Transdiagnostic Implications of Parental Socialization of Child and Adolescent Emotional Development: Commentary and Future Directions

Involving Parents in the Management and Treatment of Youth Anxiety

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Childhood anxiety disorders are impairing and chronic unless addressed early. While cognitive behavioral therapy with exposures has a strong evidence base, many youth continue to experience symptoms posttreatment. Enlisting parents may help improve the management and treatment of childhood anxiety.

RECENT FINDINGS

Parental factors that influence childhood anxiety include family accommodation, parental emotion socialization, parental overcontrol, and parental anxiety. The merits of involving parents in childhood anxiety treatment have been debated. However, when specific, empirically- and theoretically-informed mechanisms are targeted, parental involvement in treatment appears efficacious and holds promise to increase access to care. Clinicians should consider the child's presentation, treatment barriers, and family dynamics to guide decision-making. Researchers and clinicians should also be aware of stressors that parents themselves face, considering ways to help children via supporting parents with their own mental health concerns.

Developmental trajectories of adolescent internalizing symptoms and parental responses to distress

Parents' responses to their children's negative emotions are a central aspect of emotion socialization that have well-established associations with the development of psychopathology. Yet research is lacking on potential bidirectional associations between parental responses and youth symptoms that may unfold over time. Further, additional research is needed on sociocultural factors that may be related to the trajectories of these constructs. In this study, we examined associations between trajectories of parental responses to negative emotions and adolescent internalizing symptoms and the potential role of youth sex and racial identity. Adolescents and caregivers (N = 256) completed six assessments that spanned adolescent ages 13-18 years. Multivariate growth models revealed that adolescents with higher internalizing symptoms at baseline experienced increasingly non-supportive parental responses over time (punitive and distress responses). By contrast, parental responses did not predict initial levels of or changes in internalizing symptoms. Parents of Black youth reported higher minimization and emotion-focused responses and lower distress responses compared to parents of White youth. We found minimal evidence for sex differences in parental responses. Internalizing symptoms in early adolescence had enduring effects on parental responses to distress, suggesting that adolescents may play an active role in shaping their emotion socialization developmental context.

Association between maternal emotion socialization and emotion regulation in early adolescents with elevated internalizing symptoms: insights from multi-informant discrepancies

Introduction

Although the relationship between parental emotion socialization and emotional competence, including emotion regulation, in children and adolescents has been extensively explored, there is a lack of research investigating this association in adolescents at high risk for mental health problems. The present study examined the association between maternal emotion socialization and emotion regulation in adolescents with high levels of internalizing symptoms, using multi-informant measurements (mother-reported, adolescent-reported, observer-reported). The study also explored whether discrepancies in the report of parental emotion socialization by different informants were related to adolescent emotion regulation, in addition to factors that may contribute to informant discrepancies.

Methods

Participants were 70 female adolescents (mean age = 11.46 years, SD = 0.77) with high levels of internalizing symptoms and their mothers. Maternal emotion socialization (i.e., emotion dismissing and emotion coaching) was assessed using mother- and adolescent-reported questionnaires, and via observation during an emotion discussion task. Adolescent emotion regulation was reported by mothers and adolescents, while maternal emotion regulation was self-reported.

Results

Adolescent-reported maternal emotion coaching and dismissing were significantly related to adolescent-reported adolescent emotion regulation. Informant discrepancies were not related to adolescent emotion regulation. Mothers higher in emotion regulation difficulties reported that their emotion coaching was more congruent with adolescent- and observer-reported emotion coaching, although this effect did not reach statistical significance.

Discussion

Our findings highlight the value of adolescent-reported variables in parenting and adolescent emotion research. Additionally, mothers' emotion regulation may influence their assessments of their emotion socialization behaviors.

Parent- and Adolescent-Driven Effects in Emotion-Related Communication and Longitudinal Relationships with Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents

Communication on emotions is an important aspect of parent-adolescent communication, yet its process and effects remain less examined in families of adolescents. This study examined the bidirectional association between parental responses to adolescents' emotions and adolescents' emotional communication behaviors, and further examined their longitudinal predictive effects on adolescent depressive symptoms. The potential moderating role of adolescent gender was also examined. A total of 503 adolescents (Mage = 13.45, SD = 0.50; 44.73% females) participated in this study, with 438 adolescents completing the three-wave longitudinal survey. Adolescents' emotional communication behaviors, parental responses to emotions, and depressive symptoms were reported. The bidirectional relationship was examined using cross-lagged panel models, while the parent- and adolescent-driven effects of emotional communication on adolescent depressive symptoms and the moderation effect of adolescent gender were examined using multi-group structural equation modeling. The findings revealed gender-specific patterns in parent-adolescent communication on emotions. Significant parent- and adolescent-driven effects of positive communication behaviors on adolescent depressive symptoms were found. However, only negative communication behaviors initiated by parents predicted adolescent depressive symptoms, with this effect mediated by adolescents' negative communication behaviors. This study deepened the understanding of characteristics and effects of parent-child emotional communication during adolescence, which has implications for interventions aiming at improving parent-adolescent relationship and adolescents' mental health.

Exploring the Interaction Between Preschool Executive Control and Caregiver Emotion Socialization in Predicting Adolescent Weight Trajectories

There is a critical need for research examining how neural vulnerabilities associated with obesity, including lower executive control, interact with family factors to impact weight trajectories across adolescence. Utilizing a longitudinal design, the present study investigated caregivers' emotion socialization practices as a moderator of the association between preschool executive control and adolescent body mass index (BMI) trajectories. Participants were 229 youth (Mage = 5.24, SD = 0.03; 47.2% assigned female at birth; 73.8% White, 3.9% Black, 0.4% Asian American, 21.8% multiracial; 12.7% Hispanic) enrolled in a longitudinal study. At preschool-age, participants completed performance-based executive control tasks, and their caregivers reported on their typical emotion-related socialization behaviors (i.e., supportive and nonsupportive responses to children's negative emotions). Participants returned for annual laboratory visits at ages 14 through 17, during which their height and weight were measured to calculate BMI. Although neither preschool executive control nor caregiver emotion-related socialization behaviors were directly associated with BMI growth in adolescence, supportive responses moderated the association between executive control and BMI trajectories. The expected negative association between lower preschool executive control and greater BMI growth was present at below average levels of supportive responses, suggesting that external regulation afforded by supportive responses might reduce risk for adolescent overweight and obesity among children with lower internal self-regulatory resources during preschool. Findings highlight the importance of efforts to bolster executive control early in development and targeted interventions to promote effective caregiver emotion socialization (i.e., more supportive responses) for youth with lower internal self-regulatory abilities to mitigate risk for overweight and obesity and promote health across childhood and adolescence.

Parent-adolescent Congruence and Discrepancy in Perceived Parental Emotion Socialization to Anger and Sadness: Using Response Surface Analysis to Examine the Links with Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Parents and adolescents often hold discrepant perceptions of parental emotion socialization, which reflect misunderstandings in parent-adolescent communication on emotions and have potential detrimental effects on mental health of adolescents. The present study investigated the associations between parent-adolescent congruence and discrepancy in parental emotion socialization perception to two specific negative emotions (anger and sadness) and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. A total of 372 adolescents (48.4% female, Mage = 13.43, SDage = 0.49) and their parents (79.6% mother, Mage = 41.15, SDage = 5.46) participated in this study. Both parents and adolescents reported perceived parental emotion socialization to anger and sadness, and adolescents reported depressive symptoms. Data were analyzed using polynomial regression and response surface analyses. Both congruence and discrepancy in parent and adolescent's reports were associated with adolescent depressive symptoms. A higher level of adolescent depressive symptoms was associated with higher parent-adolescent congruence in supportive responses to anger, sadness, and nonsupportive responses to anger. A higher level of depressive symptoms was associated with inconsistent reporting of supportive responses to sadness and nonsupportive responses to anger (only when parents had a more positive view than adolescents). This study highlights the significance of evaluating parent-child communication process by assessing perceived emotion socialization from both parents and adolescents and analyzing the reporting congruence and discrepancy. It also suggests that enhancing effective communication regarding parental emotion socialization could be a promising target for adolescent mental health promotion programs.

"It's ok that I feel like this": a qualitative study of adolescents' and parents' experiences of facilitators, mechanisms of change and outcomes in a joint emotion regulation group skills training

BACKGROUND

Emotion regulation difficulties underlie several psychiatric conditions, and treatments that focus on improving emotion regulation can have an effect on a broad range of symptoms. However, participants' in-depth experiences of participating in emotion regulation treatments have not been much studied. In this qualitative study, we investigated participants' experiences of a joint emotion regulation group skills training in a child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient setting.

METHODS

Twenty-one participants (10 adolescents and 11 parents) were interviewed about their experiences after they had participated in a seven-session transdiagnostic emotion regulation skills training for adolescents and parents. The aim of the skills training was to decrease emotion regulation difficulties, increase emotional awareness, reduce psychiatric symptoms, and enhance quality of life. The skills training consisted of psychoeducation about emotions and skills for regulating emotions. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

RESULTS

The analysis resulted in three overarching themes: Parent - Child processes, Individual processes, and Group processes. The result showed that participants considered an improved parent-child relationship to be the main outcome. Increased knowledge, emotion regulation skills and behavioural change were conceptualised as both mechanisms of change and outcomes. The group format, and the fact that parents and adolescents participated together, were seen as facilitators. Furthermore, the participants experienced targeting emotions in skills training as meaningful and helpful.

CONCLUSION

The results highlight the potential benefits of providing emotion regulation skills training for adolescents and parents together in a group format to improve the parent-child relationship and enable the opportunity to learn skills.

Maternal Emotion Regulation and Early Childhood Irritability: The Role of Child Directed Emotion Regulation Strategies

Parental assistance with children's emotion regulation (ER) is a form of emotion socialization behavior that has recently been operationalized with the development of the Parent Assistance with Child Emotion Regulation (PACER) questionnaire. In line with Eisenberg et al.'s heuristic model of the socialization of emotion, this study sought to test the links between mothers' ER difficulties, their use of ER strategies with their child, and child irritability - a salient dimension of child regulatory difficulties. Cross-sectional data was collected online with mothers (N = 371) of children aged one month to 5 years (M = 2.07 years, SD = 1.25) and data were analysed using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. After controlling for child age and gender, maternal distress, and household income, we found small but significant associations between maternal ER difficulties and child irritability. However, maternal use of ER strategies did not account for further variance in child irritability. These findings suggest that there are meaningful associations between maternal ER and child irritability, although maternal strategies to support child ER appear independent of their own ER capacity. Whilst not associated with child irritability, maternal support for children's ER may be associated with other indicators of mental health risk and resilience.