Jacques Debrielle T, Sturge-Apple Melissa L, Davies Patrick T, Cicchetti Dante
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Department of Psychology and Mt. Hope Family Center, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2025 May;37(2):555-577. doi: 10.1017/S0954579424000324. Epub 2024 Mar 1.
Maternal insensitivity to children's emotional distress (e.g., expressions of sadness or fearfulness) is one mechanism through which maternal alcohol dependence may increase children's risk for psychopathology. Although emotion dysregulation is consistently associated with psychopathology, it remains unclear how or why alcohol dependence's effects on caregiving responses to children's distress may impact children's emotion regulation over time, particularly in ways that may engender risks for psychopathology. This study examined longitudinal associations between lifetime maternal alcohol dependence symptoms, mothers' insensitivity to children's emotional distress cues, and children's emotional reactivity among 201 mother-child dyads ( = 2.14 years; 56% Black; 11% Latino). Structural equation modeling analyses revealed a significant mediational pathway such that maternal alcohol dependence predicted increases in mothers' insensitivity to children's emotional distress across a one-year period ( = .16, = .013), which subsequently predicted decreases in children's emotional reactivity one year later ( = -.29, = .009). Results suggest that mothers with alcohol dependence symptoms may struggle to sensitively respond to children's emotional distress, which may prompt children to suppress or hide their emotions as an adaptive, protective strategy. The potential developmental benefits and consequences of early, protective expressive suppression strategies are discussed via developmental psychopathology frameworks.
母亲对孩子情绪困扰（如悲伤或恐惧的表达）不敏感，是母亲酒精依赖可能增加孩子精神病理学风险的一种机制。尽管情绪调节障碍一直与精神病理学相关，但目前尚不清楚酒精依赖对孩子情绪困扰时的照料反应的影响如何或为何会随着时间推移影响孩子的情绪调节，尤其是以可能导致精神病理学风险的方式。本研究调查了201对母婴二元组（平均年龄 = 2.14岁；56%为黑人；11%为拉丁裔）中母亲一生的酒精依赖症状、母亲对孩子情绪困扰线索的不敏感以及孩子的情绪反应性之间的纵向关联。结构方程模型分析揭示了一条显著的中介路径，即母亲的酒精依赖在一年时间内预测母亲对孩子情绪困扰的不敏感增加（β = .16，p = .013），这随后预测一年后孩子的情绪反应性降低（β = -.29，p = .009）。结果表明，有酒精依赖症状的母亲可能难以敏感地回应孩子的情绪困扰，这可能促使孩子将情绪压抑或隐藏起来作为一种适应性的保护策略。本文通过发展性精神病理学框架讨论了早期保护性表达抑制策略的潜在发展益处和后果。
