Higher maternal reflective functioning is associated with toddlers' adaptive emotion regulation.

Parental reflective functioning (RF), the ability to consider the child's behavior as a function of mental states (cognitions, emotions), is theorized to promote emotion regulation in children via its positive impact on parenting sensitivity. Using a sample of mothers and toddlers (N = 151 dyads; 41% Latinx; 54% girls; MAge  = 21 months; SDAge  =  2.5 months), we measured mothers' self-reported RF (high RF = low certainty/high interest-curiosity/low prementalizing), toddlers' distress during a standardized challenging behavioral task (toy removal), and three methods of children's coping with distress. Then, we tested whether RF moderated the association between children's observed distress and coping during the task (mother-directed adaptive coping, task-directed adaptive coping, maladaptive aggression) as an index of emotion regulation. Although RF was not associated with toddlers' distress, indices of RF moderated the associations between distress and coping. As maternal RF increased, the positive association between toddler distress and mother-oriented behavior increased, whereas the association between toddler distress and child aggression decreased. Findings were present only for certainty of mental states, whereas no effects were present for prementalizing or interest/curiosity. We discuss these findings in terms of their contributions to theory regarding parent-child relationships, maternal RF, and child emotion regulation.

La función de reflexión de los padres (RF), la habilidad de considerar el comportamiento del niño como una función de los estados mentales, promueve, según la teoría, la regulación de la emoción en los niños por medio de su impacto en la sensibilidad de los progenitores. Con un grupo muestra de madres y niños pequeñitos (N = 151 díadas; 41% Latinx; 54% niñas; Edad M = 21 meses; Edad SD = 2.5 meses), medimos la auto-reportada RF de las madres (RF alta = baja certeza/alto interés-curiosidad/baja pre-mentalización), la angustia de los niños pequeñitos durante una tarea estándar de reto de comportamiento (apartar un juguete) y tres métodos de cómo los niños se las arreglan con la angustia. Entonces, pusimos a prueba si la RF moderaba la asociación entre la observada angustia de los niños pequeñitos y el arreglárselas con la tarea (el arreglárselas con adaptarse a la directriz de la madre, el arreglárselas con adaptarse a la directriz de la tarea, agresión mal adaptada) como índice de regulación de la emoción. A pesar de que no se asoció la RF con la angustia de los niños pequeñitos, los índices de RF moderaron las asociaciones entre la angustia y el proceso de arreglárselas. A medida que la RF aumentó, también aumentó la positiva asociación entre la angustia del niño pequeñito con ambas, orientado hacia la madre, mientras que la asociación entre la angustia del niño pequeñito y la agresividad del niño disminuyó. Los resultados estuvieron presentes sólo en cuanto a la certeza de los estados mentales, mientras que ningún efecto se presentó en el caso de la pre-mentalización o el interés/curiosidad. Discutimos estos resultados en términos de sus contribuciones a la teoría acerca de las relaciones progenitor-niño, RF materna y la regulación de la emoción del niño.

Parental reflective functioning (RF), the ability to consider the child's behavior as a function of mental states, is theorized to promote emotion regulation in children via its positive impact on parenting sensitivity. Using a sample of mothers and toddlers (N = 151 dyads; 41% Latinx; 54% girls; MAge = 21 months; SDAge = 2.5 months), we measured mothers' self-reported RF (high RF = low certainty/high interest-curiosity/low prementalizing), toddlers' distress during a standardized challenging behavioral task (toy removal), and three methods of children's coping with distress. Then, we tested whether RF moderated the association between children's observed distress and coping during the task (mother-directed adaptive coping, task-directed adaptive coping, maladaptive aggression) as an index of emotion regulation. Although RF was not associated with toddlers' distress, indices of RF moderated the associations between distress and coping. As RF increased, the positive association between toddler distress with both mother-oriented increased, whereas the association between toddler distress and child aggression decreased. Findings were present only for certainty of mental states, whereas no effects were present for prementalizing or interest/curiosity. We discuss these findings in terms of their contributions to theory regarding parent-child relationships, maternal RF, and child emotion regulation.

Exploring the complexity of mothers' real-time emotions while caregiving.

Existing research suggests that parenthood is both emotionally rewarding and demanding, yet little work has examined multiple facets of parents' emotions. The current study examines the complexity of parents' emotions by examining the intensity, variability, and emodiversity of mothers' positive and negative emotions across caregiving and noncaregiving contexts. Data were collected from 136 mothers of young children using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to measure their real-time experiences of positive and negative emotion during a 10-day period. Results demonstrated that mothers reported higher intensity in positive emotion, and greater emodiversity in both positive and negative emotion when caring for their children compared with times when they were not caring for their children. As the first study to explore the complexity of parents' real-time emotional experiences, this work has important implications for interpreting the existing literature, and for developing interventions that enhance parents' emotional experiences in the service of improving the quality of the parent-child relationship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Quantitatively representing real-time emotion dynamics: Attachment-based differences in mothers' emotion experiences.

Given inconsistent findings emerging in the literature between motherhood and emotional well-being, it is important to employ cutting-edge methods to evaluate mothers' dynamic emotional experiences. As anticipated by theory, attachment anxiety and avoidance may uniquely predict fluctuations in mothers' positive emotion, which may be yoked in particular to 2 aspects of their experiences: their emotional closeness with their children and their perceptions of their children's positive emotion. In the current study, 144 mothers (41% Hispanic) of young children (mean [M] = 20.9 months) reported on their positive emotion, closeness/distance with their children, and perceptions of their children's positive emotion, up to 5 times per day for 10 days. We fit a dynamic structural equation model (DSEM) in order to evaluate attachment-based differences in mothers' emotional equilibrium (i.e., mean levels of positive emotion), intraindividual volatility in positive emotion, within-person emotional inertia, and cross-lagged emotion processes over time. Attachment anxiety was related to lower average maternal positive emotion ratings and to greater volatility in mothers' positive emotion and emotional closeness/distance. Attachment avoidance was related to higher average ratings of emotional distance, stronger inertia in mothers' positive emotion, and weaker inertia in mothers' emotional distance. Among mothers who were higher on attachment avoidance, emotional distance was related to greater subsequent feelings of positive emotion and perceived child positive emotion. The results are aligned with theory and have specific implications for attachment-informed parenting interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

In a father's mind: paternal reflective functioning, sensitive parenting, and protection against socioeconomic risk.

This study utilized attachment theory as a framework for understanding how fathers' reflective functioning (RF) and social emotional (SE) and autonomy (AU) supportive behaviors relate to children's emotion regulation (ER) beyond effects of mothers' RF. Moreover, the study explored how fathers' RF may be a protective factor against risks associated with low income. Fathers (n = 77) and their toddlers participated. Fathers' RF was coded from narrative accounts of parenting and mothers' RF was assessed by questionnaire. Fathers' SE and AU supportive behaviors were coded from observations of father-child interactions; toddlers' ER was assessed as distress on a challenging task. Results show that, after accounting for mothers' RF, fathers' RF was directly associated with SE supportive behaviors; RF moderated the association between income and AU supportive behaviors. Fathers' SE and AU supportive behaviors were associated with children's distress. Fathers' RF plays a central role in parenting and in children's ER.

Mothers' real-time emotion as a function of attachment and proximity to their children.

Building on established links between attachment insecurity and maladaptive emotion regulation, here we examine whether traitlike attachment style predicts individual differences in mothers' emotions in situations with and without their children. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), we measured the real-time positive and negative emotions of 145 mothers of young children across a 10-day period, with self-reported attachment and presence of children as predictors of individual differences in emotion. Attachment anxiety was associated with more negative emotion and attachment avoidance was associated with less positive emotion. Associations between avoidance and positive emotion were moderated by the presence of children, whereas associations between both anxiety and avoidance and negative emotion were moderated by the amount of time mothers spent with their children. These findings support the notion that parents' attachment style predicts meaningful individual differences in their real-time emotional experiences. As the first study to explore associations between attachment styles and real-time emotional experiences in mothers of young children, this work has important implications for developing interventions that enhance family well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Parental Anxiety Prospectively Predicts Fearful Children's Physiological Recovery from Stress.

Parental anxiety confers risk for the development of an anxiety disorder in children, and this risk may be transmitted through children's stress reactivity. Further, some children may be more vulnerable to reactivity in the presence of parent factors such as anxiety. In this study, we examined whether parents' anxiety symptoms prospectively predict school-aged children's physiological reactivity following stress, assessed through their electrodermal activity (galvanic skin response) during recovery from a performance challenge task, and whether this varies as a function of children's temperamental fearfulness. Parents and their children (N = 68) reported on their anxiety symptoms at Time 1 of data collection, and parents characterized the extent to which their children had fearful temperaments. At Time 2 children completed the performance challenge and two recovery tasks. Greater parental anxiety symptom severity at Time 1 predicted children's higher electrodermal response during both recovery tasks following the failure task. Further, these effects are specific to children with medium and high fearful temperament, whereas for children low in fearfulness, the association between parent anxiety and child reactivity is not significant. Findings provide additional evidence for the diathesis-stress hypothesis and are discussed in terms of their contribution to the literature on developmental psychopathology.