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Relationship of maternal negative moods to child emotion regulation during family interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2011

Getachew A. Dagne  and
James Snyder
Getachew A. Dagne*
Affiliation:
University of South Florida
James Snyder
Affiliation:
Wichita State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Getachew A. Dagne, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, 13201 Bruce B. Downs, MDC 56, Tampa, FL 33612; E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

The relationship of maternal hostile and depressive moods to children's downregulation of unprovoked anger and sadness/fear was assessed in a community sample of 267 5-year-old boys and girls. The speed of children's downregulation of unprovoked anger and sadness/fear was based on real-time observations during mother–child interaction. The association of downregulation with maternal mood was estimated using Bayesian event history analysis. As mothers reported higher depressive mood, both boys and girls were faster to downregulate anger displays as those displays accumulated during mother child interaction. The speed of boys' downregulation of anger and of sadness/fear was not associated with maternal hostile mood. As mothers reported more hostile mood, girls were faster to downregulate displays of sadness/fear, but the speed of this downregulation slowed as those displays accumulated during ongoing mother–child interaction. These associations of child downregulation and maternal mood were observed after controlling for child adjustment. The data suggest frequent exposure to different negative maternal moods affect children's expression and regulation of emotions in relatively specific ways, conditional on the type of maternal mood, the type of child emotion, and child gender.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 211 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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