An examination of parent-child interactions and developmental pathways of emotion regulation

Research examining emotion regulation has indicated that children\u27s success at home and school is enhanced through adaptive emotion regulation skills (Eisenburg, Spinrad & Morris, 2002). This is particularly true in the areas of social competence and academic functioning (Harris, Robinson, Chang & Burns, 2007). Because the development of emotion regulation skills is supported by the scaffolding of adaptive strategies in children may through parental responsivity to needs (Robinson, Morris, Heller, Scheeringa, Boris, & Smyke, 2009), the current study examined pathways through which quality of parent-child interactions impacted later emotion regulation. The effect of attention regulation on emotion regulation was also considered. Participants in the analysis included families from the longitudinal National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care (NICHD-SECC). Variables in the study were measured from infancy through 3 rd grade. Results indicated that the quality of mother child interactions at 54 months was directly associated with both attention regulation at 1 st grade and emotion regulation at 3 rd grade. Results also suggested the presence of an indirect effect of maternal positive caregiving at 54 months on emotion regulation at 3 rd grade through attention regulation at 1 st grade. Father-child interactions were not found to be directly associated with attention regulation at 1 st grade or emotion regulation at 3 rd grade. The results of this study may be beneficial in supporting school psychologists and other clinicians in targeting specific components of parent-child interactions for intervention to support the development of proactive emotion regulation strategies in children