Parent and child psychopathological symptoms: the mediating role of parental emotion dysregulation

Abstract

Background Parental psychopathological symptoms have been associated with a number of child psychological problems, yet little research has examined the role of parental emotion dysregulation on the intergenerational transmission of psychopathological symptoms. This study aims to examine the relationship between parents' and children's psychopathological symptoms with a focus on the mediating mechanism of parental emotion dysregulation on these relationships. Methods Eighty‐nine Chinese parents and their school‐age children between the ages of 7 and 12 (49 males, M age = 8.79, SD = 1.81) participated in the study. In the initial phase of the study, parents filled out a series of questionnaires reporting their own psychopathological symptoms via SCL‐90 and difficulties with emotion regulation via Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. After 9 months, the parents reported their children's internalizing and externalizing problems via Child Behavior Checklist, and the children self‐reported anxiety symptoms via Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders in the second phase of the study. Results The results showed that parental emotion dysregulation played an important role as a mediator of the relationship between parental psychopathological symptoms and child internalizing problems and separation anxiety, which indicates that parents' mental health problems were significantly associated with their difficulties with emotion regulation, which in turn led to more internalizing problems and separation anxiety in their children. However, we did not find a mediating effect of parental emotion dysregulation on the links between parent psychopathology and child externalizing problems or other types of self‐reported anxiety symptoms. Conclusions Our findings highlighted the importance of implementing more psycho‐education programs that specifically target parents' emotion regulation abilities in both community and clinical settings to ameliorate the intergenerational transmission of psychopathological symptoms between generations.

Depression-anxiety symptoms and stigmatization perception in mothers of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…In studies conducted with caregivers, it was reported that the burden of care was associated with the frequency of depression symptoms, and the anxiety experienced by caregivers could increase the depression they might experience (25). Our findings contribute to a large research group documenting high levels of parental anxiety and depression symptoms among mothers of the children with ASD.…”

“…Sociodemographic Data Form includes a total of 35 questions covering the sociodemographic characteristics of patients and their parents, the history of the patients, co-morbid diseases accompanying the disease, and drug treatments. The scale includes five sub-scales of "alienation" (1,5,8,16,17,21), "stereotype endorsement" (26,10,18,19,23,29), "discrimination experience" (3,15,22,25,28), "social withdrawal" (4,9,11,12,13,20) and "stigma resistance" (7,14,24,26,27). The items on the scale are rated with a four point likert scale: "strongly disagree" (1 point), "disagree" (2 points), "agree" (3 points), "strongly agree" (4 points).…”

Multiple Levels of Family Factors and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms Among Chinese Children

“…Similarly, Harold, Shelton, Goeke‐Morey, and Cummings () found that poor marital quality was a significant predictor for child emotion regulation 1 year later, and subsequently increased the risk of developing internalizing and externalizing behavior problems (Fosco & Grych, ). Other researchers suggested that parents who experienced poor marital relationship also reported more psychological distress (Papp, Goeke‐Morey, & Cummings, ), and the increased psychological distress affected the internalizing problems of child indirectly via parent emotion regulation (Han et al., ).…”

“…On the other hand, parents also would suffer increased stress and negative emotions from the poor parent–child relationship; the large amount of negative emotions may further lead to the inappropriate or failed response of emotional system to the surrounding environment (Gratz & Roemer, ). Consequently, parental failure in regulating emotions may contribute to child internalizing and externalizing behaviors (Han et al., ).…”

“…Nevertheless, the relationship between parent emotion regulation and child ODD symptoms is not crystal clear. Minimal research has examined the direct effect of parent emotion regulation on child behaviors (Han et al., ). Parental depression, which is closely related to emotion regulation, is identified as a significant predictor of child internalizing and externalizing problems (Fisher, Brock, O'Hara, Kopelman, & Stuart, ).…”