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Parent emotion regulation socializes children's adaptive physiological regulation
Emily W Shih1, Laura E Quiñones-Camacho1, Elizabeth L Davis1
1University of California, Riverside, California.
Developmental Psychobiology
|February 25, 2018
Summary
Parental regulation skills, including physiological measures and reappraisal coaching, help children physiologically calm down after disappointment. Parental abilities did not influence children's emotional distress expressions.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychology
- Parent-Child Interaction
Background:
- Parenting significantly influences children's self-regulation development.
- Limited research explores the link between parents' own regulation abilities and children's well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between parents' physiological and emotion regulation capacities and their children's responses to a laboratory-based disappointment task.
- To examine how direct and indirect parental regulatory strategies relate to children's physiological and emotional functioning.
Main Methods:
- Ninety-seven children (aged 3-7 years) and their parents underwent multi-method assessments of regulatory functioning.
- Parental regulation was assessed via resting physiology (respiratory sinus arrhythmia), dispositional reappraisal use, and coaching effectiveness in reappraisal.
- Children's physiological and emotional responses to a structured disappointment task were measured.
Main Results:
- An adaptive pattern of parental regulation (higher resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia, use of reappraisal, and effective reappraisal coaching) was linked to children's physiological recovery post-disappointment, indicating enhanced parasympathetic activity.
- Parental regulatory abilities did not show a significant association with changes in children's expressed emotional distress.
Conclusions:
- Parents' physiological and emotion regulation skills are associated with children's capacity for physiological self-soothing during challenging experiences.
- While parents may influence children's physiological recovery, their direct regulatory abilities appear less connected to modulating children's overt emotional distress expressions.