The roles of temperamental dispositions and perceived parenting behaviours in the use of two emotion regulation strategies in late childhood

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Abstract

In recent years, emotion regulation has re-emerged in the literature as a fundamental component of psychological functioning. The present study investigated the independent and interactive roles of temperamental dispositions and perceptions of parenting behaviors in the use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies in late childhood. A sample of 293 children (grades 4–6) completed measures of ER, temperament, and parenting behaviors. As hypothesized, higher scores on temperament-based Approach and perceived parental Care were associated with greater use of the ER strategy of Reappraisal, whereas lower levels of temperament-based Flexibility, Positive Mood Quality and perceived parental Care were associated with greater use of the ER strategy of Suppression. Results suggest that despite differing temperamental dispositions, the presence of a nurturing and supportive caregiving environment is important for the development of adaptive patterns of ER.

Introduction

A fundamental and long awaited agenda for research into the aetiology and prevention of mental health problems involves a more comprehensive understanding of the development of individual differences in emotional functioning and emotional competence (Cole, Michel, & Teti, 1994). Of note, poor regulation of emotions is implicated in more than half of the Axis I disorders included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and in all of the Axis II disorders (Gross and Levenson, 1997, Repetti et al., 2002). Difficulty regulating emotions is also predictive of poorer social competence and peer acceptance (Gottman et al., 1996, Gross and John, 2003).

To date, research studies contributing to understanding in this important area have typically focused on infancy, early childhood or adulthood. There remains a dearth of research examining the developmental periods of late childhood and adolescence. Given that these periods mark critical turning points in children's acquisition of cognitive, social and emotional skills as well as their development of autonomy (Cole et al., 1994, Gross and Munoz, 1995), research during these developmental periods is greatly needed.

According to Thompson (1994), the term emotion regulation (ER) refers to the processes, both extrinsic and intrinsic, that are responsible for recognizing, monitoring, evaluating and modifying emotional reactions. ER processes involve the initiation, enhancement and reduction of both positive and negative emotions (Gross, 1998b). The most adaptive means of expressing an emotion is in a situation specific manner and is dependent on both the demands of the immediate social context, as well as the goals of the individual (Cole et al., 1994, Gross and Thompson, 2007, Thompson, 1994, Thompson and Meyer, 2007). Inherent in this definition is the notion that ER encompasses both internal self-management, initiated and accomplished by the individual, as well as regulation externally influenced by others (Campos et al., 1989, Cole et al., 2004, Thompson, 1994). In the current study, the focus is on internal self-management.

According to Gross' (1998a) process-oriented approach, an emotion begins with an evaluation of emotion cues which, when attended to and evaluated in certain ways, triggers a coordinated set of response tendencies that involve experiential, behavioral and physiological systems. Specific ER strategies can therefore be differentiated along a “timeline of the unfolding emotional response” (John & Gross, 2004, p. 1302). It is proposed that these ER strategies can be executed consciously or automatically with little awareness or deliberation (Gross & John, 2003). At the broadest level, strategies may be classified as antecedent-focused and response-focused. Antecedent-focused strategies occur early in the emotion generative process and intervene before the emotion response tendencies have become fully activated. As such these strategies have the adaptive ability to modify the entire emotion sequence (John & Gross, 2004). By contrast, response-focused strategies come relatively late in the emotion generative process, with their effects limited to acting upon the behavioral aspects of the emotional response that has already been generated (John & Gross, 2004). Based on this temporal dichotomy, Gross and John (2003) and Gross and Levenson (1997) have conducted research related to two commonly used ER strategies, cognitive Reappraisal and expressive Suppression. Cognitive Reappraisal is an antecedent-focused strategy and involves redefining a potentially emotion-eliciting situation in such a way that its emotional impact is changed. For example, the outcome of a poor grade on an assignment may be reinterpreted from a perception of having failed to one of being provided with information for improved future performance. In contrast expressive Suppression is a response-focused strategy and involves the inhibition of ongoing emotion expressive behavior (John & Gross, 2004). For example, upon receiving information that one has been deliberately deceived, instead of showing one's anger, an individual retains their composure.

Based on a series of studies with young adults using their self-report Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Gross and John (2003) found that individual differences in the use of Reappraisal and Suppression related in predictable ways to psychological and social functioning. Specifically, reappraisers were found to be more likely to negotiate stressful events by interpreting them in a more optimistic way, making active efforts to repair negative moods. Consequently they were found to experience and express more positive affect and less negative affect compared to individuals who used this strategy less frequently. These individuals also reported closer social relationships, greater self-esteem and life satisfaction and fewer depressive symptoms. In relation to Suppression, it was found that more frequent use was associated with considerable psychological costs. Specifically, suppressors were less successful at improving their mood, expressing and experiencing less positive affect. Whilst they expressed less negative affect compared to the level they were feeling, they experienced more negative affect than individuals who did not use this ER strategy. Furthermore, suppressors were found to report fewer and poorer quality relationships with others, lower levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction and more depressive symptoms. Knowledge of the ER strategies that individuals use in a given situation therefore has important implications for their affective experiences and interpersonal functioning. As such, an understanding of the developmental predictors of ER strategies is essential. Two proposed predictors are temperament and parenting behaviors (Southam-Gerow & Kendall, 2002).

Early temperamental characteristics that differentiate children from one another have been found to influence the kinds of ER skills and strategies children develop (Calkins, 2004, John and Gross, 2004). Based on a review of research with infants and young children, Southam-Gerow and Kendall (2002) have proposed that temperament “provides the blueprint and foundations from which and on which emotional development builds. Thus when considering the bricks and mortar that ER represent, an understanding of the blueprint and foundation is necessary” (p.191–192).

It has been found that children who experience extreme distress in response to particular types of events may become too disrupted to be able to generate constructive regulating behaviors (Calkins & Johnson, 1998). Similarly, an inhibited and withdrawn temperamental style has been associated with the use of help-seeking behaviors and emotional masking among both toddlers and young adults (Eisenberg et al., 1995, Zimmermann and Stansbury, 2003).

Among young adults, personality traits, thought to develop from earlier temperamental dispositions, have been associated with specific ER strategies (John & Gross, 2004). For example, low extraversion, has been associated with expressive Suppression, whereas low neuroticism has been found to have a small association with cognitive Reappraisal. John and Gross (2004) have argued that individuals low in extraversion may employ Suppression more frequently as an attempt to minimize their potential rejection from others. In contrast, individuals low in neuroticism are not prone to extremely high levels of negative affect and therefore may be less overwhelmed by their negative emotions, making it easier for them to remain engaged in distressing situations long enough to find alternative ways of appraising the situation early in the emotion generative process (John & Gross, 2004).

In line with Kagan's (1997) construct of behavioral inhibition, research has consistently shown that individual differences characterized by a tendency to respond flexibly to environmental changes, to approach rather than withdraw from novel stimuli, and to experience positively valanced moods contribute to an individual's adaptability and psychological wellbeing (Windle, 1992a). Such research suggests that individual differences in characteristic behavioral styles play a significant role in the development of ER behaviors and strategies and consequently related development of psychopathology. For example, among adolescents, tendencies to withdraw from novel stimuli (Approach/Withdrawal), to be rigid in the face of environmental changes (Flexibility/Rigidity), and to experience negative moods (Mood Quality), have been shown to be predictive of depressive symptomatology (Windle, 1992b, Windle and Davies, 1999, Windle and Lerner, 1986, Windle and Mason, 2004) and delinquent behavior (Windle, 1992b). In addition, higher levels of Approach, Flexibility and Positive Mood Quality have been positively related to measures of general self worth and perceived competence among both 12-year-olds and college undergraduates (Windle et al., 1986). Each of these dimensions has been proposed to represent an individual's adaptability in the face of stressful situations (Windle, 1992a).

Although the child's temperamental disposition or characteristic behavioral style plays an important role in laying the foundation for subsequent development, from the very outset temperament is shaped by the child's surrounding environment (Calkins & Hill, 2007; Southam-Gerow & Kendall, 2002). One important assumption of much of the research on the development of ER is that parental caregiving practices play an important contextual role in that they may magnify or minimize adaptive or maladaptive temperamental tendencies and emotion-related behaviors (Calkins et al., 1998, Southam-Gerow and Kendall, 2002, Thompson, 1994, Thompson and Meyer, 2007).

The quality of parent–child interactions forms the basis of the attachment relationship and has been found to have profound implications for a child's experience, expression and regulation of emotion (Cassidy, 1994, Eisenberg et al., 1998, Morris et al., 2007). According to Cassidy (1994), securely attached children develop an expectation that their emotion signals will be predictably and sensitively responded to. Thus securely attached children openly express and share their emotions. In contrast, insecurely attached children develop expectations that their emotion signals will be attended to only selectively or unpredictably. Consequently, insecurely attached infants are likely to develop maladaptive ER strategies including minimization, exaggeration and distortion (Calkins and Hill, 2007, Cassidy, 1994).

Based on attachment theory, Parker, Tupling, and Brown (1979) developed the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) to assess parenting styles along two bipolar dimensions: Care (ranging from affection and emotional warmth to indifference and neglect) and Overprotection (ranging from parental over-control to encouragement of autonomy). Studies using the PBI have consistently reported that there are significant associations between psychological distress including depressive symptomatology and lifetime diagnosis of depression among clinical and non-clinical samples of adolescents, and the combination of low Care and high Overprotection (e.g., McFarlane et al., 1995, Parker, 1983, Patton et al., 2001).

In line with these research findings, it has been argued that to enable children to practice and master their own regulation, parents need to allow appropriate autonomy in emotional situations (Southam-Gerow & Kendall, 2002). A parent who engages with and supports a child displaying negative emotions in a controlling and overprotective manner inhibits the child from experimenting with various ER strategies (Bell and Calkins, 2000, Fox and Calkins, 2003). These children consequently learn to depend on external support as their opportunities for developing a repertoire of optimal regulation strategies are limited. Empirical research with toddlers has suggested that maternal controlling behavior is related to less adaptive ER strategies (orienting to the object of frustration) and less physiological regulation during emotion-eliciting situations (Calkins and Johnson, 1998, Calkins et al., 1998). In contrast, maternal behavior characterized by encouragement, verbal guiding and support has been related to more adaptive ER strategies, including problem solving and distraction (Calkins and Johnson, 1998, Spinrad et al., 2004).

Emotion self-regulation develops as children internalize the explicit and implicit evaluations of their emotions by significant others and thus learn to assess their feelings in similar ways (Thompson & Meyer, 2007). In one study of 9 to 12-year-olds, punitive and parental minimization responses to children's emotions were related to lower levels of constructive coping (cognitive restructuring and support seeking) and higher levels of avoidant coping in peer conflict situations (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Murphy, 1996). Research has also indicated that harsh or unsupportive responses to children's emotional displays serve to heighten their emotional arousal and teach them to avoid rather than to understand and appropriately express their negative emotions (Berlin and Cassidy, 2003, Eisenberg et al., 1998). Berlin and Cassidy (2003) for example, found that maternal reports of greater control of their children's emotional displays were associated with children's increased likelihood of suppressing their emotions when winning or losing a challenging game. Related research suggests that children whose parents invalidate, criticize or avoid teaching them about emotions adopt fewer adaptive emotion regulation strategies and have generally poorer emotional adjustment (Lunkenheimer et al., 2007, Shipman et al., 2007).

Conversely, studies have demonstrated that children regulate their emotions more adaptively in the immediate context and acquire more constructive ER strategies when parents respond in an accepting and supportive way to their negative emotional displays (Eisenberg et al., 1996, Gilliom et al., 2002, Ramsden and Hubbard, 2002). Gottman, Katz, and Hooven (1996), for example, reported that parents' validation of children's negative emotions, and their engagement in coaching their children to recognize and deal with emotions, was related to children's greater ability to regulate their emotions, which later predicted higher levels of social competence. Others have reported related findings. For example, children whose parents regularly discuss emotions with them have been found to demonstrate a more complex understanding of emotion experiences and expression (Denham et al., 1994, Dunn et al., 1991, Dunn et al., 1991). There is general consensus that having a sophisticated understanding of emotions is an important ER competency (Kopp, 1992).

Emerging research suggests that the development of ER skills and strategies is a transactional process, dependent on both child and parent contributions (Calkins, 1994, Morris et al., 2007). Accordingly, Southam-Gerow and Kendall (2002) have proposed that parenting practices and caregiver characteristics have a moderating influence on outcomes associated with the child's temperament. As such, parenting behaviors have the power to shape the impact of the child's temperament on the development of ER strategies. For example, a negatively reactive child may be forced to rely on immature or ineffective ER strategies if his/her caregiver has not provided the appropriate and necessary emotional support (Calkins, 2004). Furthermore, caregiver behaviors that are cold and unsupportive may not only exacerbate certain genetically based predispositions but may even create certain risks that would not otherwise exist (Repetti et al., 2002).

Research examining the interactive associations between temperament and parenting with childhood emotion regulation is relatively rare. With exception, Gilliom, Shaw, Beck, Schonberg, and Lukon (2002) reported that among low income families, pre-school boys' negative emotionality at 18 months of age was predictive of lower rates of adaptive emotion regulatory behaviors (passive waiting) and higher rates of maladaptive regulatory behaviors (focusing on the object of frustration) at 3 years and 6 months of age only among children whose mothers employed hostile and harsh parenting behaviors. Similarly, in a related study (Nachmias, Gunnar, Mangelsdorf, Parritz, & Buss, 1996), heightened physiological stress reactions were found only for 18-month old toddlers who were both temperamentally inhibited and in attachment relationships characterized by controlling and intrusive caregivers.

The aim of this study was to assess the independent and interactive roles of specific temperament-based dimensions and children's perceptions of parenting behavior in the use of ER strategies in late childhood. Given the predominant focus on infancy in existing ER research, reliance on observational and parent-report methods predominates in the ER literature. With its focus on older children, this study used the complimentary method of self-report, a method more appropriate to this age-group given their cognitively more mature age (Soto et al., 2008, Walden et al., 2003).

In accordance with the above reviewed literature it was hypothesized that: (i) lower levels of temperamental Flexibility, Approach and Positive Mood Quality, would be associated with greater use of expressive Suppression and less use of cognitive Reappraisal, (ii) lower levels of parental Care and higher levels of parental Overprotection would be associated with greater use of Suppression and less use of Reappraisal, and (iii) perceived parenting behaviors would moderate the relationship between temperament and ER. Thus, inverse relations between Flexibility, Approach and Positive Mood Quality with expressive Suppression would be stronger when parental Care is high than when Care is low and the proposed positive relations between Flexibility, Approach and Positive Mood Quality with cognitive Reappraisal would be stronger when parental Care is high than when Care is low. The opposite trend was proposed for parental Overprotection such that, at high levels of Overprotection compared to low levels, the proposed inverse relations between the temperament variables and expressive Suppression would be stronger. Similarly, the proposed positive relationships between the temperament variables and cognitive Reappraisal would be weaker at high levels of parental Overprotection.

Findings related to these hypotheses are proposed to have potential applied implications regarding interventions aimed at teaching children and adolescents to recognize, regulate and express their emotions in a socially appropriate manner so as to lead to improved psychological wellbeing.

Section snippets

Participants

The initial sample comprised 298 participants aged 9–12 years recruited during the fourth wave of a larger ongoing longitudinal study on emotional development and wellbeing in children and adolescents. Following data screening, the final sample comprised 293 participants, of which 158 were female (Mean age = 10.77, SD = .86) and 135 were male (Mean age = 10.78 SD = .94). Most participants were born in Australia (72.7%), spoke English at home (73.7%), and lived with two parents (76.5%). This is

Data analyses summary

With the alpha level set at 0.05 for all inferential tests, mean group differences in the temperament, parenting and ER variables by age (9–10 years compared to 11–12 years) and sex were investigated using three 2 × 2 multivariate analyses of variance. Pearson's Product Moment correlation analyses between the study variables were followed by a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses to determine whether the temperament and parenting subscales predicted the ER variables of cognitive

Discussion

The aims of the present study were to examine the direct and interactive roles of a number of temperament-based variables and perceived parenting behaviors in the use of ER strategies during late childhood. On the whole, the data provided support for the hypotheses that temperament-based variables and perceived parenting behaviors are associated with children's use of the specific ER strategies of expressive Suppression and cognitive Reappraisal. However, the hypothesis that perceived parenting

Conclusions

The current study provides support for the hypotheses that both temperament and perceived parenting behaviors additively predict the use of the two specific ER strategies of cognitive Reappraisal and expressive Suppression. The findings of unique significant relationships between Suppression and temperamental Positive Mood Quality and Flexibility as well as between Reappraisal and temperamental Approach suggest that different temperament dispositions relate to ER strategies in diverse ways such

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Liesl Heinrich for her assistance with data analysis.

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    This research was supported by an Australian Research Council grant [ARC DP0771180].

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