Relationship between the emotion regulation strategies of parents and toddlers and toddlers? negative affect.

Autor/inn/en	Schoppmann, Johanna; Schneider, Silvia; Seehagen, Sabine
Titel	Relationship between the emotion regulation strategies of parents and toddlers and toddlers? negative affect. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Beziehung zwischen den Emotionsregulationsstrategien von Eltern und Kleinkindern und dem negativen Affekt von Kleinkindern.
Quelle	In: Kindheit und Entwicklung, 34 (2025) 3, S. 127-137Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; gedruckt; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0942-5403; 2190-6246
DOI	10.1026/0942-5403/a000499
Schlagwörter	Ausdruck; Emotion; Psychologie; Ärger; Säugling; Eltern; Kleinkind; Kleinkindalter; Säuglingsalter; Entwicklung; Merkmal; Regulation; Strategie
Abstract	Theoretical background: Emotion regulation (ER) is crucial to key areas of life, including health, personality, and relationships. Observation of their parents? emotions, emotion-related parenting practices, and the family?s emotional climate are considered three important ways for children to learn ER strategies. The parents? own ER strategies are presumed to be essential for these pathways. However, little research has addressed the relationship between parents? emotional experiences and ER and their children?s emotional responses and ER, especially during infancy and toddlerhood. Objective: The present study investigated whether parental emotion-regulation strategies predict the expression of toddler negative affect and a specific emotion-regulation strategy (i. e., distraction) in a challenging situation. This study focused on toddlers, as competencies for independent emotion regulation in mildly negative situations emerge during this developmental period. Method: The study employed a between-subject correlational design that included N = 96 parent-toddler dyads. The toddlers were 24 months old and participated in a waiting situation designed to elicit frustration in the laboratory. Parents completed questionnaires about their own emotion-regulation strategies. The study measured the frequency of negative affect and toddlers? use of the ER strategy distraction by behavioral observation. We also assessed parental education and toddler temperament. Results: The waiting situation successfully induced negative affect in toddlers. The parental ER strategies significantly predicted toddler negative affect in regression models, with a moderate goodness-of-fit. When we expanded the regression model to include parental level of education and toddler temperament, the model?s explanatory power increased. However, parental ER strategies did not significantly predict toddler use of distraction in a challenging situation. Discussion and conclusion: In line with theoretical models on the development of emotion regulation, the results suggest that parental emotion-regulation strategies shape toddlers? expression of negative emotions early in life. However, parental ER strategies did not predict the toddler ER strategy distraction, which might have resulted from a lack of equivalent strategies in the standardized questionnaire used. Future research could investigate the role of parental ER strategies in clinical intervention programs and examine the bidirectional influences between parental and toddler ER. Additionally, further studies should explore the relationships between parental ER and children?s emotion expression and regulation regarding other emotions, such as fear or sadness. (ZPID).
Erfasst von	Leibniz-Institut für Psychologie, Trier
Update	2026/3