Longitudinal pathways of family influence on child self-regulation: The roles of parenting, family expressiveness, and maternal sensitive guidance in the context of child maltreatment.

Abstract

Maltreated children are susceptible to dysregulation, but developmental mechanisms at the family level that influence this process are understudied. In the current investigation, 4 mediators (positive parenting, positive and negative family expressiveness, and maternal sensitive guidance during reminiscing) were examined as process variables through which maltreatment relates to 2 dimensions of child emotional self-regulation (adaptive emotion regulation and lability/negativity) measured across 3 time points (baseline, 2 months, and 6 months later) using longitudinal mediation analysis with latent growth modeling. These processes were evaluated in the context of a randomized controlled trial of a brief intervention aimed at improving maternal sensitive guidance during reminiscing. Participants included 160 maltreating mothers randomized into intervention (n = 81) or control intervention (n = 79) conditions and 78 demographically matched, nonmaltreating mothers and their 3- to 6-year-old children (N = 238). In the primary analysis, maternal sensitive guidance at baseline mediated relations between early maltreatment and emotion regulation and lability/negativity at 6 months, and latent change in emotion regulation across the 3 time points. Additionally, the intervention predicted steeper positive change in emotion regulation. In the secondary analysis, there was evidence of indirect effects of the intervention on emotional self-regulation through maternal sensitive guidance, positive parenting, and positive family expressiveness. Implications and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).