The Influence of Parent Mental Health on Parenting and Child Emotion Regulation

Abstract

This study examined 56 families with preschool aged children. Mothers and fathers completed self-reports of depression, anxiety, and parenting behaviors (CES-D, STAI, and CCNES). The children completed the Lock Box task and their behavior and physiological data were collected and coded to evaluate their emotion regulation ability. The data collected from parent reports and child Lock Box task were analyzed and it was found that father anxiety is associated with more minimization of children's expressions of negative emotions. Mothers' mental health had no significant relationship with parenting behaviors and child emotion regulation. Mothers were found to encourage expression of negative emotion more than fathers. Fathers' minimization of negative emotions had a significant relationship with poor child emotion regulation.