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Growth trajectories of parental emotion socialization and child adjustment following a military parenting intervention: A randomized controlled trial
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Abstract
Children of combat deployed parents are at risk of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Parental emotion socialization (PES) has been theorized to influence children’s behaviors, and many studies, including a few randomized trials, lend support to this theory. However, longitudinal studies with experimental designs are sparse. In the current study, we estimated growth trajectories of PES after a parenting intervention and evaluated whether PES growth predicts child outcomes in post-deployed military families. National Guard/Reserve military families with at least one deployed parent and a child aged 4-13 years were randomized into an intervention or control group. In the current study, we analyzed data from all 255 two-parent married families, who were primarily Caucasian and middle-class. PES was indicated by self-reported non-supportive and supportive reactions to children’s negative emotions at baseline, 1-year, and 2-year follow-up. Child behaviors were assessed through averaged mother- and father- reports at baseline and 2-year follow-up. Results of latent growth models showed that mothers and fathers assigned to the intervention reported improvements (i.e., steeper negative slopes) in their non-supportive PES trajectories over 2 years, relative to controls. Both mothers’ and fathers’ changes in non-supportive PES trajectories were associated with decreased internalizing behaviors in children, while only mothers’ change was associated with decreased externalizing behaviors in children. No significant findings were detected for supportive PES growth trajectories. Our findings suggest that PES appears to be a malleable and important parenting skill for post-deployed military families.
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Grounded in a conceptual model of family processes underlying socioemotional development and a contextual model of parenting style, the present study addresses the associations between parenting practices, mothers’ emotion socialization, and child adjustment in middle childhood. A total of 217 families involving mothers, fathers, and 8-year-old children (101 boys, 116 girls) were recruited to participate in this study. Findings suggested that fathers’ inconsistent discipline and positive parenting practices predicted greater and fewer children’s adjustment problems, respectively, over and above the effect of mothers’ parenting practices. Mothers’ emotion discussion with children predicted children’s lower externalizing problems. Mothers’ emotion discussion further buffered the association between mothers’ inconsistent discipline and children’s internalizing problems, such that children exhibited fewer internalizing problems when mothers engaged in moderate to high levels of emotion discussion with children. Supporting family systems theory, both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting processes contributed to child development. These findings add to the literature by providing evidence for cumulative family asset and risk underlying child adjustment. Based on the findings, scholars and practitioners may consider adding more emotion-based components of parenting to existing interventions that focus on parenting discipline.
Prior research indicates that children of deployed parents are at risk for emotional problems, suggesting the utility of preventive efforts for military families. Effective parental socialization of children’s emotions is protective for children’s development, and parental experiential avoidance may impede parental emotion socialization, yet intervention studies in this area are lacking. This study examined the impact of a parenting program, After Deployment Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT), on parental emotion socialization postintervention (6 months postbaseline) and whether intervention effects were moderated by parental experiential avoidance. The sample included 336 families (294 fathers and 313 mothers) with at least 1 deployed parent and a focal child aged 4–12. Families were randomized into either ADAPT (a 14-week group-based intervention) or control group. Self-reported data on parental emotion socialization and experiential avoidance were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that mothers who were assigned to the intervention had significant improved supportive emotion socialization and reduced nonsupportive emotion socialization at postintervention compared with controls. Mothers with higher levels of experiential avoidance assigned to the intervention group had higher levels of supportive emotion socialization at postintervention. No significant intervention effects were found in fathers. This study provides support for the effects of the ADAPT program on maternal emotion socialization at 6-month postbaseline, and the role of experiential avoidance as a moderator. We discuss findings in relation to the different parental roles that mothers and fathers play in postdeployed families, as well as implications for personalized intervention programming.
Mindfulness has drawn increased attention in prevention programs targeting parents. Commonly, mindfulness-based programs are provided to reduce parental stress and improve child outcomes. Less often, researchers incorporate a mindfulness-informed approach, integrating a low dose of mindfulness exercises into an existing evidence-based parent training model. Little is known about participant engagement with mindfulness exercises in such programs. This non-experimental study focuses on families who are at risk for impaired parenting due to the unique stressor of a parent’s deployment to war. The goal is to examine military parents’ online engagement in mindfulness exercises and associations between engagement and dispositional mindfulness within a web-enhanced parent training program. Online tracking records and self-reported data were obtained from 370 military parents (207 families) who were assigned to the program; at 6-month follow-up, 68.6% of these parents were retained (at least one parent reported from 75.4% of families). Results showed that nearly half (44.6%) of the parents engaged with the exercises. Participants who attended face-to-face group sessions (i.e., attendees) engaged throughout the intervention period, whereas participants who never attended group sessions (i.e., non-attendees) mostly engaged during the first month in the program. Attendees and mothers engaged more than non-attendees and fathers. While engaged parents self-reported increased dispositional mindfulness at 6-month follow-up compared to baseline, only mothers’ engagement accounted for a significant proportion of the variance (3%) in dispositional mindfulness at 6-month follow-up, after controlling for covariates. Implications for incorporating online mindfulness exercises into parent training are discussed in the context of programming for military families.
Depression in mothers is a significant risk factor for the development of maladjustment in children. This article focuses on modifiable risk processes linking depression in mothers and adaptation in their young children (i.e., infancy through preschool age). First, the authors present evidence of the efficacy of interventions for reducing the primary source of risk: maternal depression. Second, they describe a central mechanism—parenting behaviors—underlying the relation between maternal depression and children's adjustment. Third, the authors recommend two different integrated interventions that successfully treat mothers’ depression and enhance parenting skills with infants and young children. Finally, the authors note the possible need for supplementary interventions to address severity and comorbidity of mothers’ depression, barriers to engaging in treatment, and the sustainability of program benefits.
Compiled in this Special Section are recommendations from multiple experts on how to maximize resilience among children at risk for maladjustment. Contributors delineated processes with relatively strong effects and modifiable by behavioral interventions. Commonly highlighted was fostering the well-being of caregivers via regular support, reduction of maltreatment while promoting positive parenting, and strengthening emotional self-regulation of caregivers and children. In future work, there must be more attention to developing and testing interventions within real-world settings (not just in laboratories) and to ensuring feasibility in procedures, costs, and assessments involved. Such movement will require shifts in funding priorities—currently focused largely on biological processes—toward maximizing the benefits from large-scale, empirically supported intervention programs for today's at-risk youth and families.
Background:
Some evidence suggests parents are drawn to media-based interventions over face-to-face interventions, but little is known about the factors associated with parents' use of Internet-based or Internet-enhanced programs, especially among military families. Research is needed to understand characteristics of parents who may be most likely to use online components or attend face-to-face meetings in order to ensure maximum engagement.
Objective:
In this study, we examined characteristics that predict various patterns of Internet use and face-to-face attendance in a parenting program designed for military families.
Methods:
An ecological framework guided analysis of differences in patterns of Internet-based use and face-to-face attendance by parents' demographic characteristics (gender, education, employment, and child age), incentives offered, and number of months the parent was deployed. We reported differences in the total number of online components completed over the 14 modules, total number of face-to-face sessions attended, and the use of different types of online components accessed (videos, downloadable handouts, mindfulness exercises, knowledge checks, and downloadable summaries). Then, we computed multinomial logistic regression accounting for nestedness (parents within families) to examine associations between demographic, programmatic, and military-related characteristics and patterns of engagement (use of online components and attendance at face-to-face sessions).
Results:
Just over half (52.2%, 193/370) of the participants used the online components at least once, and the majority of participants (73.2%, 271/370) attended at least 1 face-to-face session. An examination of different patterns of participation revealed that compared with those who participated primarily in face-to-face sessions, parents who participated online but had little face-to-face participation were more likely to have received incentives than those who did not (95% CI 1.9-129.7). Among participants who had been deployed, those who had earned a 4-year degree (95% CI 1.0-2.2) and those who had been offered incentives to participate online (95% CI 2.1-58.6) were more likely to be highly engaged in online components and attend face-to-face compared with those who attended primarily face-to-face. However, those with a high number of months of deployment (95% CI 0.6-1.0) were less likely to be in the pattern of highly engaged in online components and face-to-face attendance. Compared with those who participated primarily face-to-face, deployed mothers were about 4 times more likely to engage in moderate online use with face-to-face attendance than deployed fathers (95% CI 1.21-11.83) and participate primarily online (95% CI 0.77-25.20).
Conclusions:
Results imply that parents may be drawn to different delivery options of a parenting program (online components vs face-to-face sessions) depending on their education level, incentives to engage in online components, and their military-related experience. Results suggest potential directions for tailoring Internet-based interventions.
The concept of parental meta-emotion philosophy (PMEP)—the idea that parents have an organized set of beliefs, thoughts, and feelings about their own and their children's emotions—was introduced in 1996. Since then, empirical studies have examined the validity of the PMEP construct in relation to children's psychosocial adjustment and parent and child characteristics. This article reviews the current state of knowledge regarding PMEP, summarizing what the field has learned, and identifying critical directions for future research.
The current study examines whether the relation between mothers' responses to their children's negative emotions and teachers' reports of children's academic performance and social-emotional competence are similar or different for European American and African American families. Two hundred mothers (137 European American, 63 African American) reported on their responses to their 5-year-old children's negative emotions and 150 kindergarten teachers reported on these children's current academic standing and skillfulness with peers. Problem-focused responses to children's negative emotions, which have traditionally been considered a supportive response, were positively associated with children's school competence for European American children, but expressive encouragement, another response considered supportive, was negatively associated with children's competence for African American children. The findings highlight the need to examine parental socialization practices from a culturally-specific lens.
Reviews research on the relationship between extra familial stressors (e.g., unemployment, low socioeconomic status), interpersonal stressors (e.g., marital distress, divorce), and child stressors and parents' perceptions and family interactions in families with conduct-problem children. Various stressors appear to have the power to disrupt parenting practices seriously by causing some parents to be more irritable, critical, and punitive. Such parenting behaviors increase the likelihood that children develop conduct problems, setting in motion a cycle of negative parent-child interactions and further stress on the parents. This process appears to be mediated by patents' psychological well being, quality of social support or degree of isolation, sex and drug use.
This article introduces the concepts of parental
meta-emotion, which refers to parents' emotions about their own and their children's emotions, and
meta-emotion philosophy, which refers to an organized set of thoughts and metaphors, a philosophy, and an approach to one's own emotions and to one's children's emotions. In the context of a longitudinal study beginning when the children were 5 years old and ending when they were 8 years old, a theoretical model and path analytic models are presented that relate parental meta-emotion philosophy to parenting, to child regulatory physiology, to emotion regulation abilities in the child, and to child outcomes in middle childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The relations of parents' warmth, emotional expressivity, and discussion of emotion to 2nd–5th graders' regulation of emotional expressivity, externalizing problem behaviors, and expressivity were examined. Parents' and children's facial expressions to evocative slides were observed, as was parents' discussion of the slides, and parents and teachers provided information on children's regulation of expressivity and problem behavior. Analyses supported the hypothesis that the effect of parental variables on children's problem behavior was at least partly indirect through their children's regulation of emotion. Children's low negative (versus positive) facial expressivity to negative slides was associated with problem behavior for boys. A reversed model did not support the possibility that children's functioning had causal effects on parenting. The findings suggest that parents' emotion-related behaviors are linked to children's regulation of expressivity and externalizing behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In a three-path mediational model, two mediators intervene in a series between an independent and a dependent variable. Methods of testing for mediation in such a model are generalized from the more often used single-mediator model. Six such methods are introduced and compared in a Monte Carlo study in terms of their Type I error, power, and coverage. Based on its results, the joint significance test is preferred when only a hypothesis test is of interest. The percentile bootstrap and bias-corrected bootstrap are preferred when a confidence interval on the mediated effect is desired, with the latter having more power but also slightly inflated Type I error in some conditions.
We observed the positive emotion socialization practice of parental emotion coaching (EC) and the negative socialization practice of emotion dismissing (ED) during a family interaction task and examined their effects on children's emotion regulation and behavior problems in middle childhood. Participants were 87 sociodemographically diverse families (children aged 8–11 years; 46 girls). Outcome measures included mother, father and teacher reports of emotion regulation and behavior problems. ED was a risk factor, contributing to poorer emotion regulation and more behavioral problems. EC did not offer direct benefits for children's emotional and behavioral outcomes, but interacted with ED such that it protected children from the detrimental effects of ED. This protective effect was found for parents' coaching of negative but not positive emotions. Findings suggested that in family emotion conversation, EC and ED interact in complex ways as risk and protective dimensions of family process.
This article reports on an effectiveness trial of the Tuning in to Kids (TIK) parenting program. TIK aims to improve emotion socialization practices in parents of preschool children; it is a universal prevention program that teaches parents the skills of emotion coaching and also targets parents' own emotion awareness and regulation. The present study followed a 2 × 2 (Treatment Condition × Time) design. One hundred twenty-eight parents of children ages 4.0-5.11 years were recruited from preschools and randomized into intervention and waitlist conditions. Parents in the intervention condition (n = 62) attended a six-session group parenting program delivered by community practitioners who followed intervention fidelity protocols. Parents and preschool teachers completed questionnaires twice during the preschool year: at preintervention and at follow-up (approximately 7 months later). Parents reported on their emotion socialization beliefs and practices, other parenting practices, and on child behavior. Teachers reported on child behavior (Social Competence and Anger-Aggression). Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. At follow-up, compared to the control group, intervention parents were significantly less emotionally dismissive in their beliefs, less dismissive and more coaching in their practices in response to children's negative emotions, and more positively involved. Although there were improvements in both conditions over time for parent-reported child behavior and teacher-reported social competence, compared to the waitlist group, intervention parents reported a significantly greater reduction in number of behavior problems. This trial demonstrates the potential for community agencies and practitioners in real-world settings to deliver a new parenting program that targets emotional communication in parent-child relationships.
Relations of toddlers' observed negative affect in high- and low-threat contexts to maternal perceptions of their toddlers' internalizing problems and to mothers' responses to emotions (RTE) for fear and sadness were examined. Child-driven, parent-driven, and reciprocal transactional models across 1 year were directly compared. Two-year-old toddlers (N = 106) participated in lab-based activities to elicit distress, and their negative affect was coded. Mothers completed measures of their child's internalizing behaviors and their responses to their toddler's fear and sadness at ages 2 and 3. At age 2, only negative affect in low-threat contexts was associated with greater internalizing problems. Mothers' punishing and minimizing RTE at age 2 predicted an increase in internalizing problems across 1 year. Age 2 internalizing problems predicted an increase in mother's use of supportive RTE over time. Results highlight the importance of considering the context of toddlers' negative affective displays and supported a reciprocal conceptualization of toddlers' internalizing behaviors and mothers' RTE.
Effects of intervention with the Oregon model of Parent Management Training (PMTO) on marital relationship processes and marital satisfaction in recently married biological mother and stepfather couples were examined. Sixty-seven of the 110 participating families were randomly assigned to PMTO, and 43 families to a non-intervention condition. Intervention had reliable positive indirect effects on marital relationship processes 24 months after baseline which in turn were associated with higher marital satisfaction. These indirect effects were mediated by the impact of PMTO on parenting practices 6 months after baseline. Enhanced parenting practices resulting from PMTO prevented escalation of subsequent child behavior problems at school. Consistent with a family systems perspective and research on challenges to marital quality in stepfamilies, improved co-parenting practices were associated with enhanced marital relationship skills and marital satisfaction as well as with prevention of child behavior problems.
The present research examined parental beliefs about children's negative emotions, parent-reported marital conflict/ambivalence, and child negative emotionality and gender as predictors of mothers' and fathers' reported reactions to their kindergarten children's negative emotions and self-expressiveness in the family (N = 55, two-parent families). Models predicting parents' nonsupportive reactions and negative expressiveness were significant. For both mothers and fathers, more accepting beliefs about children's negative emotions were associated with fewer nonsupportive reactions, and greater marital conflict/ambivalence was associated with more negative expressiveness. Furthermore, interactions between child negative emotionality and parental resources (e.g., marital conflict/ambivalence; accepting beliefs) emerged for fathers' nonsupportive reactions and mothers' negative expressiveness. In some instances, child gender acted as a moderator such that associations between parental beliefs about emotions and the emotion socialization outcomes emerged when child and parent gender were concordant.
The use of growth-modeling analysis (GMA)--including hierarchical linear models, latent growth models, and general estimating equations--to evaluate interventions in psychology, psychiatry, and prevention science has grown rapidly over the last decade. However, an effect size associated with the difference between the trajectories of the intervention and control groups that captures the treatment effect is rarely reported. This article first reviews 2 classes of formulas for effect sizes associated with classical repeated-measures designs that use the standard deviation of either change scores or raw scores for the denominator. It then broadens the scope to subsume GMA and demonstrates that the independent groups, within-subjects, pretest-posttest control-group, and GMA designs all estimate the same effect size when the standard deviation of raw scores is uniformly used. Finally, the article shows that the correct effect size for treatment efficacy in GMA--the difference between the estimated means of the 2 groups at end of study (determined from the coefficient for the slope difference and length of study) divided by the baseline standard deviation--is not reported in clinical trials.
The prospective relation of maternal emotion philosophy to children's emotion understanding and regulation and positive and negative adjustment was investigated. Sixty-nine African American youth (50% male; M age = 11.29 years) and their maternal caregivers living in high violence areas of a midsized city participated in this interview study. Caregivers' meta-emotion philosophy predicted child emotion understanding and emotion regulation, which also were associated with Time 2 grades, internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and social skills after controlling for Time 1 adjustment. Emotional understanding mediated the relationship between caregivers' emotional socialization and boys' internalizing behaviors and between caregivers' emotional socialization and girls' social skills. In addition, emotion regulation mediated the relationships between emotional socialization and all four outcomes for boys. Implications for future work on emotion socialization and clinical intervention, particularly related to emotion regulation, are discussed.
To describe the effect of wartime military deployments on the behavior of young children in military families.
Cross-sectional study.
Childcare centers on a large Marine base.
Parents and childcare providers of children aged 1(1/2) to 5 years enrolled in on-base childcare centers. Main Exposure Parental deployment.
Mean externalizing, internalizing, and total symptom scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (1(1/2)-5 years) and the CBCL-Teacher Report Form (TRF) (1(1/2)-5 years).
One hundred sixty-nine of 233 consenting families (73%) participated. Nonresponders did not differ from responders in their child's age or TRF scores. Fifty-five children (33%) had a deployed parent. Parents with children aged 3 years or older and a deployed spouse had significantly higher depression scores than those without a deployed spouse. There were no differences in the demographic characteristics between groups. After controlling for respondent's age, stress and depressive symptoms, deployed service member's rank, and total number of children in the home, we found an age by deployment interaction: children aged 3 years or older with a deployed parent had significantly higher CBCL externalizing and total scores (externalizing, 48.50 vs 43.31, P < .05; total, 47.71 vs 42.68, P < .05) and externalizing and total TRF scores (externalizing, 50.21 vs 45.62, P < .05; total, 48.54 vs 43.73, P < .05) compared with same-aged peers without a deployed parent.
This study is the first to show that children aged 3 years or older with a deployed parent exhibit increased behavioral symptoms compared with peers without a deployed parent after controlling for caregiver's stress and depressive symptoms.
This randomized experimental prevention study (a) evaluated the effectiveness of a parent-training program in a sample of 238 divorcing mothers with sons in Grades 1-3 and (b) provided an experimental test of coercion theory. The intervention produced reductions in observed coercive parenting, prevented decay in positive parenting, and generally improved effective parenting practices in comparisons of mothers in experimental and control groups. Moreover, coercion theory was supported. Improved parenting practices correlated significantly with improvements in teacher-reported school adjustment, child-reported maladjustment, and mother-reported maladjustment. The intervention indirectly benefitted child outcomes through improved parenting practices for a model based on child report and, to a lesser extent, on teacher report. The intervention did not produce direct effects on child outcomes.
A Monte Carlo study compared 14 methods to test the statistical significance of the intervening variable effect. An intervening variable (mediator) transmits the effect of an independent variable to a dependent variable. The commonly used R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) approach has low statistical power. Two methods based on the distribution of the product and 2 difference-in-coefficients methods have the most accurate Type I error rates and greatest statistical power except in 1 important case in which Type I error rates are too high. The best balance of Type I error and statistical power across all cases is the test of the joint significance of the two effects comprising the intervening variable effect.
Research on emotional development and emotion socialization emphasize the importance of supportive parent-child emotion communication, yet most empirically supported parenting interventions omit guidance on emotion communication skills. The primary goal of this paper is to introduce the Let's Connect emotion-focused parenting intervention as an innovative treatment modality for increasing supportive emotion socialization in families, drawing on developmental theory as a guiding framework. We provide an overview of the background for and development of Let's Connect. Results of a pilot study with 34 caregivers of school-age children (Mage = 8.45) in a community sample demonstrated significant increases in supportive emotion communication practices (e.g., listening and connection, labeling feelings, emotion support) as well as significant reductions in unsupportive emotion communication practices (e.g., invalidating or critical responses) from pre- to post-intervention, with gains maintained over a three-month period. Future directions and clinical applications of this intervention module are discussed.
Fathers play an important role in shaping their children's emotional competence although most literature has focused on the influence of mothers. Dads Tuning in to Kids (Dads TIK) is a parenting program that teaches fathers to coach their children in learning about emotions, while also helping fathers increase awareness and regulation of their own emotions. A randomized controlled efficacy trial of Dads TIK was conducted with a community sample of 162 fathers of a 4‐year old child attending preschool in Melbourne, Australia. Those allocated to the intervention attended a 7‐session manualized group program. Questionnaires were completed by fathers, the fathers’ partners and the children's teachers at baseline and 6 month follow‐up. Results were that fathers in the intervention condition but not control condition reported significant increases in emotional socialization, parenting satisfaction and efficacy, and reductions in their children's difficult behaviors. Partners of fathers in the intervention condition reported reductions in their own emotion dismissing parenting and improvements in psychological wellbeing. Partners and teachers reported significant improvements in children's behavior across both intervention and control conditions. These findings suggest a father‐focused program appears to lead to changes in fathers’ emotion socialization skills that may have benefits for partners’ functioning and children's behavior.
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A body of literature connects parental emotion socialization behaviors to child outcomes, though little research attention has been devoted to parents’ culturally embedded socialization goals that influence their socialization behaviors in diverse samples. In the present study, we examined interrelations among maternal socialization goals, emotion socialization behaviors, and child functioning in families from 2 major Asian countries, China and India. A total of 305 6th and 7th grade children and their mothers across both countries participated. Mothers completed measures of their socialization goals, their responses to children’s emotions, child behavior problems, and children competed a measure of emotion regulation (ER) at a single point in time. Factor analysis of the measure of parental responses to children’s emotions yielded 2 factors (supportive and nonsupportive responses), with some items from the commonly used parent-report measure Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (Fabes, Eisenberg, & Bernzweig, 1990), while others reflected culturally salient socialization approaches in Asia (i.e., child training, explanation). Using these data-driven supportive and nonsupportive response composites, mediation models were tested for the full sample. Reports of mothers’ supportive responses and child ER sequentially mediated the relation between maternal relational socialization goals and child internalizing problems. Reports of child emotion dysregulation mediated the relation between maternal nonsupportive responses and child externalizing problems. Findings of this study highlight the relevance of culturally salient parental socialization goals and socialization behaviors in understanding child functioning in diverse cultural groups.
Background:
Although direct exposure to war-related trauma negatively impacts children's psychological well-being, little is known about this impact within the context of parental military deployment to a combat zone and 'indirect' experience of the effects of armed conflict. This study investigates the impact of father's military deployment to Afghanistan on child well-being in primary schoolchildren and compares measures of adjustment with a matched group of children with fathers deployed on military training (non-combat) deployment.
Method:
Data were collected within primary schools in 2011-2012 from 52 children aged 8-11 years with fathers deploying to Afghanistan ( n = 26) and fathers deploying on military training ( n = 26) via self-completion of questionnaires assessing symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress and levels of self-esteem. Data were collected in both groups, at pre-, mid- and post-parental deployment. Class teachers and parents (non-deployed) completed a measure of child behaviour and parents completed a measure of parenting stress and general health.
Results:
Unexpectedly child adjustment difficulties were not significantly raised in children whose parents deployed to Afghanistan. Ratings of behavioural difficulties and depression were low in both groups. However, clinically elevated levels of anxiety and stress symptoms were reported by both groups of children at each stage of deployment. No associations between parental stress, parental mental health and child adjustment were found.
Conclusion:
High levels of children's anxiety and stress reported during fathers' active military service warrant further investigation. Implications for school and health monitoring and CAMHS community liaison work are discussed.
Regulating emotions well is critical for promoting social and emotional health among children and adolescents. Parents play a prominent role in how children develop emotion regulation. In 2007, Morris et al. proposed a tripartite model suggesting that parents influence children's emotion regulation through three mechanisms: children's observation of parents' emotion regulation, emotion-related parenting practices, and the emotional climate of the family. Over the past decade, we have conducted many studies that support this model, which we summarize here along with other research related to parenting and emotion regulation. We also discuss recent research on the effects of parenting on the neural circuitry involved in emotion regulation and highlight potential directions for research. Finally, we suggest how this research can aid prevention and intervention efforts to help families.
The current study examines a military family stress model, evaluating associations between deployment-related stressors (i.e., deployment length/number, posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] symptoms) and parent, child, parenting, and dyadic adjustment among families in which a parent had previously deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan in the recent conflicts. Married families (N = 293) with at least one child between the ages of 4 and 12 were recruited from a Midwestern state. Service members were from the Reserve Component (National Guard or Reserves); fathers (N = 253) and/or mothers had deployed (N = 45) to the recent conflicts in the Middle East. Multiple-method (observations of parenting and couple interactions; questionnaires) and multiple informant measures were gathered online and in the homes of participants, from parents, children, and teachers. Findings demonstrated associations between mothers' and fathers' PTSD symptoms and a latent variable of child adjustment comprising teacher, parent, and child report. Mothers' but not fathers' PTSD symptoms were also associated with dyadic adjustment and parenting practices; parenting practices were in turn associated with child adjustment. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for military family stress research and interventions to support and strengthen parents and families after deployment.
This report uses 6-year outcomes of the Oregon Divorce Study to examine the processes by which parenting practices affect deviant peer association during two developmental stages: early to middle childhood and late childhood to early adolescence. The participants were 238 newly divorced mothers and their 5- to 8-year-old sons who were randomly assigned to Parent Management Training—Oregon Model (PMTO ® ) or to a no-treatment control group. Parenting practices, child delinquent behavior, and deviant peer association were repeatedly assessed from baseline to 6 years after baseline using multiple methods and informants. PMTO had a beneficial effect on parenting practices relative to the control group. Two stage models linking changes in parenting generated by PMTO to children's growth in deviant peer association were supported. During the early to middle childhood stage, the relationship of improved parenting practices on deviant peer association was moderated by family socioeconomic status (SES); effective parenting was particularly important in mitigating deviant peer association for lower SES families whose children experience higher densities of deviant peers in schools and neighborhoods. During late childhood and early adolescence, the relationship of improved parenting to youths' growth in deviant peer association was mediated by reductions in the growth of delinquency during childhood; higher levels of early delinquency are likely to promote deviant peer association through processes of selective affiliation and reciprocal deviancy training. The results are discussed in terms of multilevel developmental progressions of diminished parenting, child involvement in deviancy producing processes in peer groups, and increased variety and severity of antisocial behavior, all exacerbated by ecological risks associated with low family SES.
In the families of the new cohort of war veterans now entering the civilian population in the United States are over two million young children (Cozza, Haskins & Lerner, 2013; Institute of Medicine, 2013). Several noteworthy studies have shown that children exposed to separation from a parent due to combat-related deployment are at elevated risk for a variety of negative consequences (Lester & Flake, 2013). Cozza et al. (2013) argue that existing studies of military children focus too much on the stresses or deficits they experience, failing to give sufficient attention to their strengths, the strengths of their families, or the supports around them. In the current study we focus on risk and promotive factors in the lives of children aged 0-10 in military families. We examine the likelihood of negative outcomes as functions of additive, cumulative, and interactive relationships between risk and promotive factors and children's outcomes. Risk factors, particularly parental depression, community poverty, and cumulative risk, were more strongly associated with children's outcomes than promotive factors. There was, however, a significant risk-protective relationship between accumulations of risk and promotive factors, consistent with promotive conditions operating in a protective fashion under conditions of elevated risk.
This study examined the relation between parent psychopathology symptoms and emotion socialization practices in a sample of mothers and fathers of preschool-aged children with behavior problems (N = 109, M age = 44.60 months, 50 % male). Each parent completed a self-report rating scale of their psychopathology symptoms and audio-recorded naturalistic interactions with their children, which were coded for reactions to child negative affect. Results supported a spillover hypothesis for mothers. Specifically, mothers who reported greater overall psychopathology symptoms, anxiety symptoms, substance use, and borderline and Cluster A personality symptoms were more likely to exhibit non-supportive reactions. Additionally, mothers who reported greater anxiety and Cluster A personality symptoms were more likely to not respond to child negative affect. Compensatory and crossover hypotheses were also supported. Partners of mothers who reported high levels of anxiety were more likely to use supportive reactions to child negative affect. In contrast, partners of mothers who reported high levels of borderline and Cluster A personality symptoms and overall psychopathology symptoms were more likely to show non-supportive reactions. With the exception of borderline personality symptoms, fathers' psychopathology was unrelated to parental responses to child negative affect. Results highlight the importance of maternal psychopathology in parental emotion socialization practices.
How are children’s lives altered when a parent goes off to war? What aspects of combat deployment are most likely to put children at risk for psychological and other problems, and what resources for resilience can they tap to overcome such hardships and thrive?
To answer these questions, Patricia Lester and Lieutenant Colonel Eric Flake first examine the deployment cycle, a multistage process that begins with a period of anxious preparation after a family receives notice that a parent will be sent into combat. Perhaps surprisingly, for many families, they write, the most stressful part of the deployment cycle is not the long months of separation that follow but the postdeployment period, when service members, having come home from war, must be reintegrated into families whose internal rhythms have changed and where children have taken on new roles. Lester and Flake then walk us through a range of theoretical perspectives that help us understand the interconnected environments in which military children live their lives, from the dynamics of the family system itself to the external contexts of the communities where they live and the military culture that helps form their identity.
The authors conclude that policy makers can help military-connected children and their families cope with deployment by, among other things, strengthening community support services and adopting public health education measures that are designed to reduce the stigma of seeking treatment for psychological distress. They warn, however, that much recent research on military children’s response to deployment is flawed in various ways, and they call for better-designed, longer-term studies as well as more rigorous evaluation of existing and future support programs.
Associations among parental behaviors, children's emotional reactivity, and dimensions of children's social competence were examined. Fourth grade children (N = 103) and their parents participated in a laboratory discussion task. Parent-child relationship qualities, parental emotion socialization behaviors, measures of children's emotional regulatory abilities, and social competence (assessed by teachers and peers) were obtained. Results indicated that parents' behaviors in the discussion task were related to both children's emotional and social competence. Both mothers' and fathers' behaviors were linked to children's emotional regulatory abilities and social competence. In addition, children's emotional regulation was related to children's social competence. Only limited evidence of the mediating role of emotion regulation was found. Implications for relative roles of mothers and fathers in the emergence of emotional and social competence were noted.
Parent Management Training Oregon model (PMTO) is a manualized set of procedures designed for parents of antisocial children (Bank, Rains, & Forgatch, 2004; Forgatch, 1994). Three randomized trials for small samples of clinical referrals showed the training was effective (Patterson, Chamberlain, & Reid, 1982; Walter & Gillmore, 1973; Wiltz & Patterson, 1974). The effects were further replicated in randomized trials with chronic offending delinquents (Bank, Marlowe, Reid, Patterson, & Weinrott, 1991). Chamberlain (1990) and Eddy, Whaley, and Chamberlain (2004) applied PMTO techniques to randomized trials for chronic offenders in foster care settings. The procedures were also adapted for randomized trial prevention studies involving preadolescents at risk for substance use (Dishion, Patterson, & Kavanagh, 1992), recently divorced mothers (Forgatch & DeGarmo, 1999), stepparent families (Forgatch, DeGarmo, & Beldavs, in press), and families living in high crime areas (Reid, Eddy, Fetrow, & Stoolmiller, 1999). One of the unusual features of the PMTO approach is that it is tied to a theory about the causes of aggression (Patterson, 1982; Reid, Patterson, & Snyder, 2002). The theory includes a specification of the measurement models that describe the contributions of parents, siblings, and peers in determining a wide spectrum of child outcomes (Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992). Recent studies used randomized prevention and intervention trials to provide experimental tests of the causal status for the key mechanisms (Chamberlain, Fisher, & Moore, 2002; Forgatch & DeGarmo, 1999, 2002). Recent studies have also introduced some interesting developments in the underlying theory. These, in turn, point to the need for modifications in the intervention. This report summarizes the recent innovations together with some targeted areas of change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Parent-reported reactions to children's negative emotions and child negative emotionality were investigated as correlates of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Children (N = 107) and their parents participated in a short-term longitudinal study of social development. Mothers and fathers independently completed questionnaires assessing parental reactions to their child's negative emotions and child negative emotionality at Time 1 (33 months) and child behavior problems at Time 2 (39 months). Child negative emotionality was significantly related to greater internalizing and externalizing behavior. Maternal and paternal punitive reactions were related to greater internalizing behavior, but only for boys with high levels of negative emotionality. Results indicate that child temperament and child gender may be important moderators of the relation between parental emotion socialization and child internalizing problems during the toddler and early preschool years.
This article examines the adequacy of the “rules of thumb” conventional cutoff criteria and several new alternatives for various fit indexes used to evaluate model fit in practice. Using a 2‐index presentation strategy, which includes using the maximum likelihood (ML)‐based standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) and supplementing it with either Tucker‐Lewis Index (TLI), Bollen's (1989) Fit Index (BL89), Relative Noncentrality Index (RNI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Gamma Hat, McDonald's Centrality Index (Mc), or root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), various combinations of cutoff values from selected ranges of cutoff criteria for the ML‐based SRMR and a given supplemental fit index were used to calculate rejection rates for various types of true‐population and misspecified models; that is, models with misspecified factor covariance(s) and models with misspecified factor loading(s). The results suggest that, for the ML method, a cutoff value close to .95 for TLI, BL89, CFI, RNI, and Gamma Hat; a cutoff value close to .90 for Mc; a cutoff value close to .08 for SRMR; and a cutoff value close to .06 for RMSEA are needed before we can conclude that there is a relatively good fit between the hypothesized model and the observed data. Furthermore, the 2‐index presentation strategy is required to reject reasonable proportions of various types of true‐population and misspecified models. Finally, using the proposed cutoff criteria, the ML‐based TLI, Mc, and RMSEA tend to overreject true‐population models at small sample size and thus are less preferable when sample size is small.
Variations in parents' emotion socialization have been linked to children's social competence (SC) and behavior problems, but parental influences do not act independently of children's characteristics. A biopsychosocial model was tested, in which children's parasympathetic regulation of cardiac function and paternal and maternal socialization of negative emotions were examined as joint predictors of young children's SC and behavior problems at daycare and preschool. Mothers and fathers responded differently to children's emotions, and cardiac vagal tone moderated the relations between parents' emotion socialization and children's behavior in early childcare settings. Both maternal and paternal emotion socialization strategies were more strongly associated with preschool adjustment for children with relatively less parasympathetic self-regulatory capacities than for more self-regulated children. Paternal reactions to children's anger, and maternal responses to children's sadness and fear, were particularly closely tied to variations in SC and internalizing and externalizing problems.
This study evaluated a new prevention and early intervention parenting program: Tuning in to Kids. The program aims to improve emotion socialization practices in parents of preschool children and is based on research evidence that parents' responses to, and coaching of, their children's emotions influence emotional and behavioral functioning in children.
Two hundred and sixteen primary caregiver parents of children aged 4.0-5.11 years were randomized into an intervention or waitlist control group. Parents in the intervention condition attended a 6-session group parenting program plus two booster sessions. Assessment occurred pre-intervention, post-intervention and at six-month follow-up. Questionnaires assessed parent emotion awareness and regulation, parent beliefs and practices of emotion socialization (emotion dismissing, emotion coaching, empathy) and child behavior (parent and teacher report). Observation of emotion socialization practices and child emotional knowledge was conducted pre-intervention and at follow-up with 161 parent-child dyads.
Parents in the intervention condition reported significant improvements in their own emotion awareness and regulation, increases in emotion coaching, and decreases in emotionally dismissive beliefs and behaviors. There were increases in parents' observed use of emotion labels and discussion of causes and consequences of emotions with their children. Child emotional knowledge improved, and reductions in child behavior problems were reported by parents and teachers.
This study provides support for the efficacy of a parenting intervention targeting parent emotion socialization practices that lead to improved child emotional knowledge and behavior. This preventative intervention targeting parents' own emotion awareness and regulation, as well as emotional communication in parent-child relationships, is a promising addition to available parenting programs.
This article reviews current literature examining associations between components of the family context and children and adolescents' emotion regulation (ER). The review is organized around a tripartite model of familial influence. Firstly, it is posited that children learn about ER through observational learning, modeling and social referencing. Secondly, parenting practices specifically related to emotion and emotion management affect ER. Thirdly, ER is affected by the emotional climate of the family via parenting style, the attachment relationship, family expressiveness and the marital relationship. The review ends with discussions regarding the ways in which child characteristics such as negative emotionality and gender affect ER, how socialization practices change as children develop into adolescents, and how parent characteristics such as mental health affect the socialization of ER.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of mothers' and fathers' reported emotion-related practices to parents' and teachers' reports of third- to sixth-grade children's social skills, popularity, and coping, as well as the quantity and quality of children's comforting of an infant. Mothers' problem-focused reactions tended to be positively associated with children's social functioning and coping, whereas maternal minimizing reactions tended to be linked to lower levels of social competence and high levels of avoidant coping. There were few findings for fathers' reactions, although fathers reported fewer problem-focused reactions with socially competent, in contrast to less competent, daughters. Emotion-focused and problem-focused maternal reactions, as well as encouragement of the expression of emotion, were associated with boys' children's comforting behavior, although a moderate level of maternal encouragement of the expression of emotion was associated with quality of girls' comforting.
The US military has conducted population-level screening for mental health problems among all service members returning from deployment to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other locations. To date, no systematic analysis of this program has been conducted, and studies have not assessed the impact of these deployments on mental health care utilization after deployment.
To determine the relationship between combat deployment and mental health care use during the first year after return and to assess the lessons learned from the postdeployment mental health screening effort, particularly the correlation between the screening results, actual use of mental health services, and attrition from military service.
Population-based descriptive study of all Army soldiers and Marines who completed the routine postdeployment health assessment between May 1, 2003, and April 30, 2004, on return from deployment to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan (n = 16,318), Operation Iraqi Freedom (n = 222,620), and other locations (n = 64,967). Health care utilization and occupational outcomes were measured for 1 year after deployment or until leaving the service if this occurred sooner.
Screening positive for posttraumatic stress disorder, major depression, or other mental health problems; referral for a mental health reason; use of mental health care services after returning from deployment; and attrition from military service.
The prevalence of reporting a mental health problem was 19.1% among service members returning from Iraq compared with 11.3% after returning from Afghanistan and 8.5% after returning from other locations (P<.001). Mental health problems reported on the postdeployment assessment were significantly associated with combat experiences, mental health care referral and utilization, and attrition from military service. Thirty-five percent of Iraq war veterans accessed mental health services in the year after returning home; 12% per year were diagnosed with a mental health problem. More than 50% of those referred for a mental health reason were documented to receive follow-up care although less than 10% of all service members who received mental health treatment were referred through the screening program.
Combat duty in Iraq was associated with high utilization of mental health services and attrition from military service after deployment. The deployment mental health screening program provided another indicator of the mental health impact of deployment on a population level but had limited utility in predicting the level of mental health services that were needed after deployment. The high rate of using mental health services among Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans after deployment highlights challenges in ensuring that there are adequate resources to meet the mental health needs of returning veterans.
Recently, there has been a resurgence of research on emotion, including the socialization of emotion. In this article, a heuristic model of factors contributing to the socialization of emotion is presented. Then literature relevant to the socialization of children's emotion and emotion-related behavior by parents is reviewed, including (a) parental reactions to children's emotions, (b) socializers' discussion of emotion, and (c) socializers' expression of emotion. The relevant literature is not conclusive and most of the research is correlational. However, the existing body of data provides initial support for the view that parental socialization practices have effects on children's emotional and social competence and that the socialization process is bidirectional. In particular, parental negative emotionality and negative reactions to children's expression of emotion are associated with children's negative emotionality and low social competence. In addition, possible moderators of effects such as level of emotional arousal are discussed.
Mother- and father-reported reactions to children's negative emotions were examined as correlates of emotional understanding (Study 1, N = 55, 5- to 6-year-olds) and friendship quality (Study 2, N = 49, 3- to 5-year-olds). Mothers' and fathers' supportive reactions together contributed to greater child-friend coordinated play during a sharing task. Further, when one parent reported low support, greater support by the other parent was related to better understanding of emotions and less intense conflict with friends (for boys only). When one parent reported high support, however, greater support by the other parent was associated with less optimal functioning on these outcomes. Results partially support the notion that children benefit when parents differ in their reactions to children's emotions.
This component analysis used meta-analytic techniques to synthesize the results of 77 published evaluations of parent training programs (i.e., programs that included the active acquisition of parenting skills) to enhance behavior and adjustment in children aged 0-7. Characteristics of program content and delivery method were used to predict effect sizes on measures of parenting behaviors and children's externalizing behavior. After controlling for differences attributable to research design, program components consistently associated with larger effects included increasing positive parent-child interactions and emotional communication skills, teaching parents to use time out and the importance of parenting consistency, and requiring parents to practice new skills with their children during parent training sessions. Program components consistently associated with smaller effects included teaching parents problem solving; teaching parents to promote children's cognitive, academic, or social skills; and providing other, additional services. The results have implications for selection and strengthening of existing parent training programs.
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