ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4858-5565

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Psychology (Ph.D.)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Tamara Del Vecchio

Second Advisor

Melissa Peckins

Third Advisor

Lauren Moskowitz

Abstract

Parenting is an emotional context in which parents often need to be able to regulate their own emotions in order to respond effectively to their child. Thus, how one regulates themselves may impact child outcomes. Supporting this notion, parent emotional regulation (ER) has been found to influence child adjustment (for a review, see Zimmer-Gembeck et al., 2021) and, more specifically, child affect (Hamzallari et al., 2022). For example, maternal suppression of emotions has been found to predict infant frustration (i.e., crying; Hamzallari et al., 2022). However, it is less clear how parent ER impacts child positive and negative affect. Theory suggests that one way parent ER influences child affect is via emotion socialization behaviors (ESBs; Eisenberg et al., 1998), yet there is a lack of empirical evidence to support this claim. It is believed that supportive and unsupportive ESBs may demonstrate differential relations to child emotions (Eisenberg et al., 1998), but these behaviors have not been studied as a mechanism through which ER influences affect. The goal of this study is to expand our understanding of the relation between parent ER and child affect via ESBs for both positive and negative emotions. One hundred and fifty-nine parents of toddlers ages 18 to 36 months completed measures on their use of ER strategies within the parenting context, how they respond to their child’s emotions, and the frequency of their child’s displays of positive and negative affect. Understanding the ER processes that may influence ESBs and child affect might identify targets for intervention and psychoeducation.

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