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Maternal Emotion Regulation and Adolescent Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Family Functioning and Parenting

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Abstract

Prior research links poor maternal emotion regulation to maladaptive parenting and child behaviors, but little research is available on these relationships during the adolescent period. We use structural equation modeling to assess the influence of poor maternal emotion regulation, measured as emotional reactivity and distancing, on adolescent behaviors (measured as aggression and prosocial behaviors) among 478 adolescents (53 % female; baseline age 10–13 years) and their mothers over a 5 year period. We also tested the possible mediating roles of family functioning and parenting behaviors between maternal emotion regulation and adolescent behaviors. Results indicated that higher baseline maternal emotional distancing and reactivity were not directly predictive of adolescents’ behaviors, but they were indirectly related through family functioning and parenting. Specifically, indulgent parenting mediated the relationship between maternal emotional reactivity and adolescent aggression. Maternal-reported family functioning significantly mediated the relationship between maternal emotional distancing and adolescent aggression. Family functioning also mediated the relationship between emotional distancing and regulation parenting. The results imply that poor maternal emotion regulation during their child’s early adolescence leads to more maladaptive parenting and problematic behaviors during the later adolescent period. However, healthy family processes may ameliorate the negative impact of low maternal emotion regulation on parenting and adolescent behavioral outcomes. The implications for future research and interventions to improve parenting and adolescent outcomes are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Family hostility was measured based on observer ratings of behaviors that demonstrated hostility from youth to mother, youth to father, mother to youth, and father to youth.

  2. We used the Regulation subfactor rather than the full authoritative scale to have a more focused measure on a positive aspect of parenting that was particularly relevant to adolescence and had good reliability.

  3. The five items used are original items 6, 10, 20, 22, and 25 of the Emotional Restraint Scale in the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory.

  4. Full results of the confirmatory factor analysis are available from the first author upon request.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the College of Family, Home, and Social Science, and the many donors and supporters of the Family Studies Center at Brigham Young University who provided generous financial assistance for this project for many years.

Authors’ Contributions

AC conceived of the study and the analytical design, performed statistical analyses and interpretation, and drafted the manuscript. SG assisted in the analytical design of the study, statistical analyses, and interpretation. RD was the principal investigator for the Flourishing Families Project and helped with the theory and interpretation of results. AR helped with the conceptualization and design of the study and interpretation of results. All authors helped draft the manuscript and read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

The Flourishing Families Project was funded by Brigham Young University (U.S.) College of Family, Home, and Social Science (Principal Investigator: Randal D. Day). Funding for Crandall’s initial doctoral training at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health: T232MH019545 NIMH Child Mental Health Services and Service System Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    AliceAnn Crandall & Anne W. Riley

  2. Department of Health Science, Brigham Young University, 2049 LSB, Provo, UT, 84602, USA

    AliceAnn Crandall

  3. Department of Community Public Health, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, 525 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Sharon R. Ghazarian

  4. Department of Family Life, Brigham Young University, 2092B JFSB, Provo, UT, 84602, USA

    Randal D. Day

Authors
  1. AliceAnn Crandall
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  2. Sharon R. Ghazarian
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  4. Anne W. Riley
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Correspondence to AliceAnn Crandall.

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The authors report no conflicts of interests.

Ethical approval

The Brigham Young University Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the Flourishing Families Project. The Flourishing Families Project involved human participants who provided informed consent in accordance with the procedures established with the institutional ethics committee. This current study was a secondary data analysis using the Flourishing Families Project data.

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Crandall, A., Ghazarian, S.R., Day, R.D. et al. Maternal Emotion Regulation and Adolescent Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Family Functioning and Parenting. J Youth Adolescence 45, 2321–2335 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0400-3

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