The affective organization of parenting: Adaptive and maladaptative processes.

Abstract

This article presents a 3-component model of parenting that places emotion at the heart of parental competence. The model emphasizes (a) child, parent, and contextual factors that activate parents' emotions; (b) orienting, organizing, and motivating effects that emotions have on parenting once aroused; and (c) processes parents use to understand and control emotions. Emotions are vital to effective parenting. When invested in the interest of children, emotions organize sensitive, responsive parenting. Emotions undermine parenting, however, when they are too weak, too strong, or poorly matched to child rearing tasks. In harmonious relationships emotions are, on average, positive because parents manage interactions so that children's and parents' concerns are promoted. In distressed relationships chronic negative emotion is both a cause and a consequence of interactions that undermine parents' concerns and children's development.

Parent–Adolescent Conflict as Sequences of Reciprocal Negative Emotion: Links with Conflict Resolution and Adolescents’ Behavior Problems

“…Parents who display high levels of negative emotion also engage in harsher and over-reactive discipline (Leung & Slep, 2006) and in more coercive exchanges with their children (Patterson, 2002). These negative parenting behaviors may, in part, explain associations between parents' negative emotion and children's poor socioemotional adjustment (Dix, 1991). Further, parents' displays of negative emotion in response to their child's negative emotion have been specifically linked to children's impaired emotional regulation and social skills and to heightened behavior problems (Schultz, Izard, Ackerman, & Youngstrom, 2001).…”

“…Specifically, anger had been positively linked to power assertion and negatively linked to reasoning and responsiveness (Dix, Ruble, & Zambarano, 1989). Dix (1991) argued that parents' emotions are associated with the goals that the parents desire to promote in a given situation. Child-centered goals reflect a parent's desire to promote the child's well-being or to promote a close relationship.…”

Maternal Predictors of Rejecting Parenting and Early Adolescent Antisocial Behavior

“…Because rejecting parenting is characterized by hostility and low levels of positive affect, we were most concerned with maternal psychological resources closely associated with these aspects of parenting. Dix's (1991) affective model of parenting suggests that negative emotions disruptive to the parent-child relationship result when parents have difficulty managing their own emotions, heavily favor self-oriented concerns over childoriented concerns, and lack adequate skills necessary for parenting. Supporting this perspective, Egeland and Farber (1984) demonstrated that high levels of maternal irritability, disinterest in parenting, and deficient caregiving skills were associated with avoidant attachments during infancy, an insecure classification that was related to later externalizing problems during preschool and school-age in the same sample (Erickson et al 1985;Renken et al 1989).…”

Maternal Personality: Longitudinal Associations to Parenting Behavior and Maternal Emotional Expressions toward Toddlers

“…Positive emotions are likely to allow for more sensitive, non-intrusive parenting interactions, whereas negative emotions may be related to more intrusive and less sensitive parenting behaviors. If maternal negative emotions have been aroused, the ability to display sensitive, non-intrusive parenting is likely to become increasingly more difficult; however, sensitive and non-intrusive parenting may be easier to use if maternal positive emotions are more prevalent (Dix, 1991). Emotions expressed by mothers during interactions with children are most likely tied to their personality; therefore, the relation between maternal personality and parenting behavior may be mediated by maternal emotional expressiveness (Belsky & Barends, 2002).…”