Department of Family Social Science, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, USA.
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut, Stamford, USA.
Prev Sci. 2023 Feb;24(2):237-248. doi: 10.1007/s11121-021-01287-8. Epub 2021 Jul 31.
Military service members who were exposed to combat-related traumatic events may exhibit emotion regulation problems, which can compromise emotion-related parenting practices (ERPPs). After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT) is a preventive intervention developed for military families to improve parenting behaviors, including ERPPs. Parental emotion regulation difficulties may affect parents' responses to this parenting program. Thus, this study aimed to use a baseline target moderated mediation design to examine the intent-to-treat (ITT) effect of the ADAPT program on deployed fathers' emotion-related parenting practices (ERPPs) at the 1-year follow-up as well as the moderation and mediation effect of fathers' emotion regulation difficulties. The sample consisted of 181 deployed fathers and their 4-13-year-old children. At both baseline and 1 year, fathers' ERPPs (i.e., positive engagement, withdrawal avoidance, reactivity-coercion, and distress avoidance) were observed during a series of structured parent-child interaction tasks. Results of path analyses showed no ITT effects on fathers' ERPPs, but emotion regulation difficulties significantly moderated ITT effects on distress avoidance. Fathers with higher levels of emotion regulation difficulties at baseline showed decreases in distress avoidance behaviors at 1 year if randomized to the intervention condition. Emotion regulation difficulties also significantly mediated the program's effect on reductions in reactivity coercion for fathers with high levels of emotion regulation difficulties at baseline. These findings highlight parental emotion regulation as a key baseline target of the ADAPT program and provide insight into how and for whom a parenting program improves parenting practices.
曾暴露于与战斗相关的创伤性事件的军人可能会表现出情绪调节问题，这可能会影响与情绪相关的育儿实践（ERPP）。部署后，适应育儿工具（ADAPT）是专为军人家庭开发的一种预防干预措施，旨在改善育儿行为，包括 ERPP。父母的情绪调节困难可能会影响父母对该育儿计划的反应。因此，本研究旨在使用基线目标调节中介设计来检验 ADAPT 计划对部署中的父亲在 1 年随访时的与情绪相关的育儿实践（ERPP）的意向治疗（ITT）效果，以及父亲情绪调节困难的调节和中介作用。样本包括 181 名部署中的父亲及其 4-13 岁的孩子。在基线和 1 年时，通过一系列结构化的父母-孩子互动任务观察父亲的 ERPP（即积极参与、回避退缩、反应性强迫和回避痛苦）。路径分析的结果显示，ADAPT 计划对父亲的 ERPP 没有 ITT 影响，但情绪调节困难显著调节了 ITT 对回避痛苦的影响。与基线时情绪调节困难程度较高的父亲相比，如果随机分配到干预组，其在 1 年时回避痛苦行为的减少幅度更大。情绪调节困难也显著介导了该计划对基线时情绪调节困难程度较高的父亲减少反应性强迫的影响。这些发现强调了父母的情绪调节是 ADAPT 计划的一个关键基线目标，并提供了有关育儿计划如何以及为何改善育儿实践的见解。
