal study. At the within-person level, emotional integration predicted goal progress and goal effort but also predicted negative affect, while reappraisal predicted goal progress and positive affect. At the between-person level, emotional integration was positively related to optimal goal pursuit outcomes, whereas reappraisal was negatively related. Study 2 (N = 154) and Study 3 (N = 366) used daily methodologies and followed participants across 10 days. At the daily within-person level, reappraisal was a stronger predictor of goal progress, goal effort, and positive affect than emotional integration. Emotional integration predicted daily negative affect. In contrast, at the between-person level, emotional integration better predicted these outcomes than reappraisal. Collectively, these studies provide a nuanced understanding of how adaptive emotion regulation strategies relate to goal pursuit. The results show that within-participants reappraisal is more strongly related to increased goal progress, effort, and positive affect than emotional integration. However, habitual emotional integration aligns with greater overall goal effort and progress than habitual reappraisal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The temporal stability of maternal parenting style and child feeding practices: A six-wave longitudinal study.

Although parenting styles and child feeding practices are conceptualized as distal, static predictors of child eating and weight outcomes, few studies have examined the temporal stability (i.e., change over time) of these parenting measures. Also, parental characteristics, such as mental health or socio-demographics, may make it more or less difficult to sustain consistent parenting behavior. This study examined the temporal stability of parenting styles and child feeding practices and the association between temporal stability indices with maternal sociodemographic and mental health characteristics. The analytic sample included 161 ethnically diverse mothers enrolled in a six-wave bi-annual longitudinal study. During each wave, mothers reported on their parenting styles and child feeding practices using validated self-report questionnaires. Temporal stability indices for parenting styles were moderate for authoritative (ICC = 0.57) and authoritarian (ICC = 0.70) styles, yet high for permissive (ICC = 0.78) styles. Temporal stability scores for child feeding practices were low for discipline (ICC = 0.33), limit setting (ICC = 0.33), monitoring (ICC = 0.36), and pressure to eat (ICC = 0.34); however, restriction (ICC = 0.53) and role modeling of healthy eating were moderate (ICC = 0.73). Greater income and education status were positively associated with stability in authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles, as well as with limit setting, monitoring, role modeling of healthy eating, and pressure to eat feeding practices. Higher anxiety and depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem were negatively associated with permissive parenting styles and role modeling of healthy eating. Findings show that maternal parenting styles and child feeding practices fluctuate over time, and sociodemographic and mental health characteristics are related to stability of some of these parenting styles and behaviors.

'Prosociality' in Daily School Life and Early Adolescents' Peer Aggression: A Multilevel Latent Profile Analysis Approach.

We aimed to typify prosocial characteristics of aggressive youth. We classified early adolescents based on daily configurations of prosocial behavior and autonomous prosocial motivations (performing prosocial behavior for identified and intrinsic reasons) and controlled prosocial motivations (performing prosocial behavior for external and introjected reasons) and explored the links between the obtained sub-groups and peer aggression. The sample included 242 Israeli six-graders [Mage = 11.96 (SD = 0.18), 50% girls] and their teachers. At the daily level, adolescents self-reported on prosocial behaviors and their autonomous and controlled prosocial motivations for ten consecutive days. At the trait level, adolescents reported on global, reactive, and proactive peer aggression. Teachers reported on adolescents' global peer aggression. Using multilevel latent profile analysis, we identified four day-level profiles of prosociality: 'high prosocial autonomous' (39% of days), 'low prosocial' (35%), 'average prosocial controlled' (14%), and 'high prosocial bi-motivation' (13%). At the adolescent level, we identified four sub-groups, each characterized by one dominant daily profile: 'stable high autonomy' (33% of adolescents); 'stable high bi-motivation' (12%); 'often average controlled' (16%); 'often low' (39%). Higher self-reported aggressive adolescents, particularly proactive aggressive, had the least chance of being in the 'stable high autonomy' sub-group of all sub-groups. Teacher-reported aggressive adolescents had the least likelihood of being in the 'stable high autonomy' sub-group and the most likelihood of being in the 'often low' sub-group. In sum, peer aggression is a function of the configured phenomenology of prosocial behavior and motivations, with high prosocial autonomously motivated youth being the least aggressive.

Reappraising negative emotions reduces distress during the COVID-19 outbreak.

In two studies, we examined the utility of intrinsic (i.e., self) versus extrinsic (i.e., other) reappraisal training for distress reduction during two consecutive COVID-19 lockdowns in Israel. In both Study 1 (n = 104) and Study 2 (n = 181), participants practiced the use of reappraisal for eight sessions across three weeks. Participants were trained to reappraise either a personal event (self-reappraisal group) or an incident presumably written by another participant (other-reappraisal group). Study 2 also included an untrained control group. Outcome measures were daily negative mood and psychological distress immediately at post-training and at a two-month follow-up. The results demonstrate a benefit for training compared to no training in lowering immediate post-training distress and daily negative emotions. However, this advantage disappeared at the two-month follow-up. In both studies, intrinsic reappraisal was associated with lower post-training distress than extrinsic reappraisal. Findings suggest reappraising negative experiences may lower distress at times of major contextual stress. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03642-6.

Prosocial Behavior and Aggression in the Daily School Lives of Early Adolescents.

Research has not adequately addressed a possible mutual co-regulatory influence of prosocial and aggressive behaviors in adolescents' daily lives. This study explored bidirectional within-person associations between prosocial and aggressive behaviors in the daily school lives of early adolescents. The sample included 242 sixth-graders [Mage = 11.96 (SD = 0.18), 50% girls] and their teachers. Adolescents reported on daily prosocial behavior and reactive and proactive aggression for ten consecutive days. Teachers and adolescents reported on adolescents' overall prosocial behaviors. Across-day prosocial behaviors increased after days when adolescents exhibited more reactive aggression but not among self-reported low-prosocial adolescents. Increased prosocial behaviors did not mitigate aggression the next day. The findings suggest prosocial behaviors are a plausible compensatory strategy after daily aggressive reactions.

What happens when romantic couples discuss personal loss? Relational, emotional, and physiological impacts.

Does talking about loss with a romantic partner have salutary personal and relationship effects? Prior evidence reveals the benefits of emotional disclosure in couple relationships, yet disclosure about loss has been overlooked in research on couple communication. Using a novel communication paradigm with young-adult heterosexual romantic partners (N = 114 couples), we investigated emotions, physiological arousal (skin conductance responses [SCR]), and relationship closeness when narrating a personal loss and listening to the partner's loss, and compared these loss discussions to discussions about desired relationship changes. Based on partners' self-reports, narrating loss elicited more vulnerable and, unexpectedly, more antagonistic emotions. Both narrating and listening to loss produced higher self-reported partner closeness, compared to discussing change. In support of the physiological benefits of disclosure, women's SCRs decreased over the discussion when they narrated their own loss. However, both women and men as listeners show a general trend of increasing SCRs over the discussion, suggesting the challenges of being a responsive partner. Moreover, in line with the putative protective effects of partners' biological interdependencies, partner closeness also was higher when both partners showed synchronous decreasing SCR as women narrated their loss. Although limited to young couples in relatively short relationships, these findings reveal some potential benefits of talking about loss in the context of romantic relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Transactional links between children daily emotions and internalizing symptoms: a six-wave ecological momentary assessment study.

BACKGROUND: This study explored the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between everyday emotion dimensions and internalizing symptoms during the transition to early adolescence. We tested associations between children's intensity and instability of daily negative emotions (NE), positive emotions (PE), and daily NE differentiation (NED) with children's self-reported and their mothers' report of children's internalizing symptoms, across six waves, each wave separated by six months. METHODS: The sample included 199 ethnically diverse mother [Mage at baseline = 40.1 years (SD = 6.1] and child [Mage at baseline = 10.1 (SD = 0.90), 51% girls] dyads, who participated in six 7-day waves of ecological momentary assessment (EMA). During each wave, children reported on PE (i.e. happy and joyful) and NE (i.e. mad, sad, and stressed) up to eight random times per day through smartphone-based EMA. Children and mothers reported on children's internalizing symptoms at each wave. We used random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) to test within- and between-person effects. RESULTS: At the within-person level, increased NE and decreased PE intensity, more unstable NE and PE, and decreased NED at any given wave were positively associated with children's self-reported internalizing symptoms but not with mother-reported child symptoms. However, emotion dimensions did not predict child-reported nor mother-reported child symptoms at the next wave. At the between-person level, higher average NE, more unstable PE and NE, and lower NED were positively associated with average child-reported and mother-reported child internalizing symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that emotional intensity, instability, and differentiation could be conceptualized as manifestations of internalizing symptoms but not as risk factors for its progression, or residual manifestations of it, among typical children.

Dating Aggression and Observed Behaviors in a Nonconflictual Situation: The Role of Negative Anticipation.

Past observational studies highlight meaningful behavioral differences between aggressive and nonaggressive couples during conflict interactions. However, research is needed on how aggressive couples communicate in other, nonconflictual interactional contexts. This study investigates how dating partners' perpetration of physical aggression relates to observed behaviors during a laboratory-based discussion during which dating couples planned a date together. We also investigated whether negative anticipation of the upcoming discussion influences dating partners' observed behaviors. Results showed that perpetration of dating aggression from one partner is linked to more negative behaviors from the other partner during the discussion. This association, however, is moderated by negative anticipation of the discussion; the link between aggression from one's partner and negative behaviors is significant at high levels (+1 SD) but not at low levels (-1 SD)of negative anticipation. One's own dating aggression also relates to fewer positive behaviors during the discussion. Findings suggest that couple aggression spills over to and potentially degrades the discussion of even nonthreatening, potentially enjoyable communications. Results also underscore negative anticipation of an interaction as a potential risky process that increases the likelihood of antagonistic exchanges between partners. The discussion addresses putative pathways between partner aggression and generalized communication patterns, and potential bi-directional effects with negative anticipation. We also discuss practical implications and targets of intervention to counteract the establishment of problematic communication dynamics in young couples.

Perception of school climate, academic performance and risk behaviors in adolescence.

Previous studies support the relevance of students' perception of positive and negative school climate to learning processes and adolescents' adjustment. School climate is affected by both the interactions that are established within the classroom, and by the teachers' behaviors. This study has the overall objective of investigating the relationship between the perception of positive and negative school climate and students' (mal)adjustment during adolescence. Participants were 105 Italian adolescents (52.5% boys, mean age = 15.56, SD = .77) who responded for 15 consecutive days (ecological momentary assessment) to questions related to their perception of positive and negative school climate (Time 1). After one year (Time 2), students' academic performance reported by mothers and fathers and adolescents' self-reported propensity to engage in risk behaviors were examined. Four hierarchical regression models were implemented considering the mean and the instability levels (RMSSD) of the perception of positive and negative school climate as independent variables and, respectively, academic performance and risk behaviors as dependent variables. Results suggest that a higher perception of positive school climate and its instability predict higher academic performance one year later, while a higher perception of negative school climate and its instability predict higher risk behaviors. This study provides an innovative perspective to reflect on the relationship between students' perceptions of school climate and adolescents' (mal)adjustment.

Observed parent-adolescent coalitions and family hostilities during family discussions: Associations with marital aggression.

This study investigated bidirectional associations between observed parent-youth coalitions-wherein one parent and a child align themselves against the other parent-and family hostilities as they evolved in real-time during triadic family conflict discussions. Participants were 102 families with an adolescent child (50% girls, Mage  = 15.3 years, SD = 0.8). Using time-lagged, multilevel models, we tested immediate, temporal influences from hostility (within marital and mother-youth and father-youth relationships) to parent-youth coalitions and vice versa. Guided by sensitization theories, we also investigated whether a history of marital aggression moderated these links. Results indicated multiple concurrent links supporting the interconnectedness of cross generational coalitions and angry, critical exchanges within multiple family relationships. Moreover, time-linked effects demonstrated that hostility within both the marital and parent-adolescent domains preceded subsequent coalitions, and also that coalitions preceded hostility, particularly in the parent-adolescent domain. Findings further demonstrated that marital aggression moderates temporal associations between fathers' marital hostility and father-youth coalitions. These patterns highlight the dynamic links between hostilities and coalitions, how such patterns spill over across family subsystems, and how these two insidious influences in parents' interactions with their adolescent youth may mutually reinforce each other. This study informs intervention efforts by identifying patterns and sequences of family hostilities surrounding parent-youth coalitions during adolescence.

En este estudio se investigaron las asociaciones bidireccionales entre las alianzas observadas entre padres y adolescentes -en las cuales un padre y un hijo se alinean contra el otro padre- y las hostilidades familiares a medida que se desarrollaban en tiempo real durante discusiones triádicas por conflictos familiares. Los participantes fueron 102 familias con un hijo adolescente (el 50% niñas, edad promedio = 15.3 años, desviación típica = 0.8). Utilizando modelos multinivel con tiempo de retardo, evaluamos las influencias inmediatas y temporales de la hostilidad (dentro de las relaciones conyugales y de las relaciones entre madre y adolescente y padre y adolescente) en las alianzas entre padres y adolescentes y viceversa. Guiados por las teorías de sensibilización, también investigamos si los antecedentes de agresión conyugal moderaron estas asociaciones. Los resultados indicaron varias asociaciones simultáneas que respaldaron la interconexión de las alianzas intergeneracionales y los intercambios agresivos y críticos dentro de las relaciones de varias familias. Además, los efectos asociados con el tiempo demostraron que la hostilidad dentro del área conyugal y de padres y adolescentes precedió a alianzas posteriores, y también que las alianzas precedieron a la hostilidad, particularmente en el área de padres y adolescentes. Los resultados también demostraron que la agresión conyugal modera las asociaciones temporales entre la hostilidad conyugal de los padres y las alianzas entre los padres y los jóvenes. Estos patrones destacan las asociaciones dinámicas entre las hostilidades y las alianzas, las maneras en la que dichos patrones se desbordan entre los subsistemas familiares, y cómo estas dos influencias insidiosas en las interacciones de los padres con sus hijos adolescentes pueden reforzarse mutuamente. Este estudio sirve como base para los esfuerzos de intervención, ya que identifica los patrones y las secuencias de las hostilidades familiares que rodean a las alianzas entre los padres y los adolescentes durante la adolescencia.

Optimism, pessimism and support in older couples: A longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVES: Optimism is linked to varied advantageous outcomes, ranging from improved health to better relationships, while pessimism is linked to reduced well-being. Relatively little is known about how optimism and pessimism may work together to shape the perception of support within marital relationships, and whether perceived support can affect couple-members' optimism and pessimism. METHOD: We used three waves of a nationally representative sample of older couples (N = 1681 couples), spanning a period of eight years. Partners reported perceived support, optimism, and pessimism in each wave. We used a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to test within- and between-person effects. RESULTS: At the within-person level, husbands', but not wife's, future expectations were associated with partners' perceived marital support; increases in husbands' pessimism on a given wave were related to decreases in husbands' perceived marital support at the next wave, and vice versa (i.e., actor effect). Within the same wave, increases in husbands' pessimism were associated with wives' decreased perceived marital support. At the between-person level, both partners' optimism and pessimism were associated with marital support. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that changes in husbands' levels of pessimism propel marital support experiences of both partners. At the methodological level, results highlight the importance of examining interpersonal processes at both the within- and between-levels of analyses, as they may yield divergent patterns.

Preschool Children's Social Information Processing Mediates the Link between the Quality of the Parent-Child Relationship and the Child's Learning Difficulties.

(1) Background: This study aims to explore children's social information processing (SIP) as an explanatory mechanism in the link between parent-child relationship and children's learning difficulties in kindergarten; (2) Methods: The sample included 115 kindergarteners (62 girls; 53 boys; Mage = 68.5 months, SD = 6.04), their parents and the school teacher. Parents reported on relationship quality with the child and teachers reported on children's learning difficulties and school achievements. Children's SIP was assessed with the social information processing interview-preschool version (3) Results: Mother and father relationship quality with the child associated with children's SIP; however, only the father's but not the mother's quality of relationship with the child was associated with children's learning difficulties and school achievements. Children's SIP mediated this latter link; (4) Conclusions: Parents' relationship quality with the child and children's SIP are pertinent factors in children's learning in the early years. The father-child relationship seems to be a strong determinant of a child's approach to learning and achievement and may have long lasting effects on children's mental health.

Emotion regulation during personal goal pursuit: Integration versus suppression of emotions.

OBJECTIVE: Goal pursuit may involve setbacks likely to elicit negative emotions. To continue pursuing the goal, an individual may need to regulate those emotions. In this study, we compared the unique contributions of two emotion regulation styles, integrative emotion regulation (IER) and suppressive emotion regulation (SER), to goal pursuit processes. We tested the hypotheses that IER and SER would be differentially related to goal progress and goal-related effort and goal-related depressed mood would mediate those relations. METHOD: 255 Israeli participants completed five web questionnaires at two-week intervals. We examined the mediation hypothesis using multilevel structural equation modeling. RESULTS: At the within-person level, increases in IER predicted increases in goal progress at a given time point through increases in goal-related effort, while increases in SER predicted decreases in goal progress through increases in goal-related depressed mood. At the between-persons level, participants with higher IER reported more goal progress; this effect was mediated by goal-related effort. Participants with higher SER reported lower goal progress; this effect was mediated by higher goal-related depressed mood. The findings held after controlling for such factors as participants' perceived goal competence, goal stress, sex, and age. CONCLUSIONS: IER promotes goal pursuit, but SER impedes it.

Parenting practices, aggressive response evaluation and decision, and social difficulties in kindergarten children: The role of fathers.

The association between fathers' parenting characteristics and their preschool children's social information processing (SIP) patterns is an understudied research topic. Hence, the current study aims to bridge this gap by examining whether there are differences between mothers' and fathers' parenting characteristics and their children's SIP patterns as well as their social functioning in school, with a specific focus on children's aggressive response evaluation and decision (RED) and social difficulties in kindergarten. Using a multimethod (self-reports and direct assessments) multi-informant (mother, father, child, and teacher) design, we collected data from 115 kindergarten children, their mothers, and their fathers, tapping the parents' perceptions of the relationships with the child and parenting style; the child's aggressively biased RED, and the child's social difficulties in kindergarten. We found that fathers' parenting capacities are associated with children's aggressively biased RED, whereas no such associations were found for mothers. In addition, aggressively biased RED mediated the association between fathers' authoritative parenting style and the child's maladaptive behavior in kindergarten. There were no differences between fathers and mothers in relation to social difficulties in kindergarten, with both parents' authoritative parenting style associated with less social difficulties. However, sex moderated this association in mothers as their authoritative style was associated with social difficulties in boys but not in girls. This difference was not found in fathers. On the other hand, fathers' authoritarian parenting style was associated with aggressive RED in boys but not in girls. The tentative nature of these findings and the need for replications are discussed.

Charting the physiological time course of help-seeking during late childhood: Patterns of individual difference.

In this study, we explored whether variability in children's physiological reactivity-respiratory sinus arrhythmia and electrodermal activity-predict concurrent and subsequent levels of children's observed help-seeking (HS) from their mothers during a failure task. In addition, we tested whether children's perceptions of maternal positivity pre-task (CPMP) and children's fearful temperament moderate these effects. In a community sample of 101 mother-child dyads, children (8-12 years of age) underwent a repeated failure task while their respiratory sinus arrythmia and electrodermal activity were monitored; their HS behaviors were later coded. Multilevel path analyses indicated that high-fearful children increased their HS at the same time as and following increased physiological reactivity regardless of CPMP pre-task. Low-fearful children showed increases in HS at the same time as and following increased physiological reactivity only when they perceived their mothers' affect to be positive. This study demonstrates children's individual differences in the physiological underpinning of time-linked HS behaviors.

Optimism, pessimism, and health biomarkers in older couples.

OBJECTIVE: Studies have demonstrated the importance of optimism in predicting perceived general health. However, the handful of studies focusing on cardiovascular biomarkers show inconsistent effects. Additionally, no study examined whether spousal levels of optimism and pessimism affect an individual's biological markers of cardiovascular health. Thus, our objectives were to examine whether partners' optimism and pessimism affect individual biological markers, differentiating between between-dyad associations and within-dyad predictive processes. METHODS: Three waves of the Health and Retirement Study collected in 2006, 2010, and 2014 were used to test actor and partner effects of optimism and pessimism on C-reactive protein (CRP) and high-density lipoprotein. Multilevel longitudinal actor-partner models were used to examine the contribution of a partner's optimism and pessimism to each biomarker, adjusting for respondent's age, sex, depression, body mass index, daily activity levels, and a summary score of respondent's doctor-diagnosed chronic conditions. RESULTS: Partners' pessimism and optimism levels were moderately associated. Results for within-person effects were all non-significant, both within and across waves. Associations at the between-person level were also non-significant, with the exception of a positive association between husbands' pessimism and their own CRP, and husbands' optimism and their wives' CRP. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that optimism and pessimism may not play a pertinent role in within variability of biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases and have a minor role in predicting to between-person variability of biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases.

On the benefits and costs of extrinsic emotion regulation to the provider: Toward a neurobehavioral model.

Emotion regulation often takes place within interpersonal relationships. Prior research has focused mainly on the impact of extrinsic emotion regulation (EER) on the recipient. Yet EER may also have emotional and physical consequences for the provider. Understanding who benefits from helping others regulate their emotions and under what conditions is crucial in understanding the mechanisms that reinforce well-being and social ties. This conceptual review integrates existing literature into an interim working model of the benefits and costs of EER for the provider and of the underlying neural mechanisms. Inspired by a recent framework on the factors that underlie intrinsic emotion regulation, we suggest that the influence of EER on the provider depends on interactions among individual differences in salient psychological characteristics, situational factors and type of the emotion regulation strategy used. We further propose three pathways through which EER may influence the provider-stress regulation, reward and empathy-and connect each pathway to a distinct pattern of neural activation.

The curvilinear effect of mothers' parenting stress and attunement on children's internalizing symptoms: A six wave study of mother-youth dyads across the transition to adolescence.

We aimed to test how deviations in a mother's own parenting stress (PS) levels across her child's transition to adolescence contribute to subsequent changes in her child's internalizing symptom levels. We tested both linear and curvilinear effects, as well as the extent to which a child's perception of his or her mother's attunement alters these links. We further explored whether overall maternal PS levels (relative to the other mothers) further moderate the within-dyad association. These effects were tested in a community sample consisting of 202 mother-child dyads during transition to early adolescence. The dyads were examined within and across six waves, each separated by 6 months. During each wave, the mothers (Mage at baseline = 40.1 years [SD = 6.1]) reported on their PS, while children (Mage at baseline = 10.1 years [SD = .90]) reported on their internalizing symptoms and their perceived maternal attunement. Multilevel within-dyad analyses revealed a U-shaped effect of mothers' PS on concurrent child symptoms, whereas the prospective association was not significant. Maternal attunement moderated the concurrent effects, changing the tipping point at which the concurrent potential benefits of rising PS were outweighed by the potential negative consequences of overburdening the child. Increases in PS prospectively predicted increased symptoms in the child but not when maternal attunement was above the mothers' average level. Global PS levels did not moderate these effects. The results underscore the contribution made by mothers' PS to the emotional trajectories of their children and show that these effects vary as a function of deviations in maternal attunement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Association between the Mother's Social Cognition and the Child's Social Functioning in Kindergarten: The Mediating Role of the Child's Social Cognition.

Children's ability to adjust to the social rules and expectations in the educational environment is of major concern to researchers and practitioners alike. Accordingly, the main purpose of the present study was to examine predictors of children's social functioning in kindergarten with a specific focus on (a) maternal factors and (b) children's social cognition. Using a multi-method (self-reports and direct assessments), multi-informant (child, mother, teacher) design, we collected data from 301 kindergarten children and their mothers tapping the mother's social cognition (general and child-related) and parenting style, and children's social cognition (social information processing) and functioning in kindergarten. We found direct associations between the mother and child's social cognition, between the mother's authoritarian parenting style and her child's less competent social cognition and behavior, and between the child's social cognition and social functioning. Finally, as hypothesized, we found a number of interesting mediated effects. Most notably, we found that the association between the mother's social cognition (her tendency to attribute hostile intent to unknown others) and the child's social cognition (his/her tendency to generate less competent responses) is fully mediated by the mother's higher levels of authoritarian parenting style. The important theoretical and clinical implications of our findings are discussed.