Parental Problem Drinking, Parent Emotion Socialization and Child Emotion Regulation

Abstract

The current study examines mother and father PPD as a risk factor for child emotion regulation difficulties. A model was tested in which parent depression and parent emotion socialization of children were serial intervening variables. Parent emotion socialization was assessed via parent self-reported supportive and nonsupportive reactions to child negative emotions. Differences in associations based on parent and child sex were also tested. Data were drawn from an online survey of 337 parents (58.2% mothers) reporting on a single child aged 5 to 12 years (M = 7.10 years of age; 45.1% female). The majority of parents identified as White (72.7%); whereas 10.1% identified as Black, 6.4% identified as Hispanic, 8.4% identified as Asian or Pacific Islander, and 2.4% identified as multiracial/biracial or another racial/ethnic identity not listed. PPD was associated with higher parental depression, which in turn was associated with greater nonsupportive and lower supportive parent reactions to child negative emotions; PPD was indirectly associated with poorer child emotion regulation through lower supportive parent reactions. Associations were not moderated by parent or child sex. Findings support parent emotion socialization practices as an important mechanism through which PPD conveys risk for child psychological problems and is a possible target for intervention.

Keywords: emotion lability; emotion regulation; emotion socialization; parental problem drinking; parenting.