Hong Yelim, McCormick Sarah A, Deater-Deckard Kirby, Calkins Susan D, Bell Martha Ann
University of Massachusetts Amherst.
University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Soc Dev. 2021 Aug;30(3):786-805. doi: 10.1111/sode.12500. Epub 2020 Dec 11.
Parents' responses to children's negative emotional states play a key role in the socialization of emotion regulation skills in childhood. Much of the prior research on child ER has focused on early development using cross-sectional designs. The current study addresses these gaps by using a longitudinal design to examine individual differences of ER at two times points in middle childhood. We examined the development of children's ER by testing hypotheses about the interplay of parent response to emotions and household chaos in the prediction of individual differences in children's ER. Participants were the mothers of children at 6 and 9 years of age among 224 families in a socioeconomically diverse sample that was part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Mothers completed questionnaires regarding themselves, their children, and their home environment. Mothers' reports of better child ER at both time points were positively associated with mothers' more supportive responses and negatively associated with mothers' less non-supportive responses, as well as lower household chaos. Chaos statistically moderated the link between non-supportive parental responses to emotion and child ER, but only at 6 years of age. The strength of the link between child ER and non-supportive parental responses to emotions was strong only at lower levels of household chaos. At the beginning of middle childhood, family processes linking parent responses to child emotions and children's developing ER may not function at higher levels of household chaos.
父母对孩子负面情绪状态的反应在儿童情绪调节技能的社会化过程中起着关键作用。先前关于儿童情绪调节的许多研究都采用横断面设计聚焦于早期发展。本研究通过纵向设计来填补这些空白，以考察童年中期两个时间点上情绪调节的个体差异。我们通过检验关于父母情绪反应与家庭混乱在预测儿童情绪调节个体差异中相互作用的假设，来研究儿童情绪调节的发展。参与者是来自224个家庭中6岁和9岁孩子的母亲，这些家庭构成了一个社会经济背景多样的样本，是一项正在进行的纵向研究的一部分。母亲们完成了关于她们自己、孩子以及家庭环境的问卷。母亲在两个时间点对孩子更好的情绪调节的报告，与母亲更具支持性的反应呈正相关，与母亲较少的非支持性反应呈负相关，同时也与较低的家庭混乱程度相关。混乱在统计上调节了父母对情绪的非支持性反应与儿童情绪调节之间的联系，但仅在6岁时。儿童情绪调节与父母对情绪的非支持性反应之间的联系强度，仅在家庭混乱程度较低时较强。在童年中期开始时，将父母对孩子情绪的反应与孩子正在发展的情绪调节联系起来的家庭过程，在家庭混乱程度较高时可能无法有效发挥作用。
