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Intergenerational transmission of psychopathology: the mediating role of maternal self-expressiveness and child emotion regulation

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Abstract

Maternal psychopathology is one of the major risk factors for children’s psychopathology. It is important to examine mechanisms underlying intergenerational transmission of psychopathology. The current study aimed to investigate the mediating role of maternal emotion expressiveness and child emotion regulation in the relationship between maternal psychopathology and child externalizing problems. We collected data from mothers of the fourth-grade children living in Ankara, Turkey. We examined the indirect effect of maternal psychopathology on child externalizing problems through maternal self-expressiveness and child emotion regulation using PROCESS Macro. Findings indicated that mothers’ psychopathology severity level negatively predicted their positive expressiveness in family environment, which in turn was associated with less child emotion regulation and ultimately more externalizing behaviors. However, maternal psychopathology was not indirectly linked to externalizing problems of children through negative expressiveness and both mediators in sequence. This study adds to the understanding of the processes underlying intergenerational transmission of psychopathology through the socialization of emotion in families, which provides implications for prevention and intervention programs.

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Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Sema Erel

  2. Psychology Department, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

    Cansu Alsancak-Akbulut

  3. Psychology Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Sibel Kazak Berument

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  1. Sema Erel
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  2. Cansu Alsancak-Akbulut
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  3. Sibel Kazak Berument
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Sema Erel and Cansu Alsancak-Akbulut. The manuscript was written by all authors. All authors commented on the parts of the manuscript written by each other. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cansu Alsancak-Akbulut.

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The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics committee of Middle East Technical University (Ethics approval number: 2016-SOS-002).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Erel, S., Alsancak-Akbulut, C. & Berument, S.K. Intergenerational transmission of psychopathology: the mediating role of maternal self-expressiveness and child emotion regulation. Curr Psychol 43, 6158–6166 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04805-9

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