Publication year
2014
Citation Title
Parental emotion regulation strategy use and responses to youth negative affect.
Journal Name
Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy
Journal Volume
28
Issue Number
1
Page Numbers
34-47
DOI
10.1891/0889-8391.28.1.34
Summary
Adolescents and their parents were surveyed about their emotion regulation strategies, emotion awareness, and adolescent negative affect in an effort to better understand how parents influence adolescent emotional development. Associations were found between parent emotion regulation and adolescent emotional awareness and negative affect.
Key Findings
Parents who more often used suppression to regulate their emotions had children who were less emotionally aware (i.e., difficulty labeling their own internal emotional states).
Parents who tended to use reappraisal to manage emotions (i.e., thinking about an emotional situation in a way that makes it less intense) tended to use emotion coaching strategies (i.e., encouragement, problem and emotion focused coaching) with their children.
No differences by gender were found in these analyses.
Implications for Military Professionals
Help develop modules to inform staff working with military families with children the influence parenting behaviors have on youth's emotional regulation
Facilitate support groups for military parents struggling with their own emotional regulation
Implications for Program Leaders
Add components to their curricula on positive approaches to managing emotions for both parents
Provide military youth with activities that teach children how to reappraise an emotional situation to help it feel less intense
Implications for Policy Makers
Support programs that offer professional development for staff who work with military families be trained in emotion regulation strategies and how to encourage others to use them
Recommend that public school educators be trained on how to foster positive emotion regulation strategies in the classroom
Methods
Families were recruited from a clinic that specialized in anxiety and mood disorder treatment.
Adolescents and their parents completed surveys on emotion regulation, emotional awareness, and adolescent emotional well-being.
No other recruitment details were provided.
Participants
Participants were 67 adolescents and their parents.
Almost half (48%) of the youth were male.
The adolescent sample was 64% Latino/Latina, 24% White, 5% Black, 2% Asian-American, and 6% other race or ethnicity.
Adolescent age ranged from 12-18 years (M = 15.48 years).
Limitations
This study was primarily limited by its sample size (n = 67) and the clinically based sample, which limits the generalizability of results.
Cross-sectional associations between measures taken from the same person may appear larger than they actually are due to short temporal spacing and the same reporter completing the same measures.
All data in this study were self-report, which could bias the results as participants may have tried to answer in the "best" way.
Avenues for Future Research
Utilize a larger community sample to determine if these results generalize to other populations
Rule out third variable confounds between parent emotion regulation strategies and adolescent emotional well-being, such as shared psychopathology or genetics
Conduct a similar study with a military sample to explore how parenting behaviors influence youth's emotional regulation and whether military status effects this relationship
Focus
Civilian
Target Population
Population Focus
Abstract
Parental responses to youth negative affect have been associated with social and emotional outcomes in youth. However, the association between such parenting behaviors and essential components of youth emotion regulation is not well studied, especially in youth with anxiety and depressive disorders. This investigation examined the influence of parents' emotion regulation strategies and their responses to youth negative affect on adolescent-reported emotional awareness and emotional expression in a clinical sample of youth with anxiety disorders. In addition, this study examined the relationship between parent-reported use of emotion regulation strategies and parental reactions to youth negative affect. Questionnaires were completed by 67 adolescents (ages 12-18 years) and by one of their parents during an intake assessment at a university-based clinic. Adolescents had a primary anxiety or depressive disorder diagnosis. Results indicated a positive relationship between parent-reported use of suppression and youth report of poor emotional understanding in adolescents with a primary anxiety or depressive disorder. A positive relationship between parent-reported use of reappraisal and emotion-coaching responses to youth negative affect was also found. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed in the context of parental socialization of youth emotion regulation and in terms of prevention and intervention efforts.
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