A Pilot Study of a Parent Emotion Socialization Intervention: Impact on Parent Behavior, Child Self-Regulation, and Adjustment

Adequate emotion regulation in children is crucial for healthy development and is influenced by parent emotion socialization. The current pilot study aimed to test, for the first time in a Scandinavian population, whether an emotion-focused intervention, Tuning in to Kids (TIK), had positive effects on parent emotion-related socialization behaviors (ERSBs), and children's self-regulation, anxiety, and externalizing behavior problems. We conducted a controlled trial of the 6-week evidence-based TIK parenting program with 20 parents of preschool children aged 5–6 years and 19 wait-list controls. Assessments at baseline and 6 months after the intervention included parent-report questionnaires on parent ERSBs and child adjustment, as well as aspects of children's self-regulation assessed with two behavioral tasks, the Emotional Go/No-Go task (EGNG) and the AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT). Results showed a significant increase in reported parent emotion coaching behavior and an uncorrected significant decrease in parents' report of child externalizing problems in intervention participants compared to controls. The behavioral data showed an uncorrected significant improvement in child emotion discrimination in the control condition compared to the intervention condition, while measures of children's executive control improved from baseline to follow-up for both conditions but were not significantly different between conditions. These findings suggest that this emotion-focused parenting intervention contributed to improvement in parents' emotion coaching and their appraisal of child externalizing problems, while children's self-regulation showed mainly normative developmental improvements. Further research with a larger sample will be the next step to determine if these pilot findings are seen in an adequately powered study.

A Systematic Review of Risk and Protective Factors for Externalizing Problems in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health issue with innumerable costs to the victims, children, and families affected as well as society at large. The evidence is conclusive regarding a strong association between exposure to IPV and children’s externalizing problems. Moving forward, the next step is to enhance our understanding of risk and protective factors associated with these outcomes in order to tailor treatments to meet the needs of both parents and children. The databases Medline, PubMed, and PsyINFO were searched combining variations of the key words such as parent*, child*, mother, partner abuse, domestic abuse, spousal abuse, interpersonal violence, domestic violence, or intimate partner violence. This search were combined with child externalizing behaviors specifically conduct*, oppositional defiant disorder, externaliz*, aggress*, hyperactivity, and ADHD. A total of 31 studies from all three databases were reviewed following application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The main findings were that child age and gender, callous–unemotional traits, cognitive appraisals, maternal mental health, and quality of parenting emerged as key mediating and moderating factors of the relationship between IPV exposure and child externalizing problems. These findings suggest that interventions provided to families exposed to IPV need to target both maternal and child risk factors in order to successfully reduce child externalizing problems.

Early trajectories of interparental conflict and externalizing problems as predictors of social competence in preadolescence

Consistent with developmental cascade notions, the present study investigated (a) associations between trajectories of interparental conflict and early externalizing problems during childhood and (b) early trajectories of externalizing problems as a pathway by which interparental conflict impacts children's social competence in preadolescence. Participants were 235 children and their parents and teachers. Children were assessed annually for 3 years, beginning when they were in kindergarten. Parents provided reports of interparental conflict and child externalizing problems. Children's social competence (prosocial behavior, social problems) was assessed approximately 5 years later via parent and teacher reports. Results from parallel process models indicated that changes in interparental conflict were positively associated with changes in externalizing problems during childhood. Further, demonstrating pathways consistent with notions of developmental cascades, early trajectories of externalizing problems accounted for the longitudinal link between early trajectories of interparental conflict and children's social problems in preadolescence.