Parental affect profiles predict child emotion regulation and classroom adjustment in families experiencing homelessness

Madelyn H. Labella, Rebecca Distefano, Jillian S. Merrick, Jyothi Ramakrishnan, Eric L Thibodeau, Ann S. Masten

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Parenting shapes the development of emotion regulation skills in early childhood, laying a key foundation for social-emotional adjustment. Unfortunately, high adversity exposure may disrupt parental emotion socialization practices and children's regulatory development. The current study used variable- and person-centered approaches to evaluate links among parental emotion expressiveness, children's observed emotion regulation, and teacher-reported adjustment among 214 4- to 6-year-old children experiencing homelessness, an indicator of high cumulative risk and acute adversity. Structured parent-child interaction tasks were recorded on site in emergency shelters over the summer and micro-socially coded for parent and child expressions of anger, positive affect, and internalizing distress. We anticipated that parental modeling of predominantly negative emotion expression would be associated with more child dysregulation during parent-child interaction and worse adjustment at school, as reported by teachers the following school year. Preliminary analyses indicated that children's observed difficulty downregulating anger was associated robustly with teacher-reported social-behavioral problems. Latent profile analysis was used to identify three patterns of parental emotion expression characterized by above-average expression of positive affect, internalizing distress, and anger. Parents’ likelihood of membership in the elevated anger profile significantly predicted children's observed difficulty down-regulating anger and higher social-behavioral problems at school. In addition to ongoing efforts to reduce poverty-related risk, supporting adaptive anger regulation in parents and young children may be important for enhancing resilience among families experiencing homelessness and similar conditions of high cumulative risk.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)830-848
Number of pages19
JournalSocial Development
Volume32
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was based on a doctoral dissertation completed by the first author. There has been no other prior dissemination of the ideas and data appearing in the manuscript. This research was supported in part by a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship awarded by the University of Minnesota to the first author, research funds from the Irving B. Harris and Regents Professorships (awarded to the last author), and the Institute of Child Development Small Grants program. We would also like to thank our community partners and participating families for making this research possible.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Social Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords

  • cumulative risk
  • emotion regulation
  • emotion socialization
  • homelessness
  • parent-child interaction
  • person-centered analysis

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