Intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation through parents' reactions to children's negative emotions: Tests of unique, actor, partner, and mediating effects

Danli Li, Dongping Li, Nini Wu and Zhenhong Wang

Children and Youth Services Review, 2019, vol. 101, issue C, 113-122

Abstract: This study examined the unique contributions of paternal and maternal emotion dysregulation to children's emotion regulation and lability, and whether parental emotion dysregulation was transmitted to their children indirectly through their own and their spouses' reactions to children's negative emotions. Participants were 118 couples in families with at least one school-age child in Guangdong province, southern China. Fathers and mothers reported on difficulties in their emotion regulation, their reactions to children's negative emotions, and their perceptions of children's emotion regulation and lability. Results revealed that both paternal and maternal emotion dysregulation were uniquely associated with children's emotion regulation and lability. Furthermore, significant actor effects were found between paternal and maternal emotion dysregulation and their own reactions to children's negative emotions, whereas only one significant partner effect was found between maternal emotion dysregulation and paternal reactions to children's negative emotions. Additionally, the relationship between maternal emotion dysregulation and fathers' report of children's emotion regulation was mediated by maternal unsupportive reactions and paternal supportive reactions, and the relationship between paternal emotion dysregulation and fathers' report of children's emotion regulation was mediated by paternal supportive reactions. These findings illustrated the mechanism of intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation.

Keywords: Parental emotion dysregulation; children's emotion regulation; Intergenerational transmission; Mediating effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:101:y:2019:i:c:p:113-122

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.03.038

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