A Model‐Based Cluster Analysis of Maternal Emotion Regulation and Relations to Parenting Behavior

• Author: Monica Whitehead,Diana Morelen,Anne Shaffer,Cynthia Suveg,Molly Davis
• Published date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12326
• Date: 01 September 2018

A Model-Based Cluster Analysis of Maternal

Emotion Regulation and Relations to Parenting

Behavior

ANNE SHAFFER*

MONICA WHITEHEAD*

MOLLY DAVIS*

DIANA MORELEN

†

CYNTHIA SUVEG*

In a diverse community sample of mothers (N=108) and their preschool-aged children

(M

age

=3.50 years), this study conducted person-oriented analyses of maternal emotion

regulation (ER) based on a multimethod assessment incorporating physiological, observa-

tional, and self-report indicators. A model-based cluster analysis was applied to five indi-

cators of maternal ER: maternal self-report, observed negative affect in a parent–child

interaction, baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and RSA suppression across two

laboratory tasks. Model-based cluster analyses revealed four maternal ER profiles, includ-

ing a group of mothers with average ER functioning, characterized by socioeconomic

advantage and more positive parenting behavior. A dysregulated cluster demonstrat ed the

greatest challenges with parenting and dyadic interactions. Two clusters of intermedia te

dysregulation were also identified. Implications for assessment and applications to parent-

ing interventions are discussed.

Keywords: Emotion Regulation; Parenting; Person-Centered Analysis; Cluster Analysis

Fam Proc 57:707–718, 2018

Emotion regulation (ER) has not historically been studied in the context of parenting,

largely because research on the “determinants of parenting” (Belsky, 1984) has been

less commonly explored than the outcomes of parenting for children. However, it is argu-

able that successful and sensitive parenting inherently requires good self-regulation, as

most parenting tasks (e.g., scaffolding, redirection, limit setting) require parents to engage

in adaptive regulation to promote the regulation of others (Crandall, Deater-Deckard, &

Riley, 2015; Rutherford, Wallace, Laurent, & Mayes, 2015). Recent empirical research has

demonstrated that mothers’ capacities to regulate their emotions, as well as their difficul-

ties with ER, are not only tied to their own parenting behaviors (e.g., Lorber, 2012;

Mazursky-Horowitz et al., 2015; Shaffer & Obradovi

c, 2017) but are also linked to their

children’s psychosocial functioning (e.g., children’s own regulation, internalizing behavior

problems; Buckholdt, Parra, & Jobe-Shields, 2014; Han & Shaffer, 2013). Continued

*Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.

†

Department of Psychology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Anne Shaffer, Department of Psychology,

University of Georgia, Athens, GA 20602-3013. E-mail: ashaffer@uga.edu.

William A. and Barbara R. Owens Institute for Behavioral Research at the University of Georgia;

National Institute on Drug Abuse, Grant number: P30 DA027827.

707

Family Process, Vol. 57, No. 3, 2018 ©2017 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12326