B - 58 Cognitive Emotion Regulation as a Mediator between Childhood Trauma and Parenting Stress.

Abstract

Determine the relationship between adverse childhood events (ACE), emotion regulation (ER) during the perinatal period, and parenting stress. Pregnant individuals were recruited through an electronic medical record database and word of mouth as part of the COVID-19 and Perinatal Experiences Study to complete online surveys about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal data were collected from 349 participants from pregnancy through 12months postpartum. A structural equation modeling approach was utilized to assess ACEs and ER's direct and indirect effects on parenting stress. A path mediation model was utilized. Models were estimated using Mplus 8.8. Missing data were handled using full information maximum likelihood. Latent factors of cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression were independently modeled as the mediators between ACES and parenting stress. The expressive suppression model showed good fit (CFI = 0.982; TLI = 0.966; SRMR = 0.039), and the CR model showed adequate fit (CFI = 0.911; TLI = 0.86; SRMR = 0.047). There was a significant positive effect of ACEs on expressive suppression (β= 0.104, 95% CI [0.048, 0.159], p = 0.002) and expressive suppression on parenting stress (β= 0.098, 95% CI [0.032, 0.164], p = 0.015). We found a significant negative effect of ACEs on CR (β= -0.061, 95% CI [-0.110, -0.013], p = 0.039) (Fig. 1). and of CR on parenting stress (β= -0.101, 95% CI [-0.167, -0.013], p = 0.013) (Fig. 2). This analysis supports the hypothesis that experiencing adverse events during childhood can impact parenting stress through a change in both adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies.