Intervening to enhance emotion regulation: early childhood adversity, parent-child mutual positive affect, and later child regulation capabilities

Abstract

Early experiences of adversity and maltreatment are linked to later difficulties with emotion regulation. This study sought to examine the role of early risk and parent-child mutual positive affect in influencing children’s later emotion regulation, as well the effects of a preventative intervention, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) on these capabilities. Parent-child dyads referred to Child Protective Services (CPS) due to concerns of maltreatment were randomly assigned to ABC or a control intervention when children were infants, and a follow-up assessments measured parent-child mutual positive affect at 24 months old and child emotion regulation at 8 years old. Risk indices were developed across three domains: child, parent, and instability, and for two developmental periods: 0-24 months old and 8-10 years old. Results showed that parent-child dyads randomly assigned to ABC displayed a significantly higher percentage of mutual positive affect at 24 months old, compared with parent-child dyads assigned to DEF, controlling for risk. At the 8-year-old follow-up, no significant intervention effects were found for child emotion regulation. However, early parent-child mutual positive affect at 24 months old was linked to later child positive emotion regulation at 8 years old, controlling for early and concurrent risk. In addition, early parent risk at 24 months old was found to play a significant role in predicting later child emotion lability/negativity at 8 years old, controlling for concurrent parent risk. These findings highlight the importance of early parent risk and parent-child mutual positive affect for the development of later emotion regulation skills, and the role that early intervention can play in enhancing early parent-child mutual positive affect.