Maternal Emotion Regulation: Links to Emotion Parenting and Child Emotion Regulation

This study examined the link between maternal emotion regulation (ER) and emotion parenting behaviors and child ER, particularly emphasizing the previously understudied potential associations between mothers' ER and concurrent emotion parenting behaviors. Community-recruited participants included 64 mother-child (M = 9.5 years, 38 girls) dyads. Mothers completed measures on their own ER, their child's ER, and their emotion parenting strategies. Children completed measures on their ER and mother-child dyads engaged in a conflict discussion task that was coded using an ER behavioral observation scale. Results indicated that observed maternal ER was negatively associated with unsupportive emotion parenting, whereas self-reported maternal emotion dysregulation was positively associated with unsupportive parenting and child emotion dysregulation and negatively associated with child adaptive ER. Partial support was provided for the mediating role of emotion parenting behaviors on the link between maternal and child ER. Implications regarding parenting programs and intervention efforts are discussed.