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A Psychometric Evaluation of the Revised Parental Emotion Regulation Inventory

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Abstract

Despite significant research on parental emotion, parents’ regulation of their own emotions during discipline encounters is an understudied topic. Progress in this area of inquiry would be enhanced by the development of valid measures of emotion regulation. The present article describes an evaluation of such a measure, the revised Parental Emotion Regulation Inventory (PERI2). Mothers of 2-year-old children (N = 232) completed the PERI2, additional questionnaire measures, and a parent-child observation during home visits. The present findings support the factorial and concurrent validity of the PERI2’s suppression (e.g., concealing negative emotion), capitulation (e.g., giving into aversive child behavior to reduce negative emotion) and escape (e.g., walking away mid discipline encounter to reduce negative emotion) factors. Suppression, capitulation, and escape were distinct but interrelated emotion regulatory behaviors that were associated with such factors as harsh parenting, lax discipline, parental maladjustment, and child physical aggression. In contrast, the psychometric adequacy of the reappraisal factor (e.g., thinking differently about the child’s behavior to reduce negative emotion) was not supported. The results support the future use of the PERI2, minus the reappraisal factor’s items.

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Funding

This study was funded by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Grant B1U49CE001246-01PR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Family Translational Research Group, New York University, 137 East 25th Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Michael F. Lorber & Amy M. Smith Slep

  2. Department of Psychology, St. John’s University, Marillac Hall, 8000 Utopia Parkway, Queens, NY, 11439, USA

    Tamara Del Vecchio & Michael A. Feder

Authors
  1. Michael F. Lorber
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  2. Tamara Del Vecchio
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  3. Michael A. Feder
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  4. Amy M. Smith Slep
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Correspondence to Michael F. Lorber.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. However, Michael Lorber has received research grants/contracts from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Justice, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Amy Smith Slep has received research grants/contracts from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Justice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Institute of Educational Sciences, and Department of Justice.

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Lorber, M.F., Del Vecchio, T., Feder, M.A. et al. A Psychometric Evaluation of the Revised Parental Emotion Regulation Inventory. J Child Fam Stud 26, 452–463 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-016-0578-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-016-0578-3

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