Emotion understanding and maternal sensitivity as protective factors against hostile attribution bias in anger‐prone children

Abstract

The present research examined children’s anger proneness, emotion understanding, and maternal sensitivity during toddlerhood as predictors of children’s hostile attribution bias (HAB) during the later preschool years. At 2.8 years (N = 128), maternal sensitivity (e.g., child‐centered behavior) was observed during mother–child play and snack, and parents reported on children’s anger proneness. At 3.3 years, emotion understanding (i.e., ability to identify emotional expressions accurately) was measured via an interactive puppet interview. At 4.8 and 5.4 years, children's HAB was assessed via child responses to hypothetical vignettes of ambiguous peer provocations. Path models revealed that maternal sensitivity predicted fewer hostile attributions. In addition, emotion understanding and maternal sensitivity emerged as buffers against the negative effect of anger proneness on HAB. Specifically, greater anger proneness was associated with more frequent hostile attributions, but only when children had lower emotion understanding or had mothers who were less sensitive. The findings highlight the interplay between intrapersonal and interpersonal factors in early childhood that contribute to a hostile attribution bias during the preschool period.

Pathways to behavior problems in Norwegian kindergarten children: The role of parent emotion socialization and child emotion understanding

“…An alternative explanation is that children with poor emotion understanding discourage parents from talking about emotions, either indirectly (e.g., the child does not respond to the parent’s efforts) or directly (e.g., the child actively refuses to talk about emotions). In kindergarten, externalizing behavior problems might exacerbate poor child emotion understanding through a process of peer rejection and lack of socialization in peer groups (Di Giunta, Pastorelli, Thartori, Bombi, Baumgartner, Fabes & Enders, 2018; Racz, Putnick, Suwalsky, Hendricks & Bornstein, 2017; Viana, Zambrana, Karevold & Pons, 2019; Wong, Chen & McElwain, 2019).…”

The Computations of hostile biases (CHB) model: Grounding hostility biases in a unified cognitive framework

“…Among forensic psychiatric inpatients with psychotic disorders, the HAB was not associated with theory of mind (Bratton, O'Rourke, Tansey, & Hutton, 2017). Wong et al (2019) found that an interaction between a child's anger proneness and emotion understanding was predictive of the HAB when there were low levels of emotion understanding (r = 0.56).…”

“…Moreover, high levels of maternal sensitivity (e.g. appropriate responses to children's requests) were associated with low levels of the HAB in children (r = 0.55; Wong, Chen, & McElwain, 2019). Children with a disorganized attachment style showed higher levels of the HAB and more aggressive goals relative to children with an organized attachment style (Zajac, Bookhout, Hubbard, Carlson, & Dozier, 2018).…”

“…Choe, Lane, Grabell, & Olson, 2013;Davies, Coe, Hentges, Sturge-Apple, & Ripple, 2018;Kay & Green, 2016;Matheny et al, 2017;Mathieson et al, 2011;Orobio de Castro et al, 2003;Orobio de Castro et al, 2005;Quan et al, 2019;Wong et al, 2019). The study by Orobio de Castro et al (…”

Children’s early difficulty and agreeableness in adolescence: Testing a developmental model of interplay of parent and child effects.

“…Anger proneness is a key characteristic of early temperamental difficulty; poor self-control is typically associated with deficient regulation of angry emotions; angry emotions often elicit parental power-assertive control, which then almost certainly elicits children's further anger and resentment. Finally, poorly regulated anger is associated with hostile attributional biases (Wong, Chen, & McElwain, 2019) and with resentful, hostile traits-some of the central characteristics of low Agreeableness.…”