Mothers' strategies for regulating their toddlers' distress

doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(98)90018-2

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 21, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 437-450

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(98)90018-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

Though theories of emotion regulation acknowledge the important roles of caregivers, few studies have examined parents' strategies for helping children regulate distress. In this study, 140 mothers' strategies were coded during a situation in which their toddlers (12-, 18-, 24- and 32-month-olds) were required to wait (parent-active). Children were also observed in a delay situation in which they regulated distress independently (parent-passive). Mothers initiated less active engagement with their older as compared to younger toddlers, and there were age-related increases in children's initiation of play activities with their mothers. Verbal strategies increased from 12 to 18 months and thereafter decreased. Controlling for children's levels of distress in the parent-active situation, mothers who were more active had children who were more distressed when regulating independently. Results suggest that parents tailor their regulatory strategies to their children's capacities and that children require opportunities to autonomously regulate emotions to develop regulatory skills.

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Physical aggression in toddlerhood is empirically linked to anger and often conceptualized as a byproduct of frustration and related negative affect. Further, parenting is the major environmental construct implicated in the development of aggressive behaviors. Given parents’ role as “external regulators,” parents’ responses to their toddlers’ negative affect may serve to escalate or de-escalate their toddlers’ affective experience, thereby impacting the likelihood of subsequent aggression. In the present study, we examined whether parents’ negative affect, harsh, soothing, and distracting responses to their toddlers’ negative affect mediated the relation between toddlers’ negative affect and their aggressive behavior in brief conflict episodes. During a laboratory visit, a community sample of 69 mother-toddler dyads was observed in a structured interaction task. We found that child negative affect is associated with subsequent aggressive behavior by way of maternal harsh responses to negative affect. Negative emotional expression, soothing, and distraction neither facilitated or hindered children’s escalation from negative affect to aggression. Our findings support a dyadic intervention in which patterns of coercive parent-child interactions are targets for prevention and intervention of toddler aggression.
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Evidence and theory suggesting that parents are less responsive to toddler negative emotion expression than to other forms of communication (Brownell & Kopp, 2010; Fields-Olivieri & Cole, 2019; Kochanska & Aksan, 2004; Kubicek & Emde, 2012) would suggest the toddler cries should be less likely to initiate, and more likely to terminate, conversations. Yet evidence from research on emotion socialization showing that toddler negative emotions often elicit parental responses (Capatides & Bloom, 1993; Grolnick et al., 1998; Spinrad et al., 2004) would suggest the opposite relation. Consistent with the hypothesis that toddler cries may discourage conversation, toddler cries were least likely to initiate conversations (whereas toddler vocalizations were most likely).
Although early emotional and verbal development are thought to be related, emotional and verbal parent-toddler communication are often studied separately, and are frequently measured during brief, semi-structured tasks. Moreover, there is mixed, indirect evidence as to whether toddler negative emotions may elicit or disrupt parent-toddler verbal communication. To address these gaps, the present study used a wearable audio-recording and processing technology, Language Environment Analysis (LENA; Xu, Yapanel, & Gray, 2009), to sample full-day communication between twenty-five parents and their toddlers (12–23 months). We examined the extent to which toddler vocal negative emotion expressions (“cries”), relative to toddler (pre)-verbal vocalizations or adult speech, initiated, occurred within, or terminated parent-toddler conversation. We found that most (60%) toddler cries were involved in parent-toddler conversation. Toddler cries were unlikely to initiate conversations and, unexpectedly, were unlikely to terminate conversation. Conversations were most often initiated by toddler vocalizations and terminated by adult speech. Findings highlight the importance of measuring both emotional and verbal aspects of parent-toddler communication and the benefit of using sampling techniques that capture communication processes as they unfold in daily life.
Children's emotion regulation repertoire and problem behavior: A latent cross-lagged panel study
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Emotion regulation strategies can already be found in infancy, for example when infants actively suck their thumb, shift their gaze away or interact with others and thus regulate their emotions (Kopp, 1989). Obviously, parents also play an important role, as they help to regulate their child's emotional arousal (Grolnick, Kurowski, McMenamy, Rivkin, & Bridges, 1998; Grolnick, McMenamy, & Kurowski, 1999). With increasing motor abilities, toddlers become more active in their regulation of emotions, for example, by becoming more able to distract themselves behaviorally (Holodynski & Friedlmeier, 2006).
The ability to regulate negative emotions plays a central role in children's psychosocial (mal-)adjustment. As different contextual demands require the utilization of different strategies, the development of a large and diverse repertoire of emotion regulation (ER) strategies is an important developmental task. This two-wave longitudinal study with 101 preschoolers (wave 1: 3–6 years, M = 5.19, SD = 0.84, 46.5% girls; wave 2: 5–8 years, M = 6.69, SD = 0.85, 46.4% girls) investigated the bidirectional association of children's ER repertoire and problem behavior, operationalized by hyperactivity/attention problems (HAP) and emotional problems (EP). Latent cross-lagged panel analyses indicated that children's size of ER repertoire did not predict HAP, but that HAP negatively predicted the later size of ER repertoire. In contrast, the diversity of available ER strategies negatively predicted later HAP. For EP, no cross-lagged effects could be detected.
Role of maternal affect and regulatory strategies in toddlers’ emotion and behavior regulation
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Using a moment-to-moment multilevel approach, we examined the relative effectiveness of (a) toddlers’ lagged (i.e., previous-interval) regulatory strategies and toddlers’ lagged expression of negative emotion, as moderated by maternal affect, and (b) maternal lagged regulatory strategies, on toddlers’ current-interval (1) expression of negative emotion, and, (2) ability to delay gratification during a wait task. Two-level random coefficient models, with twelve repeated-measurement occasions (10 s-intervals) of observed behaviors (N = 1571) nested within 134 mother-toddler dyads from low-income families (67 girls; M_age = 25.77 months, SD_age = 1.60) were examined. Cross-level interactions revealed that maternal positive affect buffered severity of toddlers’ expression of negative emotion between lagged and current-intervals, while maternal negative affect disrupted toddlers’ effective utilization of lagged regulatory strategies on current-interval expression of negative emotion. However, regardless of maternal affect, toddlers who displayed higher expression of negative emotion and utilized more regulatory strategies in lagged-intervals displayed greater delay of gratification in current-intervals. Also, as mothers displayed greater minimization of toddlers' emotional distress, higher physical restraint, and used fewer distractions, toddlers displayed more intense expression of negative emotion in subsequent intervals. Similarly, as mothers used higher physical restraint and fewer distractions, toddlers were less able to wait in subsequent intervals. Results illustrate the disruptive roles of maternal negative affect and unsupportive regulatory strategies on toddlers' emotion and behavior regulation. Together, these findings point to targeting maternal positive affect in combination with supportive regulatory strategies to promote toddlers’ transition from external- to internal-regulation.
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Citation Excerpt :
Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 “strongly agree” to 5 “strongly disagree.” Intervention development was guided by theoretical and empirical evidence of the associations between parenting and children’s emotional development in young children with and without ASD (e.g., Grolnick et al., 1998; Gulsrud, Jahromi, & Kasari, 2010) as well as research describing parental efforts to support emotion and children’s ER skills in young children with ASD (e.g., Konstantareas & Stewart, 2006; Jahromi, Meek, & Ober-Reynolds, 2012; Hirschler-Guttenberg et al., 2014). The intervention was delivered to mothers and children in their homes by the first author, a licensed psychologist, or a doctoral student in school psychology (second author and Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst) who was trained and regularly supervised by the first author.
Emotion regulation (ER) is key to young children’s school readiness and mental health. Many children with autism spectrum disorder exhibit emotionally dysregulated behavior, yet no interventions target this skill in the preschool years. This study examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a parent-mediated intervention to promote emotion regulation skills in preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder.
Participants included five children (3–6 years old) and their mothers. The intervention, Regulation of Emotional Lability in Autism Spectrum Disorder through Caregiver Supports (RELACS) was delivered in participants’ homes over eight weeks.
Preliminary results suggest RELACS is acceptable to parents, can be implemented with fidelity, and shows promise in improving parent support for children’s ER skills as well as children’s regulatory capacity.
Results support the feasibility of using a parent-mediated approach to supporting ER skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Though RELACS shows promise in improving parent support for ER and children’s ER capacity, further research is necessary to establish its efficacy.
One or many? Which and how many parenting variables should be targeted in interventions to reduce children's externalizing behavior?
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This research compared the efficacy of two parenting interventions that vary according to the number and the nature of variables in reducing preschoolers' externalizing behavior (EB). The goal was to identify which parenting intervention format (one-variable versus two-variable) caused higher behavioral adjustment in children. The first was a one-variable intervention manipulating parental self-efficacy beliefs. The second was a two-variable intervention manipulating both parents' self-efficacy beliefs and emotion coaching practices. The two interventions shared exactly the same design, consisting of eight parent group sessions. Effect on children's EB and observed behaviors were evaluated through a multi-method assessment at three points (pre-test, post-test and follow-up). The results highlighted that compared to the waitlist condition, the two intervention formats tended to cause a significant reduction in children's EB reported by their parent. However, the one-variable intervention was found to lead to a greater decrease in children's EB at follow-up. The opposite was reported for children's observed behavior, which was improved to a greater extent in the two-variable intervention at post-test and follow-up. The results illustrated that interventions' format cannot be considered as purely interchangeable since their impact on children's behavior modification is different. The results are discussed for their research and clinical implications.

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^☆: This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH 44449-03). We would like to thank Melissa Vance and Michelle King for their expert coding.

^•: Wendy S. Grolnick, Ph.D., Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610-1477

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Mothers' strategies for regulating their toddlers' distress☆

Abstract

Infant Behavior and Development

Infant Behavior and Development

Infant Behavior and Development

Infant Behavior and Development

Infant Behavior and Development

The role of ego-control and ego-resiliency in the organization behavior

The development of emotional self-regulation in infancy and early childhood

He and she: How children develop their sex role identity

The relations among infant temperament, security of attachment, and behavioral inhibition at twenty-four months

Child Development

A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales

Educational and Psychological Measurement

Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior

Sex differences in toddlers' behavioral and parental reaction

Developmental Psychology

Observation of parent reactions to sex-stereotyped behaviors: Age and sex effects

Child Development

Verbal control of delay behavior in two-year-old boys as a function of social class

Child Development

Toward a theory of infant temperament

Roundtable: What is temperament? Four approaches

Child Development