Intimate partner violence and children's reaction to peer provocation: The moderating role of emotion coaching.

Abstract

The current study examined the relation between intimate partner violence (IPV) and children's reactions to a stressful peer interaction in a community-based sample. The moderating role of parental emotion coaching in buffering children from negative reactions to a peer was also examined. Children participated in a peer provocation paradigm and mothers completed the Parent Meta-Emotion Interview. Both adaptive (i.e., laughing, ignoring) and maladaptive (i.e., hostile/challenging, odd behaviors) reactions to the provocative peer were examined. IPV was positively related to children's laughing and odd behaviors but was unrelated to ignoring and hostile/challenging behaviors. Additionally, emotion coaching was found to moderate relations between IPV and children's laughing and odd behaviors. The importance of understanding protective factors in families experiencing IPV and of developing emotion coaching parenting programs is discussed.

Emotion Coaching - A Strategy for Promoting Behavioural Self-Regulation in Children/Young People In Schools: A Pilot Study

“…Randomised Control Trials in America have demonstrated that emotion coaching enables children to have better emotional regulation, more competent problem-solving, higher selfesteem, better academic success, more positive peer relations and fewer behavioural problems (Gottman et al, 1997). Emotion coaching has been used to support children with conduct behavioral difficulties ( Havighurst et al 2013;Katz & Windecker-Nelson, 2004), depression (Katz & Hunter, 2007) and those exposed to violent environments, including inter-parental violence, maltreatment and community violence (Shipman et al, 2007, Katz et al, 2008Cunningham et al, 2009). Emotion coaching has also been positively correlated with secure attachments (Chen et al, 2011), and used effectively to improve the psychological functioning of children who have experienced complex trauma (Murphy et al, forthcoming), as well as reduce the externalising behaviours of children with ASD .…”

Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science Into Lifelong Health

“…Because the essence of toxic stress is the absence of buffers needed to return the physiologic stress response to baseline, the primary prevention of its adverse consequences includes those aspects of routine anticipatory guidance that strengthen a family' s social supports, encourage a parent's adoption of positive parenting techniques, and facilitate a child' s emerging social, emotional, and language skills. Examples include the promotion of the 7Cs of resilience (competence, confidence, connectedness, character, contribution, coping, and control), 36 optimism, 37 Reach Out and Read, 38-40 emotional coaching, [41][42][43][44] and numerous positive parenting programs (eg, Triple P, [45][46][47] Incredible Years, 48 Home visiting, 49,50 and Nurturing Parenting 51,52 [59][60][61] as well as through an extended array of programs organized by faith-based organizations, social groups, and recreational centers. A more thorough description of the full range of practices designed to strengthen parenting skills and enhance child development can be found elsewhere.…”

Parent emotion coaching buffers the psychological effects of poor peer relations in the classroom

“…This method could be applied to observations of emotion coaching during discussions of peer relations. Similarly, one study found that higher emotion coaching (observed) buffered against the association between IPV exposure and problematic behavior during a peer provocation activity (observed; Katz et al, 2008). The outcomes of interest for the current study were self-concepts of loneliness and peer optimism, which necessitated self-report; however, future studies might employ observations of isolation or parent-reported perceptions of loneliness and peer optimism.…”

“…Previous moderation studies have found that the direct association between emotion coaching and peer relations was moderated by child conduct problems (Katz &Windecker-Nelson, 2004) and that emotion coaching moderated the association between the child's exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) involving his/her mother (married cohabitating couples) and the ways children reacted when provoked by peers in an experimental task (Katz, Hunter, & Klowden, 2008). Bogenschneider, Wu, Raffaelli, and Tsay (1998) found that mothers' responsiveness decreased the influence of peers on problematic behavior and that maternal values moderated the associations between maternal responsiveness and problematic youth behavior.…”