Maternal emotion regulation strategies, internalizing problems and infant negative affect

Edwards, Erin S.; Holzman, Jacob B.; Burt, Nicole M.; Rutherford, Helena J. V.; Mayes, Linda C.; Bridgett, David J.

doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2016.12.001

Cited by 28 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 114 publications

(157 reference statements)

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“…In a longitudinal study that aimed to identify the predictors of PPD, Haga et al (2012) found that the habitual use of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., self-blame and rumination) was associated with postpartum depressive symptoms over time. Similar associations between maladaptive strategies of emotion regulation (e.g., suppression of emotional states) and maternal psychopathological symptoms were found in another recent study (Edwards et al, 2017). Moreover, women who presented clinically relevant postpartum depressive symptoms were found to present more emotion regulation difficulties than non-depressed women (Marques et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Be a Mom, a Web-Based Intervention to Prevent Postpartum Depression: The Enhancement of Self-Regulatory Skills and Its Association With Postpartum Depressive Symptoms

et al. 2019

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Aim: Be a Mom is a self-guided, web-based intervention to prevent persistent postpartum depression symptoms [PPD], targeting both at-risk postpartum women and/or women presenting early-onset postpartum depressive symptoms (selective/indicated preventive intervention). Be a Mom is grounded on the principles of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy and incorporates the recent contributions of acceptance and compassion-based approaches (third-wave approaches) applied to the perinatal context. This study aimed to explore the processes underlying therapeutic change in the Be a Mom intervention, by: (1) exploring whether participation in the Be a Mom promotes the enhancement of self-regulatory skills (emotion regulation abilities, psychological flexibility and self-compassion) in comparison with women who did not participate in the program; and (2) exploring whether changes in self-regulatory skills are associated with changes in depressive symptoms, among women who participated in the Be a Mom program. Methods: A pilot randomized, two-arm controlled trial was conducted. Eligible women (presenting PPD risk-factors and/or early-onset PPD symptoms) were enrolled in the study and were randomly assigned to the intervention group (Be a Mom, n = 98) or to the waiting-list control group ( n = 96). Participants in both groups completed baseline (T1) and post-intervention assessments (T2), including measures of depressive symptoms, emotion regulation abilities, psychological flexibility and self-compassion. Results: From baseline to post-intervention assessment, women in the intervention group showed a significantly greater decrease in the levels of emotion regulation difficulties ( p < 0.001) and a significant greater increase in the levels of self-compassion ( p < 0.001) compared to the control group. No significant differences were found concerning psychological flexibility. Moreover, a greater decrease in difficulties in emotion regulation and greater increase in self-compassion levels were significantly associated with a greater decrease in depressive symptoms, among women in the intervention group. Discussion: Be a Mom promotes the enhancement of women’s emotion regulation abilities and self-compassion, and this seems to exert a protective effect in the presence of PPD risk factors (or early-onset symptoms) because it led to a reduction of depressive symptoms. By providing some insights into the processes that underlie treatment response to Be a Mom, this study highlights the important role of the targeted third-wave processes applied to the perinatal context.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Be a Mom, a Web-Based Intervention to Prevent Postpartum Depression: The Enhancement of Self-Regulatory Skills and Its Association With Postpartum Depressive Symptoms

et al. 2019

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“…Therefore, using expressive suppression as well as emotion dysregulation may present an obstacle to mentalization during mother-child interactions. In partial support of this notion, Edwards et al (2017) reported that higher levels of maternal suppression and poorer levels of maternal reappraisal were indirectly associated with higher infant negative affect (through maternal internalizing difficulties). Taken together, these findings and the current study indicate that targeting emotion regulation could possibly promote mentalization between mother-child interactions and assist the external emotion regulation that infants need early in their development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Associations between Emotion Regulation and Parental Reflective Functioning

Schultheis¹,

Mayes²,

Rutherford³

2019

J Child Fam Stud

Self Cite

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Emotion regulation encapsulates the capability to successfully manage an ongoing emotional experience, particularly in social interactions, and thus may be especially significant to early parent-child relationships. In particular, the capacity to adjust emotions may support parental mentalization and reflective functioning-how parents think about their own and their child's mental states and how these mental states effect behavior. To examine this issue, we investigated the association between emotion regulation, emotion dysregulation, and parental reflective functioning in a maternal sample (N=97). We found that mothers with higher tendencies to suppress their emotions and who had more difficulties with emotion regulation engaged in greater levels of pre-mentalizing (i.e., a non-mentalizing mode). Mothers with poorer emotional awareness also evidenced less interest and curiosity in their child's mental states. Finally, mothers who reported greater difficulty setting goals also evidenced a reduced capacity to recognize that their infant's mental states are not directly observable. Taken together, our findings support the relationship between different aspects of emotion regulation and maternal reflective functioning, suggesting that emotion regulation should be integrated in empirical and intervention work that targets maternal mentalization.

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“…Parental use of CR is also positively linked to parental warmth (Xiao, Spinrad, & Carter, 2018), while maternal deficits in CR are related to child anxiety disorders (Wald, Carthy, Sehnaar‐Golan, Tadmore‐Zisman, & Ziskind, 2018). Parental ES is negatively related to inductive discipline, child prosocial behavior (Xiao et al., 2018), depressive, and anxiety symptomology (Campbell‐Sills, Barlow, Brown, & Hofmann, 2006a, 2006b; Roemer, Litz, Orsillo, & Wagner, 2001), and positively related to higher maternal internalizing behaviors and infant negative affect (Edwards et al., 2017). At the same time, maternal suppression of emotions is also associated with lower levels of maternal over‐reactivity in discipline encounters (Lorber, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal expressive suppression moderates the relations between maternal and child hair cortisol

Doan

Venkatesh

Predroza

et al. 2020

Developmental Psychobiology

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Stress is contagious, influencing multiple domains within a person, as well as other close individuals (Pearlin, Aneshensel, & LeBlanc, 1997), particularly within families (Guajardo, Snyder, & Petersen, 2009; Pearlin et al., 1997; Thoits, 2010). Experiences of stress within mother-child dyads mutually accelerate and reinforce one another (Patterson & McCubbin, 1983). Parents are social regulators of children's emotions (Barthel, Hay, Doan, & Hofmann, 2018). Thus parents' and children's levels of self-reported stress are linked (Compas, Howell, Phares, Williams, & Ledoux, 1989). In addition, mother-child saliva cortisol levels, the end product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, (HPA), a primary stress response system, are also correlated (Stenius et al.,

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Maternal emotion regulation strategies, internalizing problems and infant negative affect

Cited by 28 publications

References 114 publications

Be a Mom, a Web-Based Intervention to Prevent Postpartum Depression: The Enhancement of Self-Regulatory Skills and Its Association With Postpartum Depressive Symptoms

Be a Mom, a Web-Based Intervention to Prevent Postpartum Depression: The Enhancement of Self-Regulatory Skills and Its Association With Postpartum Depressive Symptoms

Associations between Emotion Regulation and Parental Reflective Functioning

Maternal expressive suppression moderates the relations between maternal and child hair cortisol

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