Parent dysregulation and child negativity in relation to parent responses to child negative emotions

• Published date: 01 April 2024
• Author: Mariam Hafiz,Jackie A. Nelson,Nishita H. Patel,Shayla C. Holub
• Date: 01 April 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12950

RESEARCH

Parent dysregulation and child negativity in relation

to parent responses to child negative emotions

Mariam Hafiz | Jackie A. Nelson | Nishita H. Patel | Shayla C. Holub

Department of Psychology, University of

Texas at Dallas

Correspondence

Mariam Hafiz, University of Texas at Dallas,

800 W. Campbell Road GR41, Richardson,

TX 75080, USA.

Email: mariam.hafiz@utdallas.edu

Funding information

Jerry M. Lewis MD Mental Health Research

Foundation, Grant/Award Number:

GA-2017-004

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the effects of mothers’and

fathers’emotional dysregulation and their responses to

their children’s distress, as well as the moderating role of

child negative reactivity.

Background: Parents with better emotion regulation strate-

gies tend to provide more supportive and less non-

supportive responses to their children’s distress. Child

temperamental negative reactivity may create emotionally

challenging parenting situations and thus may moderate

this relation. However, dyadic effects are less clear; family

systems theory suggests parents’dysregulation may cross-

over to degrade their partners’responses, or parents may

compensate for their partners’dysregulation with more

constructive responses.

Method: Parents from 119 families with a 3- to 5-year-old

child (50.4% boys) reported on their emotional dys-

regulation, responses to child negative emotions, and child

negative affectivity. Path models tested actor and partner

main effects and interaction effects.

Results: There were two partner main effects, such that

when fathers were more dysregulated, mothers reported

providing more supportive and fewer nonsupportive

responses to their children. Additionally, two interaction

effects were found. Maternal dysregulation was related to

increased maternal nonsupport only when child negative

affectivity was low. Maternal dysregulation was also

related to greater maternal support only when child nega-

tive affectivity was high.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate the importance of

parent gender roles and compensatory processes.

Implications: These results provide enhanced understand-

ing of coparenting dynamics and the combined impact of

mother, father, and child negativity, which can be used by

practitioners.

Received: 21 February 2022 Revised: 16 February 2023 Accepted: 28 May 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12950

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2024;73:737–752. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 737

KEYWORDS

dyadic, emotion dysregulation, negative reactivity, parent response to

child negative emotions

Parent support and sensitivity in response to children’s distress is crucial to child emotional and

social development (Eisenberg et al., 1998). Supportive responses to children’s negative emo-

tions are behaviors that are characterized by high warmth and sensitivity and have been found

to be related to better social and emotional competence and coping skills among children (Dix

et al., 2004; Eisenberg et al., 1996; Fabes et al., 2001). Nonsupportive responses to children’s

negative emotions include overreaction, anger, irritability, or minimization of distress and tend

to be associated with maladaptive coping strategies in children, greater externalizing problems,

and poorer social and emotional competence (Eisenberg et al., 1996; Fabes et al., 2001;

Nelson & Boyer, 2018). Most of the research on parents’responses to children’s negative emo-

tions has focused on the implications of these practices for children’s development. As these

studies make clear, responses to children’s negative emotions are key predictors of children’s

psychosocial outcomes. However, it is also necessary to understand the factors that make par-

ents more likely to respond with support or nonsupport. Belsky’s (1984) determinants of parent-

ing model explains that parenting behaviors can be affected by both parent and child

characteristics. Examination of these characteristics allows for a more holistic conceptualization

of parenting behaviors that explores not only the psychosocial outcomes for children but also

predictors of those parenting behaviors. In the current study, we examined parents’emotional

dysregulation and child temperamental negative reactivity in relation to parents’responses to

child distress. We conceptualized emotional dysregulation as parents’inability to demonstrate

awareness of, control, or regulate their emotional experiences and children’s temperamental

negative reactivity as the intensity of children’s negative emotional experiences.

PARENT DYSREGULATION AND RESPONSE TO CHILD NEGATIVE

EMOTIONS

Responding sensitively to children when they are crying or upset requires a high degree of self-

control and flexibility among parents (Jones et al., 2014). Parents’own emotion regulation

(ER) abilities may play a critical role in the way they react in the moment to their children’s

negative emotions. ER can be broadly defined as the ways in which an individual observes,

monitors, and modifies their emotional experience (Thompson, 1994). A parent’s ER ability is

essential to their capacity to provide supportive and effective parenting responses (Dix, 1991).

Studies have shown that when mothers are better at regulating their emotions, they tend to pro-

vide more sensitive responses to their children’s distress (Jones et al., 2014; Leerkes, 2010).

Without appropriate self-regulation strategies, parents may have difficulty managing their chil-

dren’s negative emotions because their inability to navigate their own emotions may transfer to

interactions with their children. Navigating children’s distress can present a parenting dilemma,

and dysregulated parents may find themselves upset by their children’s emotions and choose to

use parent-focused strategies, such as punitive or minimizing reactions toward children to cope

with their own distress (Fabes et al., 2001; Jones et al., 2014).

Mothers and fathers have been shown to respond to children’s negative emotions differently,

with research generally pointing to the more prominent role of mothers in managing children’s

distress. For instance, mothers tend to provide more supportive responses to their children’snega-

tive emotions than fathers (Nelson et al., 2009). Cassano et al. (2007) found that mothers used

more expressive encouragement and moreproblem-focused strategies in managing their children’s

emotions, whereas fathers tended to respond to negative emotions with more minimization.

738 FAMILY RELATIONS