© 2018 Alena Prikhidko
Transcript of © 2018 Alena Prikhidko
EMOTION REGULATION AMONG MOTHERS OF TODDLERS IN THE CONTEXT OF INTENSIVE MOTHERING
By
ALENA PRIKHIDKO
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
2018
© 2018 Alena Prikhidko
To my mother, father, my husband and my son
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my mother and father, who constantly supported me in all
my endeavors, my husband, who helped me to discover my inner potential and my son,
who I love endlessly. I thank my committee chair, Dr. Jacqueline Swank, for being the
best advisor in my entire life for mentoring me with such a grace and support. I thank
my committee, Dr. Sondra Smith, Dr. Stephen Smith and Dr. John Super, for providing
me with an immense amount of support and feedback through this process.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 8
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 9
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... 10
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 11
CHAPTER
1 MOTHERS OF TODDLERS: AN INTRODUCTION ................................................ 13
Mothers of Toddlers in the Context of Intensive Mothering ..................................... 14
Background of the Study......................................................................................... 16 Statement of the Problem ....................................................................................... 17 Significance of the Study ........................................................................................ 17
Research Purpose .................................................................................................. 18 Research Hypotheses............................................................................................. 18
Delimitations and Assumptions ............................................................................... 19 Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................ 19 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................... 19
2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................................... 21
Experiences of Modern Mothers ............................................................................. 21 Connection Between a Mother And a Child ............................................................ 22
Physiological Concordance .............................................................................. 22
Emotional Synchrony ....................................................................................... 23 Emotion Regulation in Mother-Child Dyad........................................................ 24
Social Context of Modern Motherhood.................................................................... 27
Intensive Mothering as a Hegemonic Paradigm ............................................... 28 Intensive Mothering and Mental Health ............................................................ 29 Intensive Mothering and Religion ..................................................................... 34
Negative Emotional Experiences of Mothers .......................................................... 35
Hostile Emotions Towards Children ................................................................. 36 Hostile Emotions Toward Oneself .................................................................... 38
Emotion Regulation ................................................................................................ 40
Emotion Regulation Theory and Practice ......................................................... 41 Research on Emotion Regulation of Anger ...................................................... 47 Research on Emotion Regulation of Guilt......................................................... 50
Research on Emotion Regulation among Mothers ................................................. 54 Gender and Emotion Regulation ............................................................................. 59
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Summary of the Chapter ......................................................................................... 60
3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 61
Research Design .................................................................................................... 61 Research Purpose .................................................................................................. 61 Research Hypotheses............................................................................................. 61 Participants ............................................................................................................. 62 Procedures ............................................................................................................. 62
Instrumentation ....................................................................................................... 63 Demographic Questionnaire ............................................................................. 63 Intensive Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire ..................................................... 63 Revised Emotion Regulation Questionnaire-9 .................................................. 64 Parent Anger Scale .......................................................................................... 65
Guilt Proneness ................................................................................................ 65 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................... 66
Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................ 67 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................... 68
4 RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 69
Exploratory Data Analysis ....................................................................................... 69 Research Hypothesis One ...................................................................................... 71
Research Hypothesis Two ...................................................................................... 72 Research Hypothesis Three ................................................................................... 73
Research Hypothesis Four ..................................................................................... 73 Research Hypothesis Five ...................................................................................... 74
Research Hypothesis Six ........................................................................................ 74 Research Hypothesis Seven ................................................................................... 75
Chapter Summary ................................................................................................... 75
5 DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................... 78
Summary of the Study ............................................................................................ 78
Participants ............................................................................................................. 79 Research Hypothesis One ...................................................................................... 79
Child-centeredness and Emotion Suppression ................................................. 80
Fulfillment and Emotion Suppression ............................................................... 81 Essentialism and Cognitive Reappraisal .......................................................... 82
Research Hypothesis Two ...................................................................................... 83 Research Hypothesis Three ................................................................................... 84 Research Hypothesis Four ..................................................................................... 85 Research Hypothesis Five ...................................................................................... 86 Research Hypothesis Six ........................................................................................ 87
Research Hypothesis Seven ................................................................................... 88 Limitations ............................................................................................................... 88 Implications for Research ....................................................................................... 89
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Implications for Practice .......................................................................................... 91
Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 96
APPENDIX
A INTENSIVE PARENTING ATTITUDES QUESTIONNAIRE (IPAQ) ........................ 99
B PARENT ANGER SCALE ..................................................................................... 100
C GUILT PRONENESS SCALE ............................................................................... 102
D REVISED NINE-ITEM EMOTION REGULATION QUESTIONNAIRE .................. 103
E DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE .................................................................... 104
F IRB PROTOCOL ................................................................................................... 105
G INFORMED CONSENT ........................................................................................ 107
H LETTER TO PRINCIPALS .................................................................................... 110
I LETTER TO PARTICIPANTS ............................................................................... 111
LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 112
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 125
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LIST OF TABLES
Table page 4-1 Sample demographics. ....................................................................................... 76
4-2 Correlational data of intensive parenting attitudes, emotion regulation, and parent anger. ...................................................................................................... 77
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure page 1-1 The relationship between IPA, ER, anger and guilt. ........................................... 20
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Anger
A strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure or hostility
Cognitive reappraisal
An emotion regulation strategy that refers to changing thought processes in order to cope with one’s own emotions
Emotion regulation
Emotion regulation refers to the processes that influence an individual’s emotions, when they have them, and how they experience and express them
Emotion suppression
An emotion regulation strategy that refers to suppressing one’s own emotional expression
Guilt A feeling of having done wrong or failing an obligation
Intensive mothering
Intensive mothering is the expectation that mothers should give of themselves and their resources unconditionally to their children, including but not limited to their time, money, emotional support, and love.
Mothers of toddlers
Mothers of children in an age range from 18 to 48 months
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Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
EMOTION REGULATION AMONG MOTHERS OF TODDLERS IN THE CONTEXT OF
INTENSIVE MOTHERING
By
Alena Prikhidko
May 2018
Chair: Jacqueline M. Swank Major: Counseling and Counselor Education
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between intensive
parenting attitudes, emotion regulation, and experiences of anger and guilt among
mothers of toddlers (N = 122). Specifically, the researcher investigated whether
intensive parenting attitudes predicted the choice of emotion regulation strategies
among mothers (hypothesis one). Additionally, the study focused on examining the
relationship between intensive parenting attitudes and parent anger (experience and
expression of anger) of mothers of toddlers. The researcher hypothesized that (a)
intensive parenting attitudes and parent anger would be positively correlated
(hypothesis two), (b) intensive parenting attitudes would correlate with guilt proneness
(hypothesis three), and (d) parent anger would correlate with guilt proneness
(hypothesis four). The researcher also expected that there would be differences in
intensive parenting attitudes and parent anger based on religiosity and working status of
a mother (hypothesis five and six).
The researcher conducted a Spearman correlational analysis to explore the
relationships between intensive parenting attitudes, emotion regulation strategies, and
experiences of anger and guilt. Additionally, the researcher used multiple regression
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analysis with intensive parenting attitudes as an independent variable and emotion
regulation as a dependent variable. Next, the researcher implemented a Mann-Whitney
test to compare groups of mothers based on their religiosity and a One-Way ANOVA to
compare parent anger based on work status.
Findings from the study indicated that intensive parenting attitudes correlated
with emotion regulation, parent anger, and guilt proneness among mothers of toddlers.
Additionally, mothers differed in their experiences of anger based on their working
status and endorsed intensive parenting attitudes differently based on their religiosity.
However, contrary to expectations, there was no correlation between parent anger and
guilt proneness. Furthermore, results from the multiple regression demonstrated a
difference in expression, but not in experience of anger based on the working status of
the mother. The researcher also discusses the limitations of the study, and implications
for research and practice.
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CHAPTER 1 MOTHERS OF TODDLERS: AN INTRODUCTION
Within this chapter, the researcher introduces information about the ideology of
intensive mothering (IM; Hays, 1996), which influences beliefs of mothers about ways to
raise their children. The author explores the relationship between maternal emotion
regulation (ER) and emotional experiences, and the ways they are connected to a
child’s development. Additionally, the author states the problem, presents a rationale
for the proposed study, and outlines the proposed research questions.
The connection between a mother and a child is vital for a child’s development.
The research on emotional synchrony demonstrates that mothers and their children
experience concordance in their emotional and bodily reactions, mirroring one another
in responses of the autonomic nervous system (Ebisch et al., 2012; Creaven, Skowron,
Hughes, Howard, & Loken, 2014). Laurent, Ablow, and Measelle (2012) found that
mothers’ and toddlers’ cortisol levels increased simultaneously while performing
challenging tasks. Family stress also moderates emotional synchrony, along with self-
regulation, in a mother-child dyad (Suveg, Shaffer, Davis, 2015). Furthermore, parental
punitive actions can be harmful for a child’s ER development (Eisenberg, Fabes, &
Murphy, 1996), whereas positive behavioral synchrony is a predictor of healthy self-
regulation in children (Feldman, Greenbaum, & Yermia, 1999).
Maternal scaffolding affects children’s observed ER (Lincoln, Russell, &
Donohue, 2016). When a mother is non-supportive to children’s negative emotions,
children do not develop sufficient ER (Perry, Calkins, Nelson, Leerkes, & Marcovitch,
2014). Therefore, parental ER affects children’s ER development as children socialize
through modeling parents’ behavior (Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 1998). Thus,
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maternal ER is crucial to a child’s emotional development. However, the research on
mothers’ ER is in its nascence. There is a dearth of studies that are focused on the
relationship between attitudes towards mothering and emotional experiences related to
these mothering attitudes. There is also a paucity of studies on ER strategies that
mothers of toddlers implement to muddle through penetrating negative emotions that
relate to internalized social ideals. Therefore, a need exists for investigating ways that
mothers of young children regulate emotions that are linked to the internalization of
mothering ideals, along with examining the relationship between these ideals and ER
strategies mothers use to cope with negative emotions.
Children start to develop their ER in toddlerhood, while the brain matures (Cole,
Martin, & Davis, 2004). Mothers of toddlers may have difficulty coping with their
emotions due to toddlers’ behaviors, which may be characterized by disobedience and
boundary testing. Simultaneously, mothers of toddlers may feel the pressure of
dominant cultural norms pertaining to social expectations towards motherhood, which
prescribe extensive maternal involvement in the context of IM (Hays, 1996).
Mothers of Toddlers in the Context of Intensive Mothering
Most research on toddlerhood and parenting focuses on the emotional
development of children, and ways mothers can enhance it (Eisenberg, Fabes, &
Murphy, 1996; Katz, & Windecker-Nelson, 2004; Kohlhoff, Hawes, Mence, Russell,
Wedgwood, & Morgan, 2016; Lincoln, Russell, Donohue, & Racine, 2016; Miklosi,
Szabo, Martos, Galambosi, & Forintos, 2013; Shewark, & Blandon, 2014; Wilson,
Petaja, Yun, King, Berg, Kremmel, & Cook, 2014). This, on its own, reflects the ideology
of IM. Mothers’ ER rarely becomes a focus of scientific investigation (Lorber, 2012).
However, the IM paradigm prescribes constant maternal involvement in the child’s
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development, which when not being followed, can lead to extensive maternal guilt,
considered detrimental to the mental health of a mother (Liss, Schiffrin, & Rizzo, 2012).
A mother’s mental health also affects the mental health of a child, especially
when a mother has depression or anxiety (Hoffman, Crnic, & Baker, 2006). A family
system, as a whole, may manifest the IM ideology. When this occurs, a mother
becomes trapped to fulfill social expectations, while having no support in challenging the
IM ideals, which are unrealistic, especially for working mothers (Medina & Magnuson,
2009).
Mothers of toddlers are a vulnerable population as they have to be resilient when
experiencing their children’s challenging misbehavior. This challenge pertains to the
cognitive and emotional development of children. As their brains mature, they try to
regulate their emotions, which engages the prefrontal cortex of the brain. The pathway
to ER development is not always smooth, as toddlerhood is a period when a child
experiences multiple tantrums. Tantrums are challenging for mothers, as they are
emotionally attuned to children and may experience emotional turmoil with anger and
sadness being mixed due to processes of emotional contagion (Zhang & Lu, 2013).
Thus, a mother may feel angry when a child doesn’t obey, while simultaneously feeling
empathy for the child because he is emotionally struggling.
Unfortunately, mothers are rarely educated about strategies to regulate their
emotions when a child is experiencing a tantrum. Mothers self-educate through reading
modern literature on communication with children (Prikhidko, Swank, under review;
Gottman & DeClaire, 1997). However, mothers may also benefit from targeted
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interventions directed at supporting their ER development, which, in turn, affects the
emotion socialization of their children.
Background of the Study
This study focused on the relationship between IM attitudes, ER strategies used
by mothers of toddlers, and their hostile emotional experiences toward children (anger),
and toward self (guilt). Four key constructs were examined in this study to understand
the relationship between ER, IM and emotional experiences of mothers of toddlers: (a)
emotion regulation, (b) intensive parenting attitudes, (c) parent anger (PA), and (d) guilt
proneness (GP). ER is crucial for the mental health of mothers of toddlers as it helps
them to balance their own negative emotional arousal and aids them in coping with
possible consequences of anger, which can manifest in guilt for not regulating oneself
appropriately (Rotkirch & Janhunen, 2010; Lorber, 2012). Maternal ER is also
associated with the emotion socialization of a child. Therefore, the better equipped a
mother is at regulating her anger, the better the child is at learning to express his
emotions in healthy ways and acquiring skills critical for his social and emotional
development.
The IM paradigm has a profound influence on modern mothers, who are living
with the pressure of unrealistic ideals of motherhood (Medina & Magnuson, 2009). IM
attitudes may also have an effect on the emotional experiences of a mother, restricting
her behavior and causing her to feel perceived as unable to express any negative
emotions towards her child. However, children benefit from observing a full range of
emotional experiences, as their emotional socialization occurs in constant contact with
their caregiver (Shewark & Blandon, 2014).
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Statement of the Problem
The IM paradigm requires extensive maternal involvement in the cognitive and
emotional development of a child. According to IM ideals, a mother has no right to
express her negative emotions towards her children (Hays, 1996). Embracing the IM
ideals, may therefore cause her to suppress her negative feelings, such as anger.
These feelings may then “build up” and be expressed as aggressive and violent
behavior (Brown & Taghehchian, 2016).
Little is known about the ways mothers cope with emotions towards children. The
general belief is that a mother has to know how to control herself and should not be
aggressive or violent, as it would be detrimental for a child (Hays, 1996). Additionally,
the research on ER of anger is also scarce, and it is not studied in the context of
motherhood. Thus, it is vital to examine the emotional experiences of mothers and ways
they regulate their emotions in the context of IM to inform training for mothers about
safe ways to express their anger, so that it is not displayed as aggression, which, in
turn, may cause extensive maternal guilt (Rotkirch & Janhunen, 2010).
Significance of the Study
Although previous research studies had focused on the relationship between a
mother and child, researchers have not distinctively emphasized the mother, whose
emotional behavior and ER may be influenced by her attitudes towards mothering.
Attitudes toward mothering may be detrimental for mothers’ mental health. Specifically,
mothers may struggle to achieve social ideals of IM; and therefore, experience self-
doubt as parents. Mothers may think that they are not “good enough” because they are
not able to achieve the ideal of IM and are not accepting their real selves as mothers.
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The discrepancy between mothers’ ideal and real selves was significant for the
current study because self-discrepancy theory proposes that guilt and shame result
from perceived differences between one’s actual and ideal self (Liss, Schiffrin, & Rizzo,
2012). When a mother is striving to become an excellent parent but doesn’t believe she
achieves this, then the discrepancy increases between her real and ideal motherhood.
Therefore, the guilt becomes more intense. Intensive guilt, in turn, is related to
depressive symptoms (Kim, Thibodeau, & Jorgensen, 2011) and perfectionism
(Stoeber, Harris, & Moon, 2006). Thus, a need exists for research in this area that
would inform counseling practices. Counseling may focus on addressing maternal guilt
and ways to overcome the stress of striving for perfection multiplied by the lack of ER
skills. In working with mothers on IM attitudes, counselors may help mothers to attune to
their real selves and sojourn feeling guilty for not being a perfect parent, which may
support their mental health. Children may also benefit from this because their primary
caregiver has a crucial role in their development.
Research Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between intensive
parenting attitudes (IPA), ER and emotional experiences of anger and guilt among
mothers of toddlers. There were six research hypotheses.
Research Hypotheses
1. IPA (as measured by IPAQ) correlates with ER strategies (as measured by ERQ) chosen by mothers.
2. IPA (as measured by IPAQ) correlates with PA (as measured by PAS).
3. IPA (as measured by IPAQ) correlates with GP (as measured by GP-5).
4. PA (as measured by PAS) correlates with GP (as measured by GP-5).
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5. Mothers differ in their IPA (as measured by IPAQ) and PA (as measured by PAS) based on their religiosity.
6. Mothers differ in their IPA (as measured by IPAQ) and PA (as measured by PAS) based on their work status.
7. Mothers differ in their PA based on the number of children they have.
These hypotheses are presented in a schematic fashion in Figure 1-1.
Delimitations and Assumptions
There were a few delimitations and assumptions associated with this study. First,
the researcher assumed that the participants provided responses openly and honestly.
Additionally, the researcher expected the participants to identify as a mother of a
toddler, as defined in the definitions of terms.
Ethical Considerations
For this study, the researcher expected that the participants would experience
little to no discomfort. However, the author provided information regarding relevant
counseling resources for mental health problems, as needed, for the participants. The
researcher obtained approval from the institutional review board (IRB) at her university
before recruiting participants for the study. A webinar on ER of anger was provided as
an incentive for the participants in this study.
Chapter Summary
This chapter focused on the contexts influencing the ER development of mothers
of toddlers. Mothers are affected by the broad context of IM beliefs, which shapes their
self-perception and limits their emotional expression, leading to suppression of anger
(Hays, 1996). Each of these contexts influences maternal ER and affects children’s ER
development, as they actively engage in emotional socialization during toddlerhood.
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Learning to cope with negative emotions towards children is essential for
maternal mental health and the emotional development of children who are closely tied
to their caregivers, due to synchronous emotional experiences. However, there is a gap
in research on ER and IM related to how mothers of toddlers regulate their emotions
that are influenced by IM attitudes. Additionally, little is known about ER of mothers of
toddlers in comparison to the ER development of children. The research on emotional
experiences of anger and guilt among mothers has been scant in scholarly publications.
Thus, this study focused on examining ER, IM attitudes, and emotional experiences of
anger and guilt for a clear conceptualization of mothers of toddlers ER. With a clearer
understanding, mental health professionals may implement interventions to improve the
ER of mothers of toddlers. Chapter 2 focuses on discussing the relevant literature
related to the constructs of ER, IM, and the emotional experiences of mothers.
Figure 1-1. The relationship between IPA, ER, anger and guilt.
Emotion regulation strategies
Emotional experiences
Intensive parenting
attitudes (IPA)
IPA
guiltcognitive
reappraisal
angeremotional supression
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CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Within this chapter, the researcher discusses the literature related to the IM
paradigm, along with beliefs about child-rearing and their influence on the mental health
of mothers. The researcher also focuses on ER theory and related studies, with an
emphasis on the emotional experiences of mothers of young children. Finally, the
chapter concludes with an examination of the literature focused on the integration of IM
beliefs and ER among mothers of young children.
Experiences of Modern Mothers
Working and stay-at-home mothers experience a myriad of problems that may
lead them to pursue counseling. Primarily, they experience emotions that may cause
exhaustion and burnt-out, such as anger (Hajal et al., 2015) and anxiety (Teetsel,
Ginsburg, & Drake, 2013). Pregnancy may cause a mother to feel tired even before the
baby arrives, especially if she is employed full-time (Alstveit, Severinsson, & Karlsen,
2010). Additionally, the life of a new mother is influenced by modern ideals of
motherhood, which may evoke guilt and shame for not being a perfect parent. A mother
is often viewed as a person who is solely responsible for the cognitive and emotional
development of a child (Elvin-Nowak, 1999; Hays, 1996).
Social perception of motherhood influences mothers’ mental health by increasing
stress levels that may lead to depression (Medina & Magnuson, 2009; Kim, Thibodeau,
& Jorgensen, 2011). Additionally, maternal depression affects scaffolding during early
childhood, decreasing children’s emotional competence (Hoffman, Crnic, & Baker,
2006). Moreover, parental negative emotionality and negative reactions to children’s
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expression of emotion correlate with children’s negative emotionality and low social
competence (Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 2009).
Connection Between a Mother And a Child
Family stress moderates the psychological synchrony and self-regulation,
including ER in a mother-child dyad (Suveg, Shaffer, Davis, 2015). Laurent, Ablow, and
Measelle (2012) measured stress level among mother and 18-month old infant dyads.
Specifically, the dyads were introduced to two sessions, one focused on attachment
stress (the Strange Situation) and the other on goal-oriented tasks (cleanup, emotion-
eliciting task battery). Saliva samples were collected along with pre-stress, stress, and
post-stress responses. The researchers found that as mothers’ cortisol level increased,
indicating stress, 18-month-infants cortisol levels also typically increased
simultaneously. Cortisol levels were higher during attachment stress and alpha-amylase
levels were higher during challenge stress.
Physiological Concordance
Creave, Skowron, Hughes, Howard, and Loken (2013) examined the between-
dyads (BD, comparing average measures for a mother and a child) and within-dyads
(WD, or dynamic concordance, when changes in maternal arousal correlate with the
changes in children's arousal) autonomic physiology concordance in mother-child dyads
during resting conditions, with risk status (child maltreatment - СМ) as a control
variable. They examined heart rate (HR) and measured the change in oscillatory
dynamics of the heart across the respiration cycle (RSA), which indicated stress
vulnerability. The sample consisted of 208 mothers from low income, rural communities,
with 52 being categorized as engaged in CM and 52 non-CM mothers. The children
ranged in age from three to five years old and mothers ranged in age from 20 to 49
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years. The results revealed that BD concordance was observed only for CM dyads,
whereby higher average maternal HR was associated with higher child HR and lower
child RSA. However, WD concordance was observed among non-CM dyads for
maternal HR with child HR and RSA measures. The results demonstrated that when a
mother exhibited low levels of child maltreatment, the concordance between a mother
and a child was higher than it was between mothers and children in families where
mothers neglected their children. A limitation of the study was that the sampling of
physiological measures was restricted. Future research in this area may focus on
examining the nature of CM effects, such as various types of abuse and neglect on the
physiological concordance between parents and toddlers.
Emotional Synchrony
Ebisch et al. (2012) examined whether maternal empathy was concordant with
synchrony between a mother and a child in autonomic responses. Specifically, they
recorded facial thermal imprints of 12 mothers ranging in age from 31 to 46 years and
their biological children ranging in age from 38 to 42 months and found that the mothers
were affected emotionally when observing their children’s distress, with the arousal
mediated by the autonomous nervous system. Mothers and their children had similar
facial thermal modulations, which correlated at both individual and group levels. This
study provides some evidence for affective sharing that involves the nervous system.
However, the study involved a small sample that warrants further research.
The results from the above studies demonstrate that mothers and children may
be synchronous in their emotional experiences when they are close to each other and
also when they experience emotionally provoking situations. The overall idea of
synchrony underlines the significance of the present study. Specifically, it demonstrates
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how important it is for a mother to implement ER strategies in emotionally arousing
situations to provide a nurturing environment to support her child’s growth and
development.
Feldman, Greenbaum and Yermia (1999) examined the role of early childhood
synchrony in the development of self-regulation. They recruited 36 mother-infant pairs
with equal number of boys and girls in well-baby clinics in Jerusalem, Israel. They first
collected data when the infants were 12 to 15 months old and then a second time when
the children turned 2 years old. The researchers found that mutual regulatory processes
in infancy affected future emotion socialization. Thus, the researchers concluded that
positive behavioral synchrony is linked to child self-regulation (Feldman, Greenbaum, &
Yermia, 1999). This synchrony between the emotional states of mothers and their
children raises a question about the relationship between maternal ER and children’s
capacities to regulate their emotions.
Emotion Regulation in Mother-Child Dyad
Research on maternal ER is scarce (Lorber, 2012). The majority of ER research
focuses on the relationship between a mother or father and a child and explores the
specific components of parent-child interactions related to parents’ perceptions of a
child and the child’s observed ER (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Murphy, 1992; Lincoln, Russell,
& Donohue, 2016; Perry, Calkins, Nelson, Leerkes, & Marcovitch, 2014; Cole, Dennis,
Smith-Simon, & Cohen, 2009). Eisenberg, Fabes, and Murphy (1996) reported that
parental punitive actions can be harmful for children’s ER development. Specifically,
they found that parental punitive reactions to children's negative emotions were
associated with avoidant (i.e., avoiding rather than coping with an emotionally arousing
situation) and inappropriate ER strategies (Eisenberg et al., 1992). Moreover,
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preschoolers and children in kindergarten sought revenge or ran from situations that
involved anger, being unable to regulate their anger (Eisenberg, Fabes, Nyman,
Bernzweig, & Pinuelas, 1994). Thus, parental behavior influences children’s ER
development. However, when parents do not stop acting in punitive ways in response to
their children’s misdemeanor, parents limit their children’s ability to learn about ER.
Children’s emotional socialization is shaped by influential models such as parents,
characters on children’s TV, friends and teachers at school. Children observe people’s
behavior and internalize specific behavioral patterns through imitation. Bandura (1977)
described ways parents can reinforce children’s behavior through punishment and
reward. It is crucial for the development of emotion regulation that children learn from
their parents, including modeling of behavior for children. Additionally, the way parents
perceive their children’s emotion regulation capabilities may influence children’s
emotion regulation behavior (Bandura, 1977).
Lincoln, Russel and Donohue (2016) explored mothers’ (N = 30) perceptions of
their children’s abilities to regulate their emotions along with children’s observed ER.
The children and their mothers first engaged in a play session, which was followed by
an observed task for the children and a set of questionnaires for the mothers. The
questionnaires focused on assessing the children’s ER. The results showed that
maternal behavior during the children’s play predicted the children’s hostility, while the
mothers’ perceptions of their children’s ER abilities predicted the children’s compliance.
The researchers concluded that maternal scaffolding, along with perceptions of a child’s
abilities to self-regulate, affected children’s observed ER. They also stated that
interventions aimed at changing mothers’ negative attitudes toward their children, along
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with facilitating preschoolers’ play, may support mother-child interactions that could
foster children’s ER development.
Perry, Calkins, Nelson, Leerkes, and Marcovitch (2014) focused on exploring the
relationship amongst mothers’ behavior aimed at children’s emotion socialization and
physiological regulation, as indexed by cardiac vagal suppression. The study was based
on Porges (1995) Polyvagal theory, which implies that ER is developed in conjunction
with the maturation of the autonomous nervous system, connected to the vagus nerve,
which mobilizes or calms an individual through changes in heart functioning. The vagal
suppression is the change in RSA (vagal tone) from a baseline measure to a task
measure and is associated with balanced ER. Mothers (N = 197) and their children
participated, with children engaging in a task that elicited frustration, and mothers
completing a questionnaire about the child’s observed ER. The results revealed a
relationship between punitive maternal reactions and children’s negative emotions.
Poorer ER was evident for children with lower vagal suppression. The researchers
concluded that poorer physiological regulation accompanied with non-supportive
maternal reactions to children’s negative emotions was related to observed insufficient
children’s ER. However, there was only one instrument used to measure emotion
socialization, and it was a self-report questionnaire completed by mothers. Additionally,
information from the fathers was not available.
Although the studies discussed above provide insight about ER, there is a
paucity of research that focuses on the relationship between beliefs towards mothering,
emotional experiences related to these ideas, and ER strategies that mothers of
toddlers use to cope with intense negative feelings that are connected to internalized
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social ideals. Therefore, a need exists for understanding how mothers of young children
regulate emotions related to the internalization of mothering ideals. Additionally,
research is needed that examines the relationship between these ideals and ER
strategies that mothers use to cope with negative feelings.
The implications of this research can be used in counseling practice when
working with mothers who are overwhelmed by social and personal demands related to
the desire to be a perfect mother. Thus, this dissertation focused on the relationship
between IM beliefs, emotional experiences of mothers of toddlers, and ER strategies
used by mothers. In this literature review, the researcher first provides a general
overview of the social context of contemporary motherhood with a focus on the
mothering paradigm (Hays, 1996), and its influence on the maternal emotional state.
Then, the author outlines the role of ER in human development. Next, the researcher
highlightes the studies on ER in parent-child dyads, and finally, she synthesizes the
research findings and discusses potential directions for future studies.
Social Context of Modern Motherhood
The media influences perceptions about motherhood (Chae, 2014). Specifically,
there are several “ideals” of motherhood in the minds of mothers: super mom, soccer
mom, alpha mom, and celebrity mom (Chae, 2014). All of these types have one similar
feature – the necessity of maximum dedication of a mother’s time and energy to her
children.
Chae (2014) explored the relationship between media exposure and
motherhood, using social comparison theory. She argued that social media channels,
such as the Internet, reinforce the ideology of IM and promote comparison and
competition. Internet has become the main source of information about parenting
28
strategies. Therefore, there is a distinction between real women engaged in parenting,
and representations of motherhood by the media that reflect dominant cultural norms of
white, hetero-normative, middle-class mothers.
Intensive Mothering as a Hegemonic Paradigm
IM is based on the ideas of individual responsibility and risk management
(Romangoli & Wall, 2012). The ideology of IM is rooted in Post-World War II
developmental psychology and pertains to the extra effort mothers need to take to raise
their children physically, economically, and emotionally (Hays, 1996). Romangoli and
Wall (2012) stated that the development of brain science added new responsibilities to
mothers. Society now views mothers as a primary influence in the cognitive
development of their children (Bornstei & Tamis-Lemonda, 1989; Bernier, Carlson, &
Whipple, 2010). Thus, mothers are now in a challenging social situation and are being
perceived as responsible for nearly every developmental aspect of a child’s life.
The main ideas of IM are (a) the mother must be the primary caregiver of
children because men are not responsible for child-rearing; (b) child rearing requires
extensive time, energy, and material resources; and (c) “children are priceless and
incompatible with paid labor” (Newman & Henderson, 2014, p. 474). IM has unhealthy
implications for the wellbeing of mothers. Specifically, researchers have demonstrated
that IM beliefs are detrimental to the mental health of women, resulting in higher levels
of stress, extensive guilt, and lower life satisfaction (Hays, 1996; Elvin-Nowak, 1999;
Tummalla-Narra, 2009; Sutherland, 2010; Rizzo, Schiffrin, & Liss, 2012).
One of the biggest challenges for modern American mothers, according to IM
principles, is that they “cannot be good women without being mothers, and they cannot
be good mothers without accepting IM standards” (Newman & Henderson, 2014, p.
29
474). However, risks for developing anxiety and decreased self-efficacy are greater in
women who fear social sanction and judgment (Henderson, Harmon, & Newman, 2016).
Therefore, counselors need knowledge and awareness of IM beliefs, the level of
cognitive involvement associated with it, and ways it influences a mother’s real self.
Chae (2014) explored whether exposure to celebrity mom discourse and online
education reinforced IM ideology and whether this reinforcement was related to a
mother’s work status (working or staying at home). She stated that young mothers and
mothers of young children were more prone to actively seek information about
parenthood. Therefore, they more frequently engaged in social comparison with other
mothers, as the process of social comparison helped them to develop their motherhood
identity.
Engagement in social comparison increases competition, and the influence of
social media may increase social comparison. Chae (2014) argued that the IM ideology
may repress employed mothers, as it is unrealistic for them to follow the IM ideals that
are represented in social media. However, stay-at-home mothers are also vulnerable to
the pressure of IM ideals that may negatively affect their mental health.
Intensive Mothering and Mental Health
IM establishes maternal ideals that may influence the emotional experience of
mothers who strive to be ideal parents. First-time mothers are especially vulnerable due
to social pressure and a lack of maternal experience. Sacrificing the needs and desires
of women, associated with IM, affects mental health (Elvin-Novak, 1999; Guendouzi,
2006; Liss, Schiffrin, & Rizzo, 2012; Rizzo, Schiffrin, & Liss, 2012; Chae, 2014;
Newman & Henderson, 2014; Elliott, Powell, & Brenton, 2015). Specifically, IM is
related to higher levels of anger, increased stress, and feelings of guilt and shame
30
(Sutherland, 2010). IM is also associated with the “motherhood myth” (Douglas &
Michaels, 2004; Press, 2006), also called “new momism,” which is a set of ideals,
norms, and practices that appear to value motherhood, but instead create standards of
mothering that are not realistic. The motherhood myth implies that (a) a woman is not
complete until she has children; (b) women are the best caregivers of children; and (c)
“good” mothers must devote their entire physical, emotional, and psychological being to
their children all day.
Internalization of the motherhood myth becomes a source of guilt for mothers
(Rotkirch & Jahnunen, 2010). Additionally, guilt results from diverging interest and
negotiations between the mother and child and is associated with expectations of large
maternal investment (Rotkirch & Jahnunen, 2010). Guilt is also related to compensation
of harm (Baumeister, Stillwell, & Heatherton, 1995). Thus, when an individual feels
guilty, she plans actions that will compensate for the harm and bring the relationship to
equilibrium.
Rizzo, Schiffrin and Liss (2013) examined the relationship between intensive
parenting and maternal mental health among 181 mothers of children ages 5 and under
by having the mothers complete an online survey about IM beliefs, social support,
stress, depression, and life satisfaction. The researchers found that the belief that a
women was an essential parent was negatively associated with life satisfaction.
Additionally, mothers who believed that parenting was challenging had higher levels of
depression and stress. The researchers concluded that it was not the parenting itself,
but mothers’ attitudes toward parenting that had a negative influence on maternal
mental health. However, further research is needed related to the influence of IM beliefs
31
on depression and stress level, as it is unknown whether the mothers were already
prone to depression with no relationship to their mothering attitudes.
Shame is related to self-blame, blame of others, and self-derogation (Lutwak,
Panish, & Ferrari, 2003). Moreover, shame may be associated with hostility and anxiety,
with a tendency for females to display aggression and hostility inward (Fedewa, Burns,
& Gomez, 2005). A proneness to shame is also linked to lower levels of empathy and
parenting techniques that approach the child as being “bad,” instead of focusing on the
child’s behavior (Tangney & Dearing, 2002).
Within self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), guilt and shame result from
perceived discrepancies between one’s actual and ideal selves. Self-discrepancy theory
postulates that self-state representations are based on two cognitive domains: the self
and the standpoints on the self. Higgins described his theory as having several unique
features including differentiating (a) between types of self-guides in a variety of
situations that are represented by discrepancy from self-concept; (b) self-guides from
the involved self-standpoint; and (c) between the magnitude of a discrepancy within
internally represented self-states and the accessibility of a self-discrepancy. Self-
discrepancy theory is most often used to distinguish among incompatible self-beliefs
concerning negative emotions they induce.
Liss, Schiffrin and Rizzo (2013) examined self-discrepancy, guilt, and shame
among 181 mothers of children age 5 and under. The researchers conducted a
regression interaction analyses to determine what factors moderated the relationship
between self-discrepancy, guilt and shame. They found that the relationship between
mothers’ self-discrepancy and shame was moderated by the fear of having a negative
32
evaluation. If a mother is striving to become an ideal parent, but does not believe that
she achieves this, then the discrepancy between her real and ideal self, in regards to
motherhood, becomes bigger and increases the intensity of guilt. Shame was more
closely linked to the fear of negative evaluation than guilt. The researchers explained
this by stating that people feel shame when they have a fear of social evaluation and
believe that they are not fulfilling internalized social standards. In turn, guilt is
associated with personal regret over specific actions and is not as much related to the
fear of social judgment. Intensive guilt is also associated with depressive symptoms
(Kim, Thibodeau, & Jorgensen, 2011) and perfectionism (Stoeber, Harris, & Moon,
2006). Furthermore, the connection between guilt, shame, and hostility directed towards
children seems pivotal for the ER effectiveness. Therefore, counselors may be
instrumental in helping mothers adjust to societal and individual expectations for the
standards of motherhood, which contribute to a mother’s mental health. Women who
have more realistic expectations regarding motherhood are less prone to experiencing
guilt and shame (Rizzo, Liss, & Schiffrin, 2012).
Researchers explored the experiences and expectations of motherhood among
13 mothers of toddlers and found a discrepancy between the ideal versus the real
image of motherhood (Prikhidko & Swank, in review). There was a gap between these
images, including perceived guilt related to maternal roles and practices. For example,
not spending enough time with a child or not attending child’s school events evoked
guilt among mothers.
The social context of IM also affects maternal self-perception, causing mothers to
develop low self-acceptance and strive to achieve an ideal image of a mother (Medina &
33
Magnuson, 2009). Specifically, Medina and Magnuson (2009) analyzed research
pertaining to motherhood and IM ideals. According to their analysis IM ideology states
that a mother must strive for an ideal, which implies that she must have time, energy,
and resources to stay home in order to be a mother. Additionally, a mother must self-
sacrifice herself for the sake of her children and her family and cease her own needs,
becoming a source to fulfill the needs of her children. Medina and Magnuson (2009)
found that psychological researchers have supported IM beliefs through the
popularization of attachment parenting, putting pressure on mothers to stay at home
and work hard on developing a secure attachment and constantly emotionally attuning
to the infant’s needs. Thus, mothers are overextended to accomplish maternal
functions, and they feel guilty for not meeting the IM ideals.
Guilt interferes with the reality of mothers’ possibilities and abilities to fulfill these
responsibilities. For example, a working mother cannot spend as much time with her
children as a stay-at-home mother. However, Prikhidko and Swank (in review) found
that working mothers perceived stay-at-home mothers as ideal mothers, which is not
realistic for working mothers and may trigger guilt. As Elvin-Novak (1999) stated,
Guilt arises when a woman believes she is unable to live up to her responsibility
due to conflicts between her demands on herself, as one who acts in the best manner
for others (internal demands), and the external demands that she herself cannot control.
(p. 78)
Emotional experiences of mothers are of great importance for the well-being of
the whole family. ER strategies that mothers use to cope with feelings, influenced by IM
beliefs, may affect children’s ER development. When a mother experiences negative
34
emotions, followed by aggressive behavior toward her children, she puts their mental
health development at risk (Dreman, 2003).
Intensive Mothering and Religion
Religiosity influences attitudes towards parenting among mothers (Mcquillan,
Greil, Shreffler, & Tichenor, 2008). Mcquillan et al. argue that motherhood is more
important to religious women. They found that higher levels of religiosity related to
importance of motherhood in Christianity, where the cult of the Virgin Mary created an
idealized image of a mother (Pfaff, 1977). Although the influence of religious beliefs on
mothering practices remains largely unknown (Cheruvallil-Contractor, & Rye, 2016),
researchers found that church teaching evoked an expectation for a women to become
a mother (Gatrell, 2008). As Gatrell noted, the culture of liturgy constructs a women as a
maternal body, which subsequently, marginalizes women from sharing their challenges
regarding the intersection of religion, motherhood, and the possibility of childlessness
(Llewellyn, 2016).
Religion can become a source of emotional support (Krause, Ellison, & Marcum,
2002), but it can also create problems for women who feel forced by church to stay at
home with their children. Women may be unable to afford a stay-at-home mother’s
lifestyle, especially if a mother does not have a partner and takes full responsibility for
family finances. Reynolds and Mary (2014) examined whether women of various
Christian denominations and non-religious women worked the number of hours they
preferred. The researchers focused on the relationship between religion and
motherhood and found that conservative Protestants were most likely to change their
work schedule and reduce their hours. However, non-religious women were the least
35
likely to reduce their number of work hours. The authors concluded that religion shapes
the experience of paid work for mothers and, in turn, can affect their work performance.
Mothers work in a variety of professional roles, one of which is a priesthood.
Motherhood and priesthood are connected to specific demands of altruism and sacrifice
along with putting others’ needs before your own. Page (2016) found that Christian
motherhood and intensive mothering complemented each other, as all the mothers who
worked as priests in her study subscribed to intensive mothering beliefs. She described
how mother-priests were criticizing priesthood more than motherhood, showing their
support for the dominant constructions of motherhood. Based on previous research
findings, the current study focuses on exploring the differences in intensive parenting
attitudes and emotion regulation strategies among mothers, based on their religiosity
Negative Emotional Experiences of Mothers
Hostile emotions are represented by a triad of hostility: anger, disgust, and
contempt (Izard, 1991). Anger occurs when a person feels frustration or perceives
injustice. Additionally, contempt is associated with feelings of superiority and appraisals
of incompetence. Contempt sometimes diminishes interactions with individuals who
cannot contribute to the group in a significant way (Rogers, Halberstadt, Castro,
MacCormack, & Garrett-Peters, 2016). Disgust in interpersonal relationships, as a part
of a triad of hostility, is viewed as moral or social disgust and is related to reluctance in
communicating with people perceived as contaminated in both physical and moral ways
(Schnall, Haidt, Clore, & Jordan, 2008). For example, one may try to avoid getting in
contact with a homeless person as he is seen as physically dirty and morally “fallen
down”. Additionally, people may avoid individuals capable of malicious behavior,
regardless of whether the person repeats the benevolent actions (Hutcherson & Gross,
36
2011). Limited research on hostile emotions is focused on parents of toddlers; however,
parents may feel hostile emotions (i.e., anger, disgust) even toward newborns (Graham,
Lobel, & DeLuca, 2002).
Hostile Emotions Towards Children
Parents may feel anger due to an inability to control their children’s behavior.
However, the possibility of non-harmful expression of anger is vague and uncertain.
Mothers may not be sure how to express anger or frustration without being physically or
verbally aggressive and not hurting their child. Therefore, parents may suppress these
emotions that are harmful to their own well-being and high-quality parent–child
relationships (Le & Impett, 2016).
Anger is a frequently encountered emotion that both parents and children
experience in life. Additionally, it represents one of the most challenging emotions to
express for mothers who subscribe to the ideology of IM because feeling angry makes
them feel ashamed (Hays, 1996). Crockenberg (1986) examined the relationship
between anger in maternal and toddler behavior and found that the rejection a mother
had as a child was connected to her anger toward her child when she had low social
support. Additionally, maternal anger and irritability were key factors in linking
depression and harsh discipline practices (Shay & Knutson, 2008). Aggressive
reactions usually cause a mother to feel guilt and anger with herself, and with the child
for making her feel the unpleasant emotions (Rotkirch & Janhunen, 2010). Therefore,
maternal anger is related to a depressive state that mothers may experience for a
variety of psychological, physiological, and social issues, which occur after children are
born. Thus, receiving professional help during the early stages of depression may help
37
a mother to avoid engaging in harsh disciplinary actions that are often followed by guilt
and shame.
Most research on parental anger is focused on middle school children (Rohlf &
Krahé, 2015) and adolescents (Halberstadt, Beale, Meade, Craig, & Parker, 2015).
Rohlf and Krahé (2015) developed an instrument to measure anger regulation through
behavioral observation. The goal was to identify maladaptive anger regulation strategies
concerning social rejection and to provide a description of children’s anger regulation
strategies. A total of 677 children aged 6–10 years participated in their study. The
researchers used data from a subsample of 78 children (42 girls and 36 boys; age: M =
7.91, SD = 1.09) to develop a coding system for the behavioral observation. The
researchers found a lack of association between observed maladaptive anger regulation
with parent-rated maladaptive regulation and self-reported anger regulation.
Additionally, the analyses revealed that maladaptive anger regulation was significantly
associated with aggression and social rejection measured by parental self-report.
Halberstadt, Beale, Meade, Craig, and Parker (2015) examined anger in families
by addressing the derivation of anger, emotional anger contagion within families, and
the degree of sharing perceptions about anger among family members (74 family
triads), including seventh-grade children, their fathers and mothers. Participants
separately reported on the occurrence and strength of anger in six family relationships
(child to mother, mother to child, child to father, father to child, mother to father, and
father to mother). Social Relations Model (SRM) analyses revealed a belief that family
anger is a sum of individual anger of the family members, and in a minimal way, is
shaped by the family system. The researchers also found that family members were
38
aware of the emotion contagion effects of anger in the family and seemed to share
perceptions of anger and its role in the family.
One of the reasons why the research on PA and other hostile emotions is scarce
is a lack of instruments that measure it. Masin (2013) argued that researchers rely
extensively on global anger scales, which do not provide information about particular
children’s actions that trigger parental anger. Therefore, Masin (2013) developed the
Parent Anger Triggers Inventory (PATI). Her research showed that parents typically feel
angry for behaviors such as physical aggression exhibited by the child, public incidents
that make them feel embarrassed, verbal aggression from children towards their
parents, and defiance. Another instrument, the Parent Anger Scale (PAS), was
developed by Gavita and David (2011).
Hostile Emotions Toward Oneself
Maternal hostile feelings are directed not only towards the children, but also at
the mother herself. One of the self-focused hostile emotions mothers experience is
maternal guilt. Guilt is part of the socio-moral emotions family (Baumeister, Stillwell, &
Heathertone, 1995). It occurs when the internalized social norms are disrupted. A
mother may blame herself for doing, or even thinking and feeling, something viewed as
inappropriate, according to the social and ethical standards she aligns with in raising her
children. Guilt is connected with auto-aggressive behavior through the process of
blaming oneself, along with rumination and overthinking regarding self-usefulness.
Guilt is produced when individuals evaluate their behavior as a mistake and
focus on specific features or actions of the self that led to making a mistake. This
emotion is associated with an action that a person can take to repair the mistake (Lewis,
2000). The level of guilt is connected to restoring the situation. If the restorative action,
39
which might be directed towards oneself, a situation, or other people, is not taken, then
the guilt may result in shame. Feeling ashamed may cause a person to want to hide
because she views herself as behaving inappropriately.
Mothers may feel guilt when they evaluate their maternal behavior (e.g., specific
actions with a child) as a failure. For example, a mother may miss her child’s play at
school because she had an important meeting at her workplace. Then, when the mother
witnesses her child as being upset, she may feel guilty because she didn’t spend this
time with her child.
Studies on maternal guilt present various issues that may cause a mother to feel
guilty. Guilt arises from diverging interests and negotiations between a mother and a
child that are influenced by the motherhood myth (Rotkirch & Jahnunen, 2010). Guilt
has a crucial role in maternal investment regulation that is predicted by the social and
cultural context. Rotkirch and Jahnunen (2010) defined guilt as an emotion that may
serve to inhibit aggression and neglect.
In examining parental guilt among 37 parents of overweight or obese children
ages five to nine years old, Pescud and Petttigrew (2012) found that guilt occurred as
an emotion that parents repeatedly experienced when letting their children eat too much
food or foods high in fat, salt, and/or sugar. Parents ascribed guilt-provoking child-
feeding practices to time scarcity and cost as external locus of control factors. Fear of
children’s hunger, the need to keep children's affection through food, perceptions of
balancing diets across eating situations, and perceived laziness were factors related to
internal locus of control. The culture of motherhood, implemented through the
40
motherhood myth, which is a “cultural tool for manipulating mothers into large
investment” was an external factor (Pescud & Petttigrew, 2012, p. 93).
Rotkirch and Jahnunen (2010) also examined maternal guilt through an analysis
of texts from Finnish mothers with 63 preschoolers. In these texts, mothers referred to
their difficult and/or forbidden emotions. The researchers found that guilt ascended from
parent-offspring conflicts along with the “motherhood myth” that prescribed high
maternal investment. They reported that guilt had a significant role in the regulation of
the mothers’ investment in child-rearing, finding five reasons for maternal guilt: (a)
aggression, (b) “exit” or thoughts of ending investment, (c) temporary absences, (d)
preferential treatment of siblings, and (e) high expectations of good mothering.
Taylor and Wallace (2011) discussed shame and guilt from a feminist lens. They
argued that when guilt was inspired by infant feeding, for example, that the mother felt
that she has “broken a rule-like prescription to breastfeed—the recommendations of her
doctor, public health officials, or even “science” or “nature” more generally conceived—
and that her failure to fulfill this prescription has harmed or will harm her child” (Taylor &
Wallace, 2011, p. 82). Therefore, the breastfeeding itself becomes a source of maternal
guilt. Maternal guilt and shame also relate to the fear of negative evaluation (Liss,
Schiffrin, & Rizzo, 2013). Specifically, women who did not achieve the expectations of
an ideal mother experienced higher levels of both guilt and shame. People who fear
social evaluation may be particularly prone to shame, which is associated with personal
regret (Liss et al., 2013).
Emotion Regulation
Emotion is a component of affect, a broader concept that includes stress, mood,
and impulses (Scherer, 2005). Additionally, emotion is a multifaceted, whole-body
41
phenomenon that involves subjective experience, action tendency, cognitive appraisal,
and central and peripheral physiology (Scherer, 2005). Emotion also has an action
tendency that is associated with motivation that causes people to act. Impulses to act in
specific ways are connected to autonomic and neuroendocrine changes that anticipate
and follow the behavioral response (Gross & Tompson, 2007). Mothers who attend to
IM ideals often experience feelings (i.e., guilt, anger) that may occur in different contexts
and be directed toward oneself or others.
Emotion Regulation Theory and Practice
ER represents a set of processes that people use to cope with their emotions.
These processes are classified as intrinsic (regulating own feelings), or extrinsic
(regulating feelings of another person). Scholars also conceptualize ER as down-
regulation and up-regulation. Down-regulation reflects an aim to decrease the intensity
of the emotion. In contrast, up-regulation helps to maintain or increase the intensity of
an emotional response (Koole, Van Dillen, & Sheppes, 2009).
Two models dominate the field of ER research: clinical-empirical model of ER
(Westen & Blagov, 2007) and process model of ER (Gross & Thompson, 2007) that was
recently modified to become the Extended Process Model (EPM). The clinical-empirical
model defines ER as explicit and implicit procedures, which help individuals to maximize
or minimize feelings. Westen and Blagov (2007) conceptualized ER in the context of
evolution, highlighting the adaptive function of ER. However, Gross and Thompson
(2007) argued that it is crucial to explore the process of emotion as a sequence of
phases because depending on the stage of the emotion process, different ER strategies
are applicable.
42
Within the clinical-empirical model, ER is defined as conscious and unconscious
actions people engage in to increase pleasant and decrease unpleasant feelings,
emotions, and moods. This model emerged from the clinical work and theories of
Bowlby and Freud. Westen and Blagov (2007) reported that “emotions are evolved
response tendencies that reinforce behavioral and mental processes that are
pleasurable and select against those that are aversive” (pp. 374). Thus, forms of
conscious ER include operant conditioning, psychological defense, and motivated
reasoning. Additionally, types of subconscious ER include coping and decision making.
Gross and Thompson’s process model (PM) “specifies a sequence of processes
involved in emotion generation, each of which is a potential target for regulation” (Gross
& Thompson, 2007, p.10). The process model encompasses the following sequence in
which emotion is generated: situation – attention – appraisal – response. The first PM
included five strategies of ER that were antecedent and response-focused ER
strategies. This is the reason why PM was chosen as a model for the research in this
dissertation, as mothers may want to regulate their feelings while they are with their
children, as well as change their emotional state when they are alone (i.e., feeling guilty
when they are at work because they are not spending all their time with their child). The
process model encompasses five ER strategies: (a) situation selection, (b) situation
modification, (c) attentional deployment, (d) cognitive change, and (e) response
modulation.
For the purpose of this study, the researcher focused on the PM, as it provides
an opportunity to examine the emotion of a mother as it unfolds and understand what
stage in the emotion escalation may be best for implementing a particular ER strategy.
43
This researcher stressed the necessity of being aware of emotion suppression;
however, it is still unclear at what moment a mother needs to stop suppressing her
anger. The extended version of PM provides more insight about the topic as it connects
ER to valuation systems, which might be associated with IM beliefs.
Within the EPM, emotions operate at two levels of valuation systems. The
valuation system is represented by “states of the world (“W”), perceptions of those
states (“P”), negative or positive valuations of these perceptions in light of a relevant
goal or target state (“V”), and actions taken to realize the goal or target state (“A”)”
(Gross, 2015, p. 130). Gross (2015) stated that valuation systems activate action
impulses pertaining to the situational context. Thus, ER is seen as an interaction
between valuation systems, which Gross calls “first-level” valuation system (FLVS),
which generates emotion, and “second-level” valuation system (SLVS). SLVS evaluates
FLVS and activates impulses to change the activity of the FLVS. Therefore, ER is an
action that is cognitive, emotional, or behavioral and aimed at modifying emotional
response. The five process model ER strategies (presented above) represent ways
SLVS modifies FLVS.
The biggest difference between PM and EPM is that EPM describes the ER cycle
as having three stages: (a) identification, (b) selection, and (c) implementation, and five
ER strategies operate at these stages. The Figure 1 shows the families of ER and the
emotional cycle.
Situation selection is an individual’s ability to choose a situation (Gross &
Thompson, 2007). A person may also choose not to engage in a situation that is known
for evoking emotions a person wants to avoid. For example, a mother may not decide to
44
take her toddler to the mall because it usually ends with tantrums. A mother may also
decide that her children will not attend karate because they experience anger toward
their coach and it appears that there is no way to change their emotional experiences.
Situation modification is a change in external features of a situation that will alter
an emotional response to the situation. This step is related to strategies used to cope
with the cause of a particular problem, safety signals, or behaviors (Sheppes & Gross,
2012). For example, a mother who gets frustrated easily may hang a painting with a
calming scene on the wall to look at to ease tension and frustration. Problem-focused
coping relates to strategies people may use proactively (e.g., When a child starts a new
preschool, a mother may arrive at the school with her child to make herself feel calm by
ensuring that the teacher is friendly toward her child).
Attentional deployment is associated with the internal ER process and a situation
that a person has already encountered. Attentional regulation strategies include
distraction, suppression of thought, nonverbal suppression, rumination, and
mindfulness. Rumination and thought suppression are most often perceived as
destructive (Gross & Thompson, 2007). A mother may think that the anger she
experiences toward her toddler is inappropriate and immoral, especially if she
subscribes to the IM ideals. She may feel a fear of social judgment and not being able
to disclose her anger even to her close friends. The anger becomes repressed,
meaning a mother doesn’t accept this feeling and tries to hide it from herself. Emotional
repression is detrimental to mental health (Le & Impett, 2016). Therefore, it is important
for counselors who work with mothers to educate them on the acceptance of emotional
45
experiences and healthy ways of regulating hostile emotions (i.e., using the cognitive
change strategy).
Cognitive change is a strategy that modifies the meaning of the situation and
influences emotions (e.g., cognitive reappraisal when a mother is feeling she is
becoming angry, but she reframes the situation she is in by telling herself that the
disobedience is a great way for her to bond with her child; English, Lee, John, & Gross,
2017).
Response modulation focuses on targeting one or more of the experiential,
behavioral, or physiological components of an activated emotion response to promote
change (Gross & Thompson, 2007). Response modulation may encompass a variety of
verbal and nonverbal ways of “getting emotions out,” (i.e., talking, drawing, dancing,
singing).
In examining emotion suppression among 168 participants, Roberts, Levenson
and Gross (2008) instructed half of the participants to suppress their emotions while
watching a movie, while the other half of participants were instructed to simply watch
the movie. The researchers found that suppression was ineffective in reducing the
internal experience of negative emotions and increased physiological reactivity through
increased autonomic responses, which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease
(Roberts, Levenson, & Gross, 2008). Moreover, suppression was associated with
poorer adaptation across multiple measures of adjustment (John & Gross, 2004). John
and Gross (2004) provided a comprehensive analysis of healthy and unhealthy ways to
regulate emotions. They described and compared reappraisal (changing thoughts about
emotion-evoking event), and suppression (changing behavior in response to the event).
46
John and Gross reported that specific conditions make reappraisal healthier than
suppression in terms of social, cognitive, and affective consequences for the individual.
In contrast, cognitive reappraisal is a constructive ER strategy that correlates
with increased use of labeled praise (Kohlhoff et al., 2016), and moderates anxiety
levels among parents (Miklosi, Szabo, Martos, Galambosi, & Forintos, 2015).
Specifically, Kohlhoff et al. (2016) examined the cognitive-affective ER strategies of 84
parents of toddlers with conduct problems by observing parents and children while they
interacted with each other. Parents also completed questionnaires about positive and
negative parenting, and their use of cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression
strategies. The researchers found that ER strategies and parenting quality were
moderated by parental depression. Cognitive reappraisal correlated with increased use
of labeled praise among parents with low depression levels. Additionally, parents with
higher levels of depression did not often praise their children, regardless of how often
they used reappraisal. Recurrent use of cognitive reappraisal and expression
suppression among parents with high levels of depression correlated with positive
parenting practices.
Miklosi et al. (2013) examined cognitive ER among parents of children who had
surgery. Their focus was on the relationship between parenting self-efficacy and state
anxiety among 199 parent-child dyad. Cognitive ER strategies assessed included
adaptive strategies (e.g., acceptance, positive refocusing, refocus on planning, positive
reappraisal, putting into perspective), and nonadaptive strategies (e.g., self-blame,
catastrophizing, blaming others. The researchers found that greater use of nonadaptive
cognitive ER strategies correlated with more anxiety, when controlling for all other
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variables. Additionally, adaptive cognitive ER strategies did not predict anxiety that is
usually viewed as a negative emotion, along with guilt and anger.
Research on Emotion Regulation of Anger
Anger is an emotion, which arises when a self-relevant goal cannot be reached
and increased effort is required for goal achievement (Denny, 2015). The research on
ER of anger often starts with finding the triggers of an anger episode – specific
situations or actions. A thought or an emotion other than anger may also become a
trigger. There are a few studies that have focused on how people experience and
regulate anger daily. For example, Kashdan, Goodman, Mallard, and DeWall (2015)
examined situational determinants of anger. Participants completed daily diaries where
they reported intense anger and described their triggers. Researchers also measured
anger regulation and personality traits (i.e., anger, mindfulness, psychological need
satisfaction, the Big Five). Five anger trigger categories emerged: (a) environment, (b)
distress, (c) other people, (d) psychological, and (e) undifferentiated. Lack of anger
regulation was higher when other people were triggering anger. Researchers found that
personality traits had a minimal influence on anger compared to the trigger. This finding
is important because it demonstrates that any mother may be prone to specific anger
triggering behavior that children display, such as a tantrum.
Anger regulation starts to emerge in childhood when parents shape children’s
emotion socialization. One of the socialization mechanisms is conditional regard, which
can be positive and negative. Smiley, Buttitta and Chung (2016) examined anger
suppression socialization among 79 middle-school children and found that low positive
conditional regard (PCR) was related to increased strategy use among children who
displayed anger, and high PCR was associated with decreased strategy use. The low
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PCR was associated with avoidance motivation when problem solving was needed in
situations when children got angry. However, high PCR was associated with approach
motivation.
Suppression is one way to regulate anger. Germain and Kangas (2015)
compared emotion suppression with cognitive reappraisal and acceptance among 101
adults with high trait anger. Researchers found participants in reappraisal and emotion
suppression conditions declined in state anger and systolic blood pressure (SBP);
however, individuals who were using acceptance did not decline in their level of anger.
Therefore, the researchers concluded that reappraisal and suppression were more
effective in coping with anger than acceptance.
Parents may suppress their anger toward their children; however, suppression is
not a good strategy to use without processing the anger. Parents frequently experience
anger toward children when they do not follow instructions. The reason for children’s
misbehavior may have developmental roots as children simply do not understand what
their parents want them to do. In this case, parents would want to explain and negotiate.
When they engage in discussion, along with suppressing anger, they may experience
decreased effectiveness in conveying explanations to their children. Researchers
examined intrapersonal effects of anger suppression in negotiations and found that
anger suppression reduced the ability to focus and increased cognitive exhaustion
(Shao, Wang, Cheng, & Doucet, 2014). Moreover, Shao et al. (2014) found that when
negotiators suppress anger, their performance is hindered. Researchers recommended
adopting strategies that would help to maintain attention while anger is suppressed. The
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alternative to suppression is expression and one of the strategies of expressing anger is
social sharing.
Research on social sharing reveals that there may be benefits of sharing anger
with other people for regulatory purposes. However, it is questionable whether it is
always beneficial to share your anger with other people, and identifying the factors that
make it more or less beneficial may also be challenging. Frequency of anger and
reliance on social expression of anger may be factors that make social sharing of this
emotion more beneficial. Chue, Gunthert, Ahrens, and Skalina (2017) examined the
frequency of social sharing of anger and its consequences for emotional health among
82 female and 20 male undergraduate students. They found that a high reliance on
social expression of anger predicted a decrease in follow-up depression symptoms
when frequency of anger was low, but anger predicted an increase in depression
symptoms when frequency of anger was high. The function of social sharing was also
specifically salient to the experience of anger, such that expressing sadness and
anxiety to others did not influence depression symptoms four months later. These
results are consistent with other findings that the expression of anger has a greater
influence on emotional well-being than the expression of other negative emotions
(Lieberman & Goldstein, 2006). Moreover, the benefit of coping with anger through
social sharing was unique in that there were no relationships between other
anger coping strategies and future depression.
Although being angry is not socially desirable, as people associate anger with
aggressive behavior with an intent to harm, research shows that anger can have
positive functions and beneficial consequences (Denny, 2015). The benefits of anger
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heavily rely on individual differences. One example is the ability to regulate and use
anger. Denny (2015) examined the connection between executive functions (EF) and
ER within her study on anger regulation. She stated that a cognitive ER strategy was
effective in anger regulation. Several components of EF were used in the study
including inhibition and shifting. The results showed that vigilance to anger had the
potential to affect ER, and cognitive ER strategies influenced anger regulation.
Moreover, EF with happy emotional stimuli decreased anger.
Research on Emotion Regulation of Guilt
Guilt is an emotion connected with moral beliefs. Moral beliefs guide moral
conduct that is regulated by two systems (Janoff-Bulman, Scheikh, Hepp, 2009): (a)
proscriptive morality, which restrains immoral behavior; and (b) prescriptive morality,
which promotes moral behavior. Proscriptive morality is connected to the avoidance
system that motivates behavioral inhibition. Prescriptive morality is based on an
approach system that activates behavioral responses that align with moral values. For
mothers of toddlers, the proscriptive morality system is mentally represented by
negative internal referents such as “I should not yell at my child” or “I should not hit my
child”. However, prescriptive morality includes positive internal referents such as “I
should educate my child” or “I should spend every free second of my time with my
child”. The proscriptive regulatory system curbs temptation, which is seen as negative
and harming, so that the individual does not engage in the “wrong” behavior. The
prescriptive system activates a desire to engage in the behavior that is perceived as
appropriate for the child and for the role of a mother.
Janoff-Bulman et al. (2009) conducted seven studies with an overarching goal of
suggesting a profile of prescriptive and proscriptive morality through investigating the
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applicability of approach versus avoidance motivation, and then exploring the
asymmetric relationship between two moral systems. In the first study, the researchers
explored the differences in responsiveness to a threat-based avoidance prime and a
reward-based approach prime. In the second study, they assessed the linguistic
representations of proscriptive and prescriptive morality. Then, in the third and fourth
studies they investigated possible moral asymmetries through evaluating mandatoriness
versus personal preference. Finally, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh studies the
researchers focused on attributed credit and blame. They found that proscriptive
morality is inhibition-based, vulnerable to negative outcomes, and directed at avoidance
by focusing on what we should not do. However, prescriptive morality is activation-
based and connected to positive outcomes by focusing on what we should do. Thus, the
avoidance-based proscriptive morality regulation system correlates with proneness to
shame, and the action-based prescriptive morality system correlates with guilt (Janoff-
Bullman, Sheikh, & Hepp, 2009).
Proneness to guilt is also connected to self-esteem, which positively predicts guilt
responses (Sheikh, & Janoff-Bulman, 2010). Self-regulation extricates among two types
of motivation: approach/activation and avoidance/inhibition. Using this distinction,
Sheikh and Janoff-Bulman (2010) examined parental restrictiveness versus nurturance,
anxiety versus empathy, and proscriptive versus prescriptive morality as precursors to
moral emotions. They found that the higher the self-esteem of an individual, the more
intense the guilt was when there was a violation of moral beliefs. Furthermore, there
was a possibility for a more intense desire to repair the relationship when it was viewed
as being harmed by the immoral actions of the individual. Psychological origins and
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motivations of shame and guilt differ, with guilt being an indicator of a damaged
relationship activating approach behavior to optimize the relationship (Baumeister,
Stillwell, & Heatherton, 1995). In comparison, shame indicates harm to self-view and
activates approach behaviors to support positive self-view.
One of the reasons why people experience guilt and show it without extra effort
in regulating it is because they strive to present themselves as moral (Stearns & Parrott,
2012). Stearns and Parrot (2012) investigated how expressions of guilt and shame
affected one’s perception among 294 students from Georgetown University (159 women
and 135 men). Participants read autobiographical vignettes where the writer did
something wrong, including experiencing guilt, shame, or no emotion. People, who
experienced guilt or shame were viewed as more moral and socially attuned. Thus, the
researchers concluded that a verbal apology, along with an expression of guilt and
shame, increased an individual’s likeability.
Feeling accepted, even though she had done something inappropriate, may
mitigate a mother’s negative self-perception as a person who is acting as a “bad
mother”. Moreover, research shows that guilt can activate pleasure. Goldsmith, Cho and
Dhar (2012) examined the positive effect of guilt, while seeking to understand how guilt
activation related to consumption. They found that consumers had a cognitive
association between guilt and pleasure, and an experience of guilt may automatically
activate experiences of pleasure. Mothers would compensate and relieve the guilt they
experienced towards their children through buying them presents. This showed that
there may be a connection between experiencing guilt when a mother violates her
beliefs about appropriate behavior.
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Guilt is complicated and may evoke both pleasure and self-punishment. Nelissen
and Zeelenberg (2009) described the Dobby Effect as a public sign of reconciliation in
situations when the actual reconciliation is not possible. A person may be aiming at
restoring the self-image through the self-presentation of self-punishment. This behavior
was exhibited by the character from the novel about the young magician Harry Potter.
Dobby was a domestic elf who beat himself up when he thought he was doing
something wrong. For example, when he said something to disappoint a magician, he
would start hitting himself with a hard object or would hit the wall with his head. The
Dobby Effect may manifest in a mother of a toddler who experiences guilt. For example,
the harm caused to the child needs to be irreversible, such as forgetting about an
important event in the child’s life, which is also viewed as important by the mother.
Secondly, there must be no way to compensate for the loss suffered. For example, if a
mother and a father are going through a divorce and there is no possibility for the father
to return back home, then a mother may engage in behavior described in the Dobby
Effect thorough self-punishment, which may include physical punishment or relationship
self-deprivation.
Relationship self-deprivation may include not getting married again to
compensate for the harm caused to a child by a divorce. Another way to compensate for
the harm would be an apology. Although research on parental apology as a
compensation of harm is scarce, Ruckstaetter (2016) examined the relationship
between parental apologies, empathy, shame, guilt, and attachment among 327 parents
of children between 3 and 18 years old and found that apologies are beneficial for the
relationship between a child and a parent. Parents’ readiness to apologize was
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positively influenced by parental empathy and guilt. Moreover, apologies helped to
develop a secure attachment between a parent and a child. Furthermore, shame
accompanied with withdrawal had a negative influence on the relationship. Thus, the
apology becomes an ER strategy for the parent, who repairs the relationship, bonding
more with a child.
Verbal expression of guilt is a pathway to restoring the relationship. It also helps
a parent to feel better. Sharing of guilt through verbal expression can be done
individually, when talking to a friend, or apologizing to the child. It can also be done in
special groups for parents. Godwin (2004) studied support groups for parents of
teenagers and found that specific rhetoric used by parents helped them to manage guilt
for being “bad” parents. Parents in this group were able to maintain good-parent
identities through a personal responsibility rhetoric. Godwin aimed to apprehend the
process of constituting parental identities. He saw this process as connections between
talk, emotion work, and identity management. Godwin analyzed the data using
grounded theory within symbolic interactionism paradigm and found that parents
avoided guilt suppressing it. Godwin reported that “the personal responsibility rhetoric’s
expression was “don’t express guilt for your teenagers’ bad behavior” (p. 581).
Research on Emotion Regulation among Mothers
Parental ER influences the ER development of children, who emotionally
socialize through modeling the caregiver’s behavior and identifying with the parent
(Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 1998). Specifically, reappraisal and suppression
have distinct socialization paths. Furthermore, parental ER self-efficacy has an indirect
effect on a child's reappraisal (Gunzenhauser, Fäsche, Friedlmeier, & von Suchodoletz,
2014).
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Primary caregivers have a major role in emotion socialization. Deater-Deckard, Li
and Bell (2016) examined a multi-component emotion self-regulation construct in 151
women with young children that captured physiological (vagal tone), cognitive
(reappraisal) and temperament (effortful control) aspects of ER as a moderator of the
association between more stressors and greater negative/less positive affectivity (NA
and PA). Women with more stressors had more NA and less PA. Furthermore, for NA
only, having more stressors was substantially associated with NA, but only among
women with the lowest ER. Additionally, results were not attributable to individual
differences in executive function (Deater-Deckard, Li, & Bell, 2016). These findings
highlight the role of a mother’s ER skills in the aftermath of trauma, as it relates to
children’s ER skills. The degree of a mother’s regulatory skills, in the context of
posttraumatic stress symptoms, reflects an essential process through which the
intergenerational transmission of trauma may occur.
A child’s capacity for ER is highly related to the mother’s ability to control her
emotions. The mother’s ability to use adaptive ER strategies serves as a protective
factor for her child. A mother can choose to enter or change a situation (situation
modification) and choose to soothe her child, rather than to become upset when
experiencing trauma. However, in the context of exposure to traumatic events, the
parents’ ability to control a situation is limited. This reality creates additional challenges
for the process of self-regulation and co-regulation of emotions and behaviors.
The limited research on preschoolers has focused on emotional socialization of
children. Specifically, Shewark and Blandon (2014) investigated the relationship
between mothers’ and fathers’ reactions to children’s emotions and ER. Seventy
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families participated in this study, with each family unit encompassing a mother, father,
and two siblings ages 2 to 5 years old. The researchers found that unsupportive
reactions to children’s positive emotions correlated with off-springs’ negativity.
Parental meta-philosophy regarding emotional socialization of children was
addressed by Katz and Windecker-Nelson (2004). The researchers examined how
conduct-problem (CP) children’s mothers were different from mothers of non-CP
children. The parameters for comparison included awareness and coaching of emotion.
The researchers also investigated if there was an association between mothers’
awareness and emotion coaching with peer relations in CP children. There were 130
families who participated, with children ranging in age from four to six years. Emotional
meta-philosophy was evaluated through interviews with parents. Preschool children’s
peer relationships were evaluated through observation. The researchers discovered that
the mothers of the CP children engaged in less coaching of their children on developing
ER skills than mothers of non-CP children. Additionally, children's level of aggression
moderated the relationship between mothers’ meta-emotion and children's peer play.
For both samples more intensive maternal emotion coaching was associated with more
positive peer play, with these effects being stronger for non-CP mothers. The results of
this study suggest that children benefit from emotion coaching and higher levels of
maternal emotional awareness.
Emotion coaching was also examined by Wilson et al. (2014) in investigating
associations between maternal and paternal emotion coaching and the self-
regulation skills of elementary school children (N = 54). The researchers found that
emotion coaching engagement was higher for fathers of low aggressive/popular children
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than for fathers of aggressive/rejected children. Additionally, mothers’ emotion coaching
directed at children moderated the relation between children's social status and their
ER. Wilson et. al suggested that counseling interventions directed at parental emotion
coaching may aid in increasing self-regulation and compensate for attention deficit
among children with social and behavioral problems.
Morelen, Shaffer, and Suveg (2014) examined maternal ER and emotional
parenting practices among 64 mother–child dyads and found that observed maternal
ER was negatively associated with unsupportive emotional parenting. Additionally, self-
reported maternal emotion dysregulation was positively related to unsupportive
parenting and child emotion dysregulation, and negatively related to child adaptive ER.
Furthermore, partial support was provided for the mediating role of emotional parenting
behaviors and the relationship between maternal and child ER.
While there is a growing body of literature examining the influence of emotion
socialization on children’s emotional and social development, there is less research on
what predicts emotion socialization behaviors among parents. Are and Shaffer (2015)
investigated maternal ER difficulties as a predictor of emotion socialization practices.
Specifically, they examined the family emotion expressiveness as a possible mediator
of the relationship between maternal and child ER in a community sample of 110
mother–child dyads with preschool-aged children. They found that positive family
expressiveness mediated the relationship between maternal emotion dysregulation and
the child’s ER. Positive behavioral synchrony was positively associated with child self-
regulation (Are & Shaffer, 2015).
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One of the most well researched emotional states of a mother, in regards to its
connection with a child’s ER, is maternal depression. Although maternal postpartum
depression (PPD) exerts long-term adverse effects on infants, the mechanisms by
which PPD disrupts emotional development are not clear. Using an extreme case
design, Granat, Gadassi, Gilboa-Schechtman, and Feldman (2016) examined the
effects of postpartum depression on infant ER among 971 women who reported
symptoms of depression and anxiety following childbirth and their babies and among
215 women who had high and low scores on depressive symptomatology reported
again at six months and their babies. The researchers found that infants of depressed
mothers displayed less social gaze and more gaze aversion. Gaze and touch synchrony
were lowest for depressed mothers, highest for anxious mothers, and midlevel among
controls. Additionally, infants of control and anxious mothers expressed less negative
affect with the mother compared with a stranger. However, maternal presence failed to
buffer the negative affect in the depressed group. Maternal depression chronicity also
predicted increased self-regulatory behavior during joy episodes, and touch synchrony
moderated the effects of PPD on infant self-regulation. Thus, the findings highlighted
the subtle processes by which maternal depression across the postpartum year affects
the development of infant ER and suggest that diminished social synchrony, low
differentiation of attachment contexts, and increased self-regulation during positive
moments may create generational transfer of emotion dysregulation from mothers to
their infants (Granat et al., 2016).
Premo and Kiel (2016) examined how toddlers’ ER strategies moderated the
relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and emotion socialization
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responses, including the degree to which mothers accept their children’s demands to
decrease their own and their children’s distress. Mothers (N = 91) reported depressive
symptoms and the use of maladaptive emotion socialization strategies concurrently and
at a 1-year follow-up. Additionally, the findings revealed that toddler emotional
characteristics influenced how depressive symptoms may put mothers at risk for
maladaptive parenting.
Therefore, Premo and Kiel (2016) concluded that one of the tasks for family
psychologists is to understand the role of both parent and toddler characteristics within
challenging emotional interactions. Although research on ER among mothers, focused
on the strategies this population uses to cope with feelings such as anger and guilt is
scarce, there are studies that examine gender differences in ER.
Gender and Emotion Regulation
Scholars should consider gender differences in ER when the study focuses on a
male or a female parent. The current study focused on female mothers; and therefore,
there was a need to explore particular female ER phenomenology. Yan Wu and Tianzi
Jiang (2015) found an existence of sex-specific neural circuits of ER in the brain,
specifically in a region called centromedian amygdala. Their study was conducted
through using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and ER scores. They
found that ER was associated with different brain regions for males and females. Males
used the regions involved with cognition to regulate their emotions, while females used
regions associated with emotions. These findings support the stereotype of male and
female ER differences, with males using more problem-solving, and females using more
rumination and emotional expression.
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Women and men also differ in their tendency to respond to stress, with females
being more sad and anxious than males. Thus, women have a greater risk for anxiety
and depression than men, while men are at a higher risk for alcohol use (Chaplin, Hong,
Bergquist, & Sinha, 2008). Additionally, ER strategies are unequally distributed
regarding gender, with women reporting that they use more ER strategies then men
(Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012). Moreover, ER is equally related to psychopathology in both
sexes. However, women also use more rumination because they more often experience
anxiety and depression compared to men. The tendency for females to focus more on
emotional expression rather than problem-solving occurs early in childhood. However,
more research is needed on how men use ER.
Women are more prone to depression and rumination than men, and they also
have a greater tendency to vent and express emotions verbally when stressed. For
mothers of young children, who sometimes suffer from postpartum depression,
development of ER skills is crucial. However, being under the pressure of IM ideology, a
woman may struggle with appropriate care for herself and her emotional state because
she may believe that she has to spend all of her free time with her child.
Summary of the Chapter
In summary, IM ideology influences maternal mental health, evoking depression,
guilt, and anger. Additionally, emotional synchrony exists between a mother and a child.
However, becoming synchronous with depression and anger is not conducive to a
child’s emotional development, which is shaped through interactions with primary
caregivers. Thus, research focused on the relationship between IM beliefs and ER of
hostile emotions may help in the development of counseling programs for mothers who
are feeling extensive pressure from a society that endorses IM ideology.
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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY
Within this chapter, the author presents the methodology for this study. The
researcher first discusses the research design and outlines the purpose of the study
and the research hypotheses. Then, she describes the targeted population and
sampling. Next, the author discusses the instrumentation and the procedures. Finally,
the author concludes the chapter with presenting the data analysis procedures.
Research Design
This study involved a correlational research design. In a correlational design the
researcher examines the relationship between variables. A correlation has a direction
(positive or negative). A positive correlation results when participants score high on both
or low on both instruments. A negative correlation results when individuals who score
high on one measure tend to score low on another measure (Busk, 2015).
Research Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between intensive
parenting attitudes (IPA), ER and emotional experiences of anger and guilt among
mothers of toddlers. There were six research hypotheses.
Research Hypotheses
8. IPA (as measured by IPAQ) correlates with ER strategies (as measured by ERQ) chosen by mothers.
9. IPA (as measured by IPAQ) correlates with PA (as measured by PAS).
10. IPA (as measured by IPAQ) correlates with GP (as measured by GP-5).
11. PA (as measured by PAS) correlates with GP (as measured by GP-5).
12. Mothers differ in their IPA (as measured by IPAQ) and PA (as measured by PAS) based on their religiosity.
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13. Mothers differ in their IPA (as measured by IPAQ) and PA (as measured by PAS) based on their work status.
14. Mothers differ in their PA based on the number of children they have.
Participants
The targeted population was mothers of toddlers, with toddlerhood age defined
as ranging from 18 to 48 months. Participants included both stay-at-home and working
mothers. Some mothers had toddlers who attended daycare. The researcher contacted
35 daycares in one city in the southeastern part of the United States. Of these
institutions, none declined to participate, four (11.4%) replied and agreed to distribute
emails with the invitation to mothers, and 31 (88.6%) did not respond. Additionally, a
fifth facility permitted only paper data collection, and therefore, participants were not
included from this facility due to the IRB approval of only online data collection, and
insufficient time to get approval for paper data collection. There were a total of 171
surveys that were started; however, 49 (29%) of the surveys were excluded due to
completion of only the informed consent, and three surveys were excluded due to
participants identifying as being fathers. Therefore, the researcher examined data from
a total of 122 participants who completed the surveys online in Qualtrics, an online
survey portal.
Procedures
Following approval from the institutional review board (IRB) at the researcher’s
university, the researcher recruited and selected potential participants using a purposive
convenience sampling method. Specifically, she recruited participants through posting
recruitment announcements on (a) listservs of preschools, (b) a university group for
mothers in graduate school, and (c) contacting mothers of toddlers who were active in
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social media (Facebook). Additionally, the researcher sent invitations for participation to
directors of preschools on a monthly basis for a two-month period (September-October),
or until they responded that they did not want to participate. The researcher also used a
snowball approach by asking participants to forward information about the study to other
mothers of toddlers. The author collected data using the online survey portal Qualtrics.
Completion of the online survey constituted consent.
Instrumentation
Demographic Questionnaire
The researcher asked participants to complete a demographic questionnaire.
The demographic questionnaire contained questions related to gender, age, number of
children, race/ethnicity, work status, and marital status.
Intensive Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire
The researcher measured IM attitudes using the Intensive Parenting Attitudes
Questionnaire (IPAQ; Liss, Schiffrin, Mackintosh, Miles-McLean, & Erchull, 2013). The
IPAQ is a 25-item measure with a 6-point Likert scale response option ranging from ‘1’
(strongly disagree) to ‘6’ (strongly agree). Additionally, the IPAQ has five factors: (a)
women are inherently better at parenting than men (essentialism), (b) parenting should
be fulfilling (fulfillment), (c) children should be cognitively stimulated by parents
(stimulation), (d) mothering is difficult (challenging), and (e) parents should prioritize the
needs of the child (child-centered).
The norming group for this measure included 595 mothers that ranged in age
from 20 to 73 with a mean age of 34.78 years (SD = 8.07). The sample was
predominantly residing in the US (86.7 %). The self-reported socioeconomic
composition of the mothers was largely middle class (53.3 %) and upper middle class
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(23.9 %). The majority of the mothers (91.4 %) reported their ethnicity as Caucasian.
The internal consistency reliability for the subscales was 0.85 for essentialism, 0.77 for
fulfillment, 0.64 for stimulation, 0.76 for challenging, and 0.68 for child-centered. The
scales have adequate reliability and construct validity when compared to the Parental
Investment in the Child Questionnaire, the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale, and
Beliefs about Maternal Employment. In this study, the internal consistency for the IPAQ
subscales was essentialism .838, fulfillment .728, stimulation .476, challenging .708,
and child-centered .649. This was consistent with the internal consistency for the normal
group, except for challenging.
Revised Emotion Regulation Questionnaire-9
The researcher measured ER using the ER Questionnaire (ERQ) developed by
Gross and John (2003). Gross and John initially created the ERQ to explore the use of
reappraisal and suppression ER strategies. It is presently the most conventionally
recognized and frequently used measure of ER. Spaapen, Waters, Brummer, Stopa,
and Bucks (2014) validated the scale with a community sample of adults ages 17-95
from Australia (N = 550) and the United Kingdom (N = 483) using confirmatory factor
analysis. The researchers found that the original ERQ factor structure was not
supported by either the Australian or United Kingdom samples. However, they obtained
a strong model of fit with the removal of 1 item. The Revised ERQ-9 was comparable
across the demographics (age, gender, and education). Both questionnaires have two
scales, suppression and reappraisal, that include 9 total items that participants rate on a
7-point Likert scale ranging from ‘1’ (strongly disagree) to ‘7’ (strongly agree). The
reappraisal scale includes items such as, “When I want to feel more positive (such as
joy or amusement), I change what I’m thinking about” and the suppression scale
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included items such as, “I control my emotions by not expressing them.” The authors
reported that the revised nine-item ERQ measure was a strong model for both samples
and that the coefficients for reappraisal after removing item 3 was 0.76 for the
Australian sample and 0.80 for the UK sample, and suppression 0.78 and 0.74
accordingly. The internal consistency for the ERQ subscales for this study was
supression .724, and reappraisal .869; which is consistent with previous research.
Parent Anger Scale
The researcher measured parental anger using the Parent Anger Scale (PAS;
Gavita & David, 2011). The PAS has 30 items that assess arousal, cognitions, motives,
and behaviors. Participants rate the items on a 6-point Likert scale with the response
options varying depending on the item (e.g., some items assess the extent of anger
from “not at all angry” to “extremely angry” and some items assess frequency “a few
minutes” to “several days”). High score reflects a high level of parent anger. The
researchers reported the internal consistency for the PAS total score as 0.95.
The norming group for this measure included 331 parents of children aged four to
17 years, who were recruited from ten kindergartens and two schools in the county of
Cluj, Romania. The mean age for participants was 35.01 years (SD = 4.94). 88.2% of
the parents were mothers and 11.8% were fathers. The majority of the parents had
some level of college education, 85.5% of the parents were employed. In this study, the
internal consistency for the PAS subscales was experience .867, and expression .735.
Guilt Proneness
The researcher measured the tendency to experience guilt using the Guilt
Proneness (GP) subscale from the Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale (GASP; Cohen,
Wolf, Panter, & Insko, 2011; Cohen, Panter, Turan, Morse, & Kim, 2013). The GASP
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assesses individual differences in the tendency to feel guilt and shame in personal
interactions. The Guilt subscale was tested in the sample of 155 job applicants, it
consists of five-items (GP-5; Cohen, Kim & Panter, 2014) with seven response options.
GP is calculated by averaging participants' responses to the five items. The alpha
coefficient for GP subscale was higher in the general GASP research (cf. α = .80 in
Cohen, Panter, et al., 2014) and it was lower in this sample (α = .54). Authors explain it
by saying that possibly that there was less variance and the range was restricted to the
positive end of the response scale. However, they state that model fit statistics from a
confirmatory factor analysis were very good and factor loadings were acceptably high
(χ2 (df = 5) = 3.25; items factors loadings with standard errors: (1) Too much change =
0.56 (0.09); (2) Secret felony = 0.65 (0.10); (3) Cover wine spill = 0.85 (0.06); (4) Tell
lies = 0.86 (0.07); (5) Break the copier = 0.58 (0.10)). The internal consistency for GP in
this study was .725.
Data Analysis
The researcher examined research hypotheses one, two, three, four using a
Spearman correlational analysis and multiple regression analysis. The predictor
variables were scales of the IPAQ: essentialism, fulfillment, stimulation, challenging,
and child-centered. The outcome variables were ER strategies and parent anger. The
researcher also used a One-Way ANOVA and Mann-Whitney test to compare groups of
mothers based on their religiosity and working status.
The researcher reported demographic information using descriptive statistics.
Additionally, the researcher used G*Power to conduct an a priori power analysis for all
statistical procedures implemented in this study. In using G*Power to conduct an a priori
power analysis for the correlational analysis, the researcher found that with an alpha
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level of .05, minimum power established at .80, and a large effect size of .3 (Cohen,
1992), 82 participants were needed to find a statistically significant difference.
Therefore, the number of cases in the present study (N = 106) was large enough to
justify proceeding with the Spearman correlational analysis. The researcher conducted
an a priori power analysis for the Mann-Whitney test, with an alpha level of .05,
minimum power established at .80 and an effect size of .05, 106 participants were
needed to find a statistically significant difference. The power analysis for the One-Way
ANOVA test showed that with an alpha level of .05, minimum power established at .80
and an effect size of .05, 128 participants were needed to find a statistically significant
difference. For multiple regression with five predictors with an alpha level of 0.05, a
power of 0.80, and a medium effect size (f2 = 0.15) (Faul et al., 2013), the researcher
needed a sample size of 92.
Ethical Considerations
The researcher presented the protocol for this study to the IRB for review to
ensure that the study met ethical standards. Following IRB review, the researcher sent
a copy of the study protocol to preschools, and all participants received the informed
consent form online. The researcher did not expect participation in the study to cause
any negative effects concerning physical harm or the triggering of any emotional
responses. However, the researcher had contact information available for the
Counseling and Wellness Center on the university campus, and the County Crisis
Center should the participants experience an emotional reaction to participating that
required counseling. Participants also have the opportunity to opt out of participating at
any point during the study without consequence. A webinar on ER of anger was
provided as an incentive to participants who completed the survey.
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Chapter Summary
Chapter 3 focused on the methodology for this study. The researcher discussed
the design, purpose, hypotheses, participants, procedures, and instruments.
Additionally, the researcher reported that she would use Spearman correlations,
multiple regression, Mann-Whitney and a One-Way ANOVA analyses to examine the
research hypotheses. In Chapter 4, the researcher presents the results of the study.
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CHAPTER 4 RESULTS
This study focused on examining the IPA, ER, and emotional experiences of
anger and guilt among mothers of toddlers. Within this chapter, the researcher first
presents the descriptive statistics to explore the sample demographics. Then, the
researcher reports the results of the statistical analyses that were used to examine the
six research hypotheses.
Exploratory Data Analysis
Prior to testing the research hypotheses, the researcher conducted an
exploratory data analysis to examine the demographic characteristics of the participants
and the normality of the data.
There were 122 mothers who participated in the study. Regarding age, there
were 22 women (18.6%) in the 20 to 30 year old age range, 84 (71.2%) in the 31-40
group, and 12 (10.2%) in the 41-50 group. There were 59 (50.4%) participants who
reported being religious, 52 (44.4%) reported being non-religious, and six (5.1%)
participants chose the option indicating “other”. Specifically, 58 (50.4%) women aligned
with Christianity, 29 (25.2%) were non-religious, five (4.3%) Agnostic, two (1.7%)
Buddhist, one (.9 %) Muslim, five (4.3%) Jewish, and 8 (13.2%) chose the option other
and did not specify the religion type or reported being spiritual. Regarding marital status,
104 (88.1%) mothers were married, 9 (7.6%) had a partner but were not married, two
(1.8%) was divorced, and three (2.5%) were never married. Additionally, 81 (68.6%)
mothers were White, 8 (6.8%) Asian, 9 (7.6%) Black, two (1.7%) Native American, 7
(5.9%) Hispanic/Latino, two (1.7%) European, and nine (7.6%) chose the option other
and did not specify their race. Regarding the number of children, 42 (35.6%) mothers
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had one child, 60 (50.8%) had two children, 10 (8.5%) had three children, three (2.5%)
had four children, and three (2.5%) had five kids. In relation to work status, 28 mothers
(24.1%) stayed at home, 28 (24.1%) worked remotely while staying at home with their
children, and 60 (51.7%) worked out of home. The average age of the toddlers was 32
months (2 years, 8 months). Table 4-1 includes the participant demographic
information.
The researcher also tested the assumption of normality for all of the variables.
Only four variables were normally distributed: fulfillment, essentialism, stimulation and
suppression. The GP variable was significantly skewed. Therefore, the researcher
proceeded with non-parametric statistics, using Spearman’s correlations to test the
main research hypotheses (1-4) and the Mann-Whitney test to compare groups of
mothers based on the demographic data, as these statistics are robust for the violations
of normality. The researcher used multiple regression with the normally distributed
independent variables. Additionally, the researcher used a One-Way ANOVA to
compare groups of mothers based on their working status.
The researcher conducted an a priori power analysis for all the statistical
procedures implemented in this study. The researcher used G*Power to conduct an a
priori power analysis for a correlational analysis. With an alpha level of .05, minimum
power established at .80, and a large effect size of .3 (Cohen, 1992), 82 participants
were needed to find a statistically significant difference. Therefore, the number of cases
in the present study (N = 122) was large enough to justify proceeding with the
Spearman correlational analysis. The researcher conducted an a priori power analysis
for the Mann-Whitney test, with an alpha level of .05, minimum power established at
71
.80, and an effect size of .05, 106 participants were needed to find a statistically
significant difference. The power analysis for the One-Way ANOVA showed that with an
alpha level of .05, minimum power established at .80, and an effect size of .05, 128
participants were needed to find a statistically significant difference. For multiple
regression with five predictors, with an alpha level of 0.05, a power of 0.80, and a
medium effect size (f2 = 0.15) (Faul et al., 2013), a sufficient sample size was 92.
Research Hypothesis One
Hypothesis one was: IPA (as measured by IPAQ) correlates with ER strategies
(as measured by ERQ) chosen by mothers. The researcher conducted a series of
Spearman rank-order correlations to determine if there was a positive correlation
between IP attitudes and emotion suppression. A two-tailed test of significance
indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between emotion suppression
and IP attitudes in two areas: child-centered rs = .258, Rs2 = .06, p < .01, and fulfillment
rs = .246, Rs2 = .06, p < .01. Thus, the more mothers indicated being child-centered and
finding child-rearing fulfilling, the more they reported preferring emotion suppression as
an ER strategy.
There was also a significant negative relationship between IP attitudes and
cognitive reappraisal. Essentialism significantly correlated with reappraisal rs = -.21, Rs2
= .04, p < .05. Thus, the analysis revealed that the higher mothers scored in cognitive
reappraisal, the less intense their parenting attitudes were related to essentialism. The
researcher found no other significant relationships between reappraisal and intensive
parenting attitudes.
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Research Hypothesis Two
Hypothesis two was: IPA (as measured by IPAQ) correlates with parent anger
(as measured by PAS). Spearman correlational analysis revealed that expression of
anger correlated with essentialism rs = .33, Rs2 = .10, p < .001 and challenging rs = .23,
Rs2 = .05, p < .05 and experience of anger correlated with challenging rs = .38, Rs
2 =
.14, p < .001, and essentialism rs = .29, Rs2 = .08, p < .01.
The researcher conducted a multiple linear regression analysis to determine if
experience and expression of anger (as measured by the PAS) could be predicted by
essentialism and challenging (as measured by IPAQ) attitudes toward parenting.
G*Power was used to conduct an a priori power analysis. With an alpha level of .05,
minimum power established at .95, and a large effect size of .35 (Cohen, 1992), and 44
participants were needed to find a statistically significant difference. Therefore, the
number of cases in the present study (N = 122) was large enough to justify proceeding
with the multiple regression analysis.
The null hypothesis was that the regression coefficients were equal to zero. The
researcher tested the multiple linear regression assumptions, including the standardized
residuals normality distribution, and testing for homoscedasticity and multicollinearity.
Review of the scatterplot demonstrated appropriate homeoscedasticity. The normality
distribution plot for the standardized residuals demonstrated linearity between variables.
The assumption of independence was met for all variables. In testing for collinearity, the
variance inflation factor was less than 10 for challenging scores (1.15), and essentialism
scores (1.159). Lastly, all of the condition indices were smaller than 15 (10, 90, 6, 60).
Thus, there was no concern regarding the assumption of multicollinearity.
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The overall model that included the predictor variables of challenging and
essentialism was a good predictor of experience of anger, F (1, 120) = 23.22, p < .001.
The regression equation for predicting experience of anger among mothers of toddlers
is: Experience of anger = 6.505 + .746 (challenging) + .315 (essentialism). Eighteen
percent (R2 = .180) of the variance in experience anger was predicted by the regression
model.
Research Hypothesis Three
Hypothesis three was: IPA (as measured by IPAQ) correlates with guilt
proneness (as measured by GP-5). For research hypothesis three the researcher
predicted that there would be a positive correlation between GP and IPA. The
Spearman correlational analysis showed that guilt proneness significantly correlated
with challenging IP scale rs = .22, Rs2 = .04, p < .05. Additionally, the researcher
compared the working mothers to those who stayed at home, and the correlation for the
GP and challenging scale increased significantly. The researcher found no other
significant correlations between guilt proneness and parenting attitudes.
Research Hypothesis Four
Hypothesis four was: PA (as measured by PAS) correlates with GP (as
measured by GP-5). The Spearman correlational analysis showed no significant
correlations between guilt proneness and two scales of PAS: experience anger and
expression anger. However, expression anger rs = -.31, Rs2 = .09, p < .01 and
experience anger rs = -.24, Rs2 = .05, p < .01 negatively correlated with the ER scale of
reappraisal. These results show that the increase of anger is accompanied with the
decrease in using cognitive reappraisal for mothers of toddlers.
74
Research Hypothesis Five
Hypothesis five was that there were differences between mothers of toddlers IPA
and PA based on their religiosity. The results partially supported this hypothesis. IPAQ
attitudes were compared using non-parametric Mann-Whitney test that revealed a
significant difference in ranks of attitudes based on mothers being either religious or
non-religious. A Mann-Whitney test indicated that mothers who answered “yes” to the
question “Are you religious?” were more child-centered (Mnd = 9) U = 11.1, z = -2.289, r
= -.24, p < .05, perceived parenting as more challenging (Mnd = 26) U = 11,5, z = -
2.225, r = -.21 p < .05, fulfiiling (Mnd = 16) U = 96.0, z = -3.418, r = -.32 p < .01, and
experienced and believed that mothers need to invest in their child’s development (Mnd
= 19) U = 11.5, z = -2.577, r = -.24, p < .05 more than mothers who answered “no” to
the question about their religiosity.
Research Hypothesis Six
Hypothesis five was that there were differences between mothers of toddlers IPA
and PA based on their work status. The results partially supported this hypothesis.
A One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the question of
whether mothers of toddlers PA differs with respect to their work status. The
independent variable represented work status, with two groups being represented: 1)
stay-at-home; 2) work. The Levene’s F test revealed that the homogeneity of variance
assumption was met (p > .05). The one-way ANOVA of mothers’ average score on the
measure of PA revealed a statistically significant main effect, F(1, 114) = 5.58, p < .05,
indicating that stay-at-home mothers were more prone to anger expression than
working mothers.
75
Research Hypothesis Seven
Research hypothesis six was that mothers differed in IPA based on the number
of children they had. This hypothesis was supported by the results of the study. The
researcher conducted non-parametric Mann-Whitney test that revealed a significant
difference in ranks of parent anger factors based on the amount of children a mother
had. A Mann-Whitney test indicated that mothers who had one child (Mnd = 29) were
less prone to experience anger than mothers who had two children U = 86.00, z = -
2.722, r = -.32, p < .01. Additionally, mothers who had two children (Mnd = 18) were
more prone to expressing anger than mothers who had one child U = 78.00, z = -3.224,
r = -.27, p < .01. Accordingly, mothers who had one child (Mnd = 16) perceived
parenting as less fulfilling than mothers who had two children U = 95.00, z =-.2076, r = -
.20, p < .05.
Chapter Summary
Within this chapter, the researcher presented the results related to examining the
four research hypotheses. The results indicated a relationship between intensive
parenting attitudes (as measured by the IPAQ) and emotion regulation (as measured by
ERQ). Furthermore, the results of the study demonstrated a difference in ER, IPA, and
experiences of anger based on the work status of the mother. Thus, the results provide
implications for future research and practice discussed in chapter 5.
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Table 4-1. Sample demographics. Variable
Response type
N
Percent
Age
20-30 31-40 41-50
22 84 12
18.6 71.2 10.2
Religion
Yes No Other
59 52 6
50.4 44.4 5.1
Religion type Work status Number of kids Number of toddlers Age of toddlers Race/ethnicity
Christian Non-religious Agnostic Jewish Muslim Buddhist Other/non-specified Stay at home Work remotely Work out of home One Two Three Four Five One Two Three 12 24 36 48 White Black Asian Native American Hispanic/Latino European Other
59 39 5 5 1 2 13 28 30 61 42 60 10 3 3 99 18 2 6 26 80 17 81 9 8 2 7 2 9
49.6 32.8 4.2 4.2 .8 10,1 11,3 23.5 25.2 51.3 35.6 50.8 8.5 2.5 2.5 83.2 15.1 1.7 4.7 20.2 62.0 13.2 68.6 7.6 6.8 1.7 5.9 1.7 7.6
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Table 4-2. Correlational data of intensive parenting attitudes, emotion regulation, and parent anger.
Essentialism
Challenging Child-centered
Fulfillment Suppression Reappraisal Experience of anger
Expression of anger
Essentialism Spearman correlation
1 .34**
.26**
.23** .008
.05
.55 .21* .018
.29**
.33**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .001 000
Challenging Spearman correlation Sig. (2-tailed)
.34**
.000
1 .18*
.044
31**
.000
.02
.763
.-16
.067
.38**
.000
.22
.013
Child-centered
Spearman correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
.26**
.000
.18*
.044
1
.25**
.004
.25**
.003
.09
.32
.09
.306
-.05
.553
Fullfillment Spearman correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
.23**
.008
.31
.000
.25**
.004
1 .24**
.005
.01
.899
.02
.784
-.01
.732
Reappraisal Spearman correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
-.24**
.006
-.16
.067
.09
.326
.01
.890
.02
.793
1 -.24**
.008
-.31**
.001
78
CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION
This chapter begins with a summary of the study and research methodology.
Next, the researcher reviews the results associated with each research hypothesis
presented in Chapter 4, and compares the results to previous research focused on
intensive parenting attitudes, emotion regulation, parent anger and guilt proneness.
Finally, the researcher explores limitations of the study, outlines recommendations for
future research, and discusses implications for practice.
Summary of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to examine the constructs of intensive
parenting attitudes, emotion regulation, and the emotional experiences of anger and
guilt among mothers of toddlers. Specifically, the researcher sought to understand the
relationships among the constructs, and how emotion regulation strategies are related
to cognitive predispositions (IPA) and emotional experiences (parent anger and guilt
proneness). The researcher explored these constructs within the mothers of toddlers
population derived from preschools and Facebook, a social media site. The researcher
examined four hypotheses in this study. The author used a Spearman correlational
analysis to examine the relationship between intensive parenting attitudes, emotion
regulation strategies, parent anger and guilt proneness. Additionally, the research
employed a one-way ANOVA to examine whether there were differences in intensive
parenting attitudes, emotion regulation, parent anger, and guilt proneness based on
religiosity and working status of mothers.
The present study expands upon the existing literature regarding mothers of
toddlers intensive parenting attitudes, emotion regulation and experiences of anger and
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guilt. In previous research, scholars have focused on IPA concerning parental
investment in a child, beliefs about maternal employment, and parents’ sense of
competence (Liss, Schiffrin, Mackintosh, Miles-McLean, & Erchull, 2013). ER was
studied in regards to lax discipline (Lorber, 2012) and parent anger was explored for
mothers of children up to 18 years old (Del Vecchio, Jablonka, DiGiuseppe, Notti, &
David, 2017), without a specific focus on the mothers of toddlers population.
Additionally, maternal guilt was studied qualitatively (Rotkirch, & Janhunen, 2010) or
quantitatively regarding self-discrepancy (Liss, Schiffrin, & Rizzo, 2012). Thus, the
current study expands on the existing research through the inclusion of a sample of
mothers of toddlers and investigating the relationship between cognitive and emotional
constructs.
Participants
The researcher analyzed responses from 122 participants. Regarding age, there
were 22 women (18.6%) in the 20 to 30 year old age range, 84 (71.2%) in the 31-40
group, and 12 (10.2%) in the 41-50 group. There were 59 (50.4%) participants that
reported being religious, 52 (44.4%) non-religious, and six (5.1%) that indicated “other”,
describing themselves as spiritual and not sure whether they were religious or not.
Additionally, 81 (68.6%) mothers were White, 8 (6.8%) Asian, 9 (7.6%) Black, two
(1.7%) Native American, 7 (5.9%) Hispanic/Latino, two (1.7%) European, and nine
(7.6%) chose “other” and did not specify their specific race.
Research Hypothesis One
In examining the relationship between intensive parenting attitudes (as measured
by IPAQ) with emotion regulation strategies (as measured by ERQ) the researcher
found a significant positive relationship between emotion suppression and IPA: child-
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centered and fulfillment attitudes. These results support the research hypothesis one.
Thus, the more mothers indicated being child-centered and finding child-rearing
fulfilling, the more they reported preferring emotion suppression as an emotion
regulation strategy.
Child-centeredness and Emotion Suppression
The child-rearing scale of the IPAQ is focused on prioritizing the needs of a child.
Child-centered mothers make sacrifices to ensure that their children are involved in
stimulating activities (Wall, 2010). Emotion suppression, in turn, is related to reducing
emotional behavioral responses by not showing what one feels when experiencing an
emotion that the person needs to regulate. People who suppress their feelings typically
experience decreased positive functioning, a negative affect, and adverse interpersonal
functioning (Gross & John, 2003; Wiltink et al., 2011). Scholars consider this strategy
response-focused (Gross, 2001), as it is employed after the emotion-evoking situation
occurred. The correlation between child-centeredness and emotion suppression
indicates that the sacrifice mothers of toddlers make for their children is related to
controlling negative emotions when communicating with their children. They believe that
children’s needs should come first and that children do not deserve to receive negative
emotional responses from their parents. However, sacrificing one’s needs may have a
negative effect on maternal well-being (Rizzo, Schiffrin, & Liss, 2012) leading to mental
health problems for mothers, such as depression and anxiety. Rizzo, Schiffrin and Liss,
found that believing that parents’ lives should be focused on children correlated with
lower levels of satisfaction with life. Additionally, child-centeredness relates to beliefs
about how a mother should think, leading to self-discrepancy between what is realistic
versus ideal behavior for mothers. Self-discrepancy between thoughts about being an
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ideal mother compared to actual maternal performance may lead a mother to over-
control her emotional expression because she feels anxious that she is not performing
her maternal role well enough if she shows a negative affect to her children.
Fulfillment and Emotion Suppression
The fulfillment scale focuses on beliefs about parenting being the most rewarding
thing a person can do, providing deep levels of satisfaction, and being central to how a
parent should define oneself. The fulfillment scale indicates the degree that women
experience delight in children, accept the parenting role, are sensitive about their
children’s needs, and have separation anxiety. The results for the relationship between
fulfillment and emotion suppression are not consistent with Rizzo, Schiffrin and Liss’
(2012) study where fulfillment was related to other intensive parenting attitudes (such as
challenging and essentialistic attitudes), associated with negative mental health
outcomes (such as low life satisfaction and higher levels of stress) but was not directly
related to those outcomes. The relationship between fulfillment and emotion
suppression may indicate that mothers suppress their emotional expression that is
coming from separation anxiety. This explanation refers to fulfillment scale of IPAQ
being correlated with separation anxiety. Thus, if a mother aligns with fulfillment
attitudes and in parallel suppresses her emotional expression, we may assume that she
doesn’t want her child to see that she is anxious to be apart. Separation anxiety is the
only known emotional experience that is tied to the fulfillment scale. It may be possible,
that other emotional experiences of mothers of toddlers may be also suppressed when
they hold fulfillment attitides. The relationship between mothers and toddlers
encompasses emotional contagion (Halberstadt, Beale, Meade, Craig, & Parker, 2015);
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therefore, mothers may try to suppress their anxiety so that their children’s separation
anxiety won’t increase.
Essentialism and Cognitive Reappraisal
In examining the relationship between intensive parenting attitudes (as measured
by IPAQ) with emotion regulation strategies (as measured by ERQ) the researcher also
found a significant negative relationship between essentialism and cognitive
reappraisal. These results support the research hypothesis one. Specifically, the results
revealed that the higher mothers scored in cognitive reappraisal, the less intense their
parenting attitudes were related to essentialism. Essentialism is a scale that describes
the perception of parenting as primarily the mothers’ responsibility, as people view them
as possessing inherent parenting skills. However, people view fathers as incompetent in
providing the appropriate level of childcare (Hays, 1996). Researchers have found a
connection between endorsing IPA and unequal distribution of household labor, with the
majority of women thinking that it is unfair to have unequal distribution of involvement
from mothers and fathers in the household and child-rearing activities (Claffey &
Manning 2010). Mothers who believe that women are more efficient in child-rearing
compared to men do not fully accept their parenting role, have frustration with parenting,
and wish their children were more independent (Rizzo, Schiffrin, & Liss, 2012).
Moreover, mothers who score high in essentialism tend to have low parenting
satisfaction (Rizzo, Schiffrin, & Liss, 2012).
The reappraisal strategy refers to modulating emotional experiences through
thinking differently about the situation (John & Gross, 2003). Reappraisal is an
antecedent-focused strategy, as people use it to alter the effect of an emotion-eliciting
event prior to full activation of an emotion (Gross, 2001). The negative relationship
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between essentialism and reappraisal indicates that mothers who endorse the idea of
being primary caregivers to their children are not prone to changing their thoughts in
situations that require emotion regulation. These mothers follow their essentialist
attitudes and do not consider a possibility for challenging their thoughts about parenting
in a stressful situation. For example, a mother may feel overwhelmed because she is
doing all the child-rearing work, but no matter how challenged she would be, she would
not think that her attitudes may be a part of the problem and she would not try to
change those attitudes. Reappraisal is associated with positive emotions like happiness,
life satisfaction, and a decrease in depression and anxiety (Lorber, 2012); however,
essentialism is related to higher levels of stress and lower levels of life satisfaction
(Rizzo, Schiffrin, Liss, 2012). Mothers with essentialist beliefs may reject social support
and be on their own in fulfilling parenting responsibilities, which may result in increased
levels of stress (Tummala-Narra 2009). Therefore, the negative relationship between
cognitive reappraisal that accounts for more positive functioning resonates with the fact
that mothers who endorse essentialism do not tend to use cognitive reappraisal much,
as essentialism beliefs are associated with a decrease in positive functioning. Future
research may focus on exploring ways that mothers with intense essentialist beliefs can
embed cognitive reappraisal ER strategy in their daily lives to decrease their stress
levels.
Research Hypothesis Two
Hypothesis two focused on an expected positive correlation between intensive
parenting attitudes (as measured by IPAQ) and parent anger (as measured by PAS).
The results supported hypothesis two, with expression of anger and experience of
anger both correlating with essentialism and challenging. Multiple regression analysis
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revealed that essentialism and challenging predicted experience, but not expression of
anger. The challenging scale of the IPAQ encompasses questions that describe
mothering as the most demanding and exhausting job in the world, with mothers not
getting any mental break from children. This implies that an effective other never has
time for herself. The challenging scale is related to frustration with mothering, as well as
delight and anxiety about children when a mother and a child are apart.
The current study is the first known study that focused on measuring the
relationship between IPA and parent anger. The finding that essentialism and
challenging predict parent anger experience shows that mothers who view parenting as
a challenging activity and also believe that only a mother can be an effective caregiver
experience frustration while taking care of their children. Scholars can explain this
frustration through the essence of challenging and essentialist beliefs of mothers. When
a mother is challenged by parenting, it means that it is not easy for her to fulfill her
responsibilities and she may be experiencing obstacles in taking care of her children.
These obstacles may be related to children’s misbehavior, not having enough time for
oneself, or being overwhelmed with household tasks. Additionally, researchers found
that “alignment with essentialist beliefs” was a predictor of higher levels of stress, and
that combined with “motherhood being a difficult task” may increase anger experiences.
However, expression of anger was not predicted by challenging and essentialism, but
only correlated with these scales.
Research Hypothesis Three
Hypothesis three was that intensive parenting attitudes (as measured by IPAQ)
correlates with guilt proneness (as measured by GP-5). The results revealed that guilt
proneness significantly correlated with the challenging IPAQ scale. These results
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partially support the research hypothesis three. Additionally, the researcher compared
the working mothers to those who stayed at home, and the correlation for the GP and
challenging scale increased significantly. These results are consistent with Hays (1996)
findings that working mothers felt pressured for not spending enough time with their
children and experienced guilt for not doing enough for their children. This result also
aligns with Livingston and Judge’s (2008) results with employed mothers where guilt
was associated with family-interfering-with-work.
In accordance with IPA, maternal employment takes time away from mothering
responsibilities and places the needs of mothers first, not considering the needs of
children. Working mothers may feel guilty for taking time away from their children and
not being the ideal caregivers (Walls, Helms, & Grzywacz, 2014). Guilt is concerning
because it is related to maternal depressive symptoms and decreased quality of life for
working mothers (Walls, Helms, & Grzywacz, 2014).
Research Hypothesis Four
Hypothesis four was that there is a relationship between parent anger (as
measured by PAS) and guilt proneness (as measured by GP-5). The results did not
reveal significant correlations between these constructs, thus the hypothesis was not
supported. The assumption about the relationship between parent anger and guilt was
based on Prikhidko and Swank’s (in review) findings that mothers reported feeling guilty
after they express anger toward their children and the need for emotion regulation
strategies. The researcher proposes three possible explanations for why this hypothesis
was not supported in this study. First, the guilt proneness results were negatively
skewed, which may be associated with social desirability. Additionally, the GP scale
was not specifically related to children and maternal anger. Therefore, a scale designed
86
specifically for this population may yield different results. Finally, mothers may have
wanted to justify their anger; and therefore the results on the anger scale may have also
been prone to social desirability.
The researcher also found that guilt proneness was correlated with cognitive
reappraisal; however, this correlation was positive. These results reveal that the higher
the GP of mothers of toddlers, the higher the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal. In
contrast, Mauss, Cook, Cheng, and Gross (2007) found that individuals who scored
high on reappraisal experienced less anger and negative emotions. Thus, the
researcher hypothesizes that the positive correlation in this study may indicate that
mothers used cognitive reappraisal to regulate their guilt through changing their thought
processes about mothering.
Research Hypothesis Five
In examining the relationship between intensive parenting attitudes (as measured
by IPAQ) and religiosity of the mother, the researcher also found that mothers differ in
their IPA based on their religiosity. These results partially support research hypothesis
five.
In examining IPA related to whether someone identified as being religious,
religious mothers were more child-centered, perceived parenting as more challenging
and fulfilling, and believed more that they should invest in their child development.
These results are consistent with Duncan’s (2016) findings that religious individuals use
religion as a mediator in their thinking processes. Religious mothers choose to exercise
divine inspiration. These mothers have a deep spiritual connection to the idea of
mothering, believe that children were sent to them by God, and view maternity as being
sacred. Additionally, religious practices, such as colloquial and meditative prayer, lead
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to higher levels of life satisfaction and happiness, and prefrontal cortical region activity
is connected to cognitive reappraisal (Urry, Roeser, Lazar, & Poey, 2011). We may
assume, that religious mothers may find emotional support in prayer when they are
challenged with their maternal responsibilities. Additionally, interactions with other
religious individuals may serve as an additional source of social support for these
women.
Research Hypothesis Six
In examining the relationship between intensive parenting attitudes (as measured
by IPAQ) and the work status of the mother, the researcher also found that mothers
differ in their IPA based on their work status. These results partially support research
hypothesis six.
The researcher analyzed the effect of work status (working full-time compared to
stay-at-home) on parent anger. The researcher found that work status had an effect on
anger expression. Specifically, the results suggested that when mothers stay-at-home
they tend to express more anger toward their children. The researcher hypothesizes
that mothers who stay-at-home may feeling more freedom in experiencing their negative
emotions toward their children because they do not have the guilt experienced by
working mothers. Therefore, they may feel that their anger is justified and doesn’t need
to be suppressed. Additionally, stay-at-home mothers may feel that they have less time
for themselves. Bean, Softas-Nall, Eberle, and Paul (2015) found that stay-at-home
mothers reported struggling with engaging in self-care, and instead put their needs last.
These mothers endorsed essientialistic attitudes, that are known for leading to
depression, and frustration, as mothers who believe that they are the only people who
can take appropriate care of their children do not get enough rest because they sacrifice
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own needs in order to fulfill the ideal behavior that aligns with the intensive parenting
attitudes.
Research Hypothesis Seven
In examining the relationship between parent anger (as measured by PAS),
based on the number of children, the researcher found a difference between mothers
with one and two children. These results support research hypothesis seven.
The researcher found a significant difference in parent anger based on the
mother’s number of children. Mothers who had only one child were less prone to
experience anger than mothers who had two children. Additionally, mothers who had
two children were more prone to expressing anger than mothers who had one child. The
researcher proposes that the increase in anger may be explained by the increase in
mothering responsibilities when a mother has more than one child. Taking care of two
children multiplies parenting responsibilities and diminishes self-care, leading to anger
expression. It is also possible that a mother of two children has to spend more time
engaging in conflict resolutions when children have an argument, leading to expression
of anger among mothers of toddlers.
Limitations
In regard to sampling, there was a lack of diversity in the sample with a majority
of mothers being White females and aligning with Christianity. Additionally,
approximately 40% of the participants were recruited from one preschool. The statistical
analyses were also limited due to violating the assumption of normality; and therefore,
the reader should interpret the findings with caution. Furthermore, the researcher
obtained all of the data through self-report; and therefore, the responses are related to
the participants perceptions about the constructs. Social desirability may have also
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influences the participants’ responses. Finally, in regard to instrumentation the GP scale
was not specifically related to children and maternal anger. Additionally, the results for
anger scales could also be prone to social desirability as mothers may not have wanted
to tell the truth about their anger experiences and expression to preserve an image of a
mother who follows IPA.
Implications for Research
The present study was the first known study to assess the relationships between
emotion regulation, intensive parenting attitudes, guilt proneness, and parent anger.
Therefore, this study provides a solid base for future research focused on intensive
parenting attitudes with emotion regulation, and experiences of a variety of emotions
that mothers experience when interacting with children and engaging them in emotional
socialization. Children learn how to regulate their emotions through identification with
their primary caregiver; therefore, it is pivotal for mothers to model well-balanced
emotion regulation. However, it may be challenging when a mother aligns with intensive
parenting attitudes. Therefore, future research studies may focus on exploring the
effectiveness of counseling interventions that link maternal emotion regulation,
children’s emotional socialization, and wellbeing and positive affect. This research may
involve examining the long-term effects through longitudinal studies.
Researchers may also seek to replicate the current study, while addressing some
of the sampling limitations, such as having a more diverse sample of participants.
Additionally, future research may focus on examining whether some of the demographic
variables (i.e., education level, age of children) are associated with endorsing IPA, and
the experiences of anger and guilt. Furthermore, researchers may want to examine
these variable among male participants. Che, Luo, Tong, Fitzgibbon, and Yang (2015)
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found that females tend to use emotional suppression less frequently than males. The
IPAQ was developed for both mothers and fathers; therefore, researchers may also
compare mothers and fathers based on how they relate to intensive parenting attitudes
and what emotion regulation strategies they employ to regulate emotions of anger,
anxiety, guilt, and sadness.
Researcher may also focus on further investigating mothers’ intensive parenting
attitudes and emotion regulation based on their work status. Researchers have revealed
that working mothers tend to experience more guilt than mothers who stay at home
(Korabik. 2015) However, less is known about the guilt experiences of stay-at-home
mothers. Additionally, future research may focus on comparing intensive parenting
attitudes among mothers of toddlers based on the number of children they have in
regards to the relationships between other negative emotions such as sadness, shame,
disgust, contempt, jealousy and envy that mothers experience toward their children and
a broader spectrum of emotion regulation strategies. In the current study, the
researcher examined only two ER strategies, and both were not specifically related to
parents. Thus, researchers may seek to develop and validate an instrument focused on
ER of a variety of emotions that parents experience.
Future research may also focus on identifying the factors that are associated with
a mother’s proneness to experiencing and expressing anger and the mental health
consequences for a mother who has a high level of experiencing and expressing anger
compared to individuals who are less prone to anger. Additionally, future research is
needed to explore if there is a significant linear relationship between anger expression
and intensive parenting attitudes.
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Instrument development is another area of research, specifically focused on measuring
GP among mothers. Finally, future research may focus on maternal burnout, which is a
serious problem in modern society, especially for mothers who endorse IPA.
Implications for Practice
This study showed that the majority of modern mothers who work full-time, as
well as those that stay-at-home, endorse intensive parenting attitudes. Additionally,
researchers have showed that IPA attitudes may be detrimental for the mental health of
a mother, leading to stress, depression, and anxiety (Rizzo, Schiffrin, & Liss, 2012).
One of the goals of the current study was to examine the relationship between intensive
parenting attitudes, emotion regulation, and experiences of anger and guilt, in order to
develop specific counseling interventions that may help mothers of toddlers explore IPA
related to negative mental health outcomes. Additionally, these interventions may help
mothers to better regulate their feelings, which in turn, may support appropriate
emotional socialization of their children who learn to regulate their emotions through
observation and identification with their caregiver.
The results of this study reveal the need for focusing on mothers’ intensive
parenting attitudes, in order to recognize how these attitudes may negatively affect their
wellbeing. The researcher found that emotional suppression, which is known to be
associated with negative emotionality and effect interpersonal communication, was
related to child-centeredness and fulfillment. Mothers scoring high in these areas agree
with statements that describe mothers as individuals who sacrifice time and energy in
order to provide their undivided attention to their children. It is concerning when the
scores are very high on these scales because when a mother is not investing in self-
care she may develop stress and emotional exhaustion (Claire, Parker, Zacher &
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Jimmieson, 2017). Bean, Softas-Nall, Eberle, and Paul (2015) recommended that
counselors help mothers to explore barriers to self-care and help them to develop
strategies to overcome these barriers. This may include the development of a self-care
plan for a mother by identifying the following factors: (a) intensive parenting attitudes,
(b) barriers to engage in self-care, (c) activities and practices that support wellbeing and
help to sustain long-term self-care. Counselor may use assessments in their work with
mothers, including administering the IPAQ, self-care assessments, and an assessment
measuring maternal burnout.
Shapiro, Brown and Biegel (2007) found that Mindfullness-Based Stress
Reduction (MBSR) was an effective way to teach caregivers to enhance self-care.
Specifically, the researchers found that MBSR was instrumental in increasing mindful
attention and awareness, which were related to decreasing perceived stress, anxiety,
and rumination, and increasing self-compassion. Although their research was focused
on mental health professionals, counselors can apply MBSR to mothers who are
devoting the majority of their time to taking care of their children. ER may include
mindfulness practices, that are tied to attentional deployment strategy in the Process
Model of ER (Gross, 2015),. Using MBSR in counseling mothers may also improve their
ER.
The current study also revealed that the higher mothers scored in cognitive
reappraisal, the less intense their parenting attitudes were related to essentialism.
Essentialism describes the perception of parenting as primarily the mothers’
responsibility, supporting the idea that only mothers possess inherent parenting skills.
However, cognitive reappraisal is proven to be an ER strategy that leads to positive
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mental health outcomes (Kivity, Tamir, Huppert, 2016). Therefore, counselors may
explore the essentialist beliefs of mothers of toddlers along with provide
psychoeducation on ER strategies that they could use to obtain a more balanced
perception of other family members’ capabilities to provide child care. Specifically,
counselors may explore with mothers the division of responsibilities in the household
and the development of internal family social support in balancing child-care among
family members.
Counselors can explore the presence of IPA with mothers using Cognitive-
Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approaches such as Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy
(REBT; Gavita, Digiuseppe, & David, 2013) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
(ACT). Within REBT, the mother can learn to view the ideals of IM as irrational beliefs
(IB) and address them using cognitive restructuring, while recognizing the factors that
activate IB. Additionally, exploration may lead to self-acceptance, which is known to
facilitate constructive ER. Kivity, Tamir and Huppert (2016) found that self-
acceptance may enhance well-being when integrated into CBT.
It is pivotal for mothers who hold strong essentialist beliefs and concurrently
experience challenges in child-rearing to develop self-acceptance as essentialist ideas
describe mothers as individuals who can do all the work (child-rearing and household)
by themselves. However, in reality, mothers may not be able to follow essentialist
ideals. Moreover, essentialism is associated with higher levels of stress and lower levels
of life satisfaction (Rizzo, Schiffrin, Liss, 2012), making mother reject social support
(Tummala-Narra 2009). Increasing self-acceptance can help mothers share child-
rearing responsibilities with other family members, opening possibilities for self-care that
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can reduce stress. Counselors can also use REBT as a family approach (Ellis, 1993) by
exploring the belief systems of family members and understanding the IPA of partners,
thus, supporting them in finding a balance among their IPA to enhance the division of
household labor and child-rearing responsibilities. Moreover, Bowenian Theory of
Differentiation (Brown, 1999) could be used by marriage and family counselors to
explore the anxiety in the family system related to intensive parenting attitudes. Thus,
counselors can help partners to increase their level of differentiation in situations when
one partner is more anxious to be a better parent, when subscribing to intensive
parenting attitudes, than the other parent. Additionally, in couples counseling
practitioners could rely on Gottman’s approach (Shapiro, Gottman, & Fink, 2015) to
develop better communication strategies in situations when partners disagree on the
division of child-rearing responsibilities, so that mothers could change their essentiatistic
beliefs in order to receive emotional and social support from their partners. Theraplay
(Booth, & Winstead, 2015) could be an asset in counseling practice to strengthen the
bond between mothers and children, when mothers feel extensive guilt for not providing
enough time and energy for their children.
The results of the present study showed that guilt proneness was associated with
challenging intensive parenting scale, specifically for working mothers who believed that
they were not doing enough for their children. Counselors could help working mothers to
cope with guilt by exploring what a mother believes she should do, so that mothers can
develop awareness of the beliefs that influence their self-concept. This may occur in
counseling through the integration of cognitive restructuring, with the primary goal
focused on self-acceptance. Parental self-acceptance also influences acceptance of
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children (Gavita, Joyce, & David, 2011), providing a healthy environment for children’s
emotional socialization. In turn, self-acceptance reduces guilt and may lessen anger
directed toward children. Gavita et al. (2013) recommend using specific interventions to
increase self-acceptance: (a) cognitive techniques (i.e., rational-emotive imagery,
repetition of rational self-statements, metaphors, humor); and (b) behavioral techniques
(i.e., cognitive-behavioral rehearsal, homework).
Working mothers, who experience guilt for not devoting enough time to their
children and struggling with following the intensive parenting ideals, may benefit from
exploring them. In particular, they can decipher values from goals and decide on what
they aim for in raising their children. ACT may be instrumental in increasing mothers’
psychological flexibility by showing how particular behaviors may be workable and lead
to vitality, while others can be detrimental and lead to suffering (Harris, 2009). Using
ACT, a counselor may ask the mother to think about the situation from her values
standpoint, considering the following (a) what does it mean for her to see her child
happy, (b) what personal strengths does she want to cultivate in her child, and (c) what
does the child’s happiness reveal about herself as a mother. After exploring these
questions, the counselor and mother discuss actions to address the situation and
reduce guilt (Prikhidko & Swank, under review). Additionally, the main focus of ACT is
the need for defusion in order to obtain life satisfaction. Mothers can defuse through
detaching from intensive parenting attitudes in exploring their beliefs that evoke guilt.
The results of the current study revealed that expression and experience of
anger both correlated with the essentialism and challenging IPAQ scales. According to
the study, stay-at-home mothers expressed more anger toward their children than
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mothers who worked full-time. ER of anger is necessary for mothers, as expressing
anger without control may be detrimental for children’s wellbeing. Dialectical-behavioral
therapy (DBT) provides an array of ER strategies to control anger (Chapman & Gratz,
2015). In particular, mothers of toddlers may benefit from (a) identifying and
understanding their anger, along with feelings and thoughts that lead to it through
recognizing signs of anger, and learning about the phenomenology of one’s own anger;
(b) reducing the vulnerability to anger through improving self-care and employing
activities that would support maternal self-acceptance and self-confidence. The
counselor may use these interventions, described above, through individual and family
counseling, as well as in psychoeducational programs for mothers of toddlers, provided
through a face-to-face or online format. Counselor educators could include information
on emotion regulation as a part of the curriculum when teaching both mental health and
marriage and family counselors to explore the constructive potential of cognitive
reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy with parents who struggle with intensive
parenting attitudes that contradict their behavior.
Conclusion
The present study was the first known quantitative study that examined the
relationship between IPA, ER, and experiences of anger. Additionally, the researcher
addressed a gap in researcher related to examining the association between parent
anger and IPA. The examination of the research hypotheses yielded useful results that
serve as a basis for implications for research and practice. The findings parallel the
work of Rizzo, Schiffrin and Liss (2012) who showed that aligning with IPA leads to
lower levels of satisfaction with life and overall decrease in well-being. Additionally, the
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findings correspond with research on ER, bridging suppression and IPA, and revealing
that cognitive reappraisal may be a coping mechanism for addressing guilt.
Based on the findings from the present study, mothers of toddlers endorse IPA,
prioritize their children’s needs, and believe that parenting is demanding, especially
when a mother aligns with essentialist beliefs and is focused on her children, sacrificing
her own life to provide good care. Additionally, mothers’ experiences of anger were
predicted by essentialism and challenging beliefs about parenting, adding to the body of
literature that highlights the detrimental effects of IPA on maternal wellbeing.
Richardson, Rice, and Devine (2014) showed that emotion suppression is related to
perfectionism, neuroticism, and a more acute chronic stress pattern, when an individual
believes that one does not live up to social expectations In the present study,
suppression correlated with prescribed child-centered attitudes. However, agreement on
idealistic and realist actions may not be similar, leading to self-discrepancy between an
ideal and real maternal performance, concluding in suppressing one’s feeling about not
being a good enough mother.
Suppression is perceived as being related to anger, and most often employed in
downregulating negative emotions. However, the use of suppression in anger regulation
may lead to negative consequences for communication (Martini & Busseri, 2012). In
contrast, cognitive reappraisal is perceived as an ER strategy that leads to positive
affect and increased wellbeing. In this study, cognitive reappraisal negatively correlated
with experience and expression of anger, along with essentialism. Mothers who
experience and express parent anger do not engage in cognitive reappraisal and
believe that they are the only parent who can take appropriate care of their children.
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Thus, psychoeducational programs on ER for mothers of toddlers may potentially aid in
changing anger regulation, making it more effective including cognitive reappraisal in
the ER process.
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APPENDIX A INTENSIVE PARENTING ATTITUDES QUESTIONNAIRE (IPAQ)
1. Both fathers and mothers are equally able to care for children 2. Although fathers may mean well, they generally are not as good at parenting
as mothers 3. Parents should begin providing intellectual stimulation for their children
prenatally, such as reading to them or playing classical music 4. Although fathers are important, ultimately children need mothers more 5. Parents never get a mental break from their children, even when they are
physically apart 6. Ultimately, it is the mother who is responsible for how her child turns out 7. Being a parent brings a person the greatest joy he or she can possibly
experience 8. Parenting is exhausting 9. It is important for children to be involved in classes, lessons, and activities
that engage and stimulate them 10. Parenting is not the most rewarding thing a person can do 11. The child’s schedule should take priority over the needs of the parent’s 12. Men do not recognize that raising children is difficult and requires skills and
training 13. Child rearing is the most demanding job in the world 14. Holding his or her baby should provide a parent with the deepest level of
satisfaction 15. Being a parent means never having time for oneself 16. Women are not necessarily better parents than men 17. Men do not naturally know what to do with children 18. A parent should feel complete when he or she looks in the eyes of his or her
infant 19. Children should be the center of attention 20. Men are unable to care for children unless they are given specific instructions about what to do 21. Finding the best educational opportunities for children is important as early as preschool 22. It is harder to be a good parent than to be a corporate executive 23. To be an effective parent, a person must possess wide ranging skills 24. Children’s needs should come before their parents 25. It is important to interact regularly with children on their level (e.g. getting down on the floor and playing with them) Scale Coding Items are presented on a scale from 1 = (strongly disagree) to 6 = (strongly agree). Essentialism: 1(r), 2, 4, 6, 12, 16(r), 17, 20 Fulfillment: 7, 10(r), 14, 18 Stimulation: 3, 9, 21, 25 Challenging: 5, 8, 13, 15, 22, 23 Child-Centered: 11, 19, 24
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APPENDIX B PARENT ANGER SCALE
Instructions: At one time or another, most parents feel angry. For each of the following items, circle the response that best describes you, using scale from 0 to 6: 0 – never or not at all; 1 – less than once a month; 2 – about once a month; 3 – about once a week; 4 – several days a week; 5 – every day; 6 – several times a day
1. Even though I hold it in and do not show it I get angry with my child
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
2. I get angry and break or throw away some of my child things
3. I get angry and can’t stop thinking about the way my child behaved
4. I get angry and have a problem controlling my behavior toward my child
5. I get angry with my child
6. I get angry with my child and I spank, slap or hit my child
7. I get angry with my child and throw things, slam doors or bang the table
8. I get so angry with my child that I cannot control my behavior
9. I get so angry with my child that I do not do things that I know my child wants me to do
10. I get so angry with my child that I feel my blood boil
11. I get so angry with my child that I feel my muscles get tight
12. I get so angry with my child that I grab or push my child
13. I get so angry with my child that I just want to make the tension go away
14. I get so angry with my child that I say mean things, use bad language, curse or insult my child
15. I get so angry with my child that I scream or yell at my child
16. I lose control of my anger with my child
17. I resent the time and energy I put into parenting
18. I think my anger with my child is justified because of the way my child behaves
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19. I think that I have a harder job being a parent than other people
20. I think that my child deserves to be punished for misbehaving
21. I use my anger to get my child to behave
22. When I feel angry with my child, I boil inside, don’t show it, and keep things inside of me
23. When I get angry with my child, I tell relatives and friends so they will know how bad my child has behaved
24. I lose my temper with my child about: 1 almost nothing 2 only one thing 3 two or three things 4 several things 5 many things 6 almost everything 25. When I get angry with my child, I stay angry for: 1 only a few minutes 2 less than 1 h 3 about 1–2 h 4 several hours 5 about 1–2 days 6 several days 26. On average, how angry do you get at your child? 1 not at all angry 2 somewhat angry 3 mildly angry 4 moderately angry 5 very angry 6 extremely angry
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APPENDIX C GUILT PRONENESS SCALE
Five-Item Guilt Proneness Scale (GP-5) Instructions: In this questionnaire, you will read about five situations that people could encounter in day-to-day life, followed by reactions to those situations. As you read each scenario, try to imagine yourself in that situation. Then indicate the likelihood that you would react in the way described.
1 2 3 4 5
Extremely Unlikely
Unlikely About 50% Likely
Likely Extremely Likely
(1) After realizing you have received too much change at a store, you decide to
keep it because the salesclerk doesn't notice. What is the likelihood that you would feel uncomfortable about keeping the money?
(2) You secretly commit a felony. What is the likelihood that you would feel remorse about breaking the law?
(3) At a coworker’s housewarming party, you spill red wine on their new cream-colored carpet. You cover the stain with a chair so that nobody notices your mess. What is the likelihood that you would feel that the way you acted was pathetic?
(4) You lie to people but they never find out about it. What is the likelihood that you would feel terrible about the lies you told?
(5) Out of frustration, you break the photocopier at work. Nobody is around and you leave without telling anyone. What is the likelihood you would feel bad about the way you acted?
SCORING: The scale is scored by summing or averaging the items *The first four items in the GP-5 scale were originally published in: Cohen, T. R., Wolf, S. T., Panter, A. T., & Insko, C. A. (2011). Introducing the GASP scale: A new measure of guilt and shame proneness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(5), 947-966. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0022641
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APPENDIX D REVISED NINE-ITEM EMOTION REGULATION QUESTIONNAIRE
Instructions and Items. We would like to ask you some questions about your emotional life, in particular, how you control (that is, regulate and manage) your emotions. The questions below involve two distinct aspects of your emotional life. One is your emotional experience, or what you feel like inside. The other is your emotional expression, or how you show your emotions in the way you talk, gesture, or behave. Although some of the following questions may seem similar to one another, they differ in important ways. For each item, please answer using the following scale:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Strongly disagree
Disagree Disagree somewhat
Undecided Agree somewhat
Agree Strongly agree
(1) When I want to feel more positive (such as joy or amusement), I change what I’m
thinking about.
(2) I keep my emotions to myself. (3) When I am feeling positive emotions, I am careful not to express them. (4) When I’m faced with a stressful situation, I make myself think about it in a way
that helps me calm down.
(5) I control my emotions by not expressing them. (6) When I want to feel more positive emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about
the situation. (7) I control my emotions by changing the way I think about the situation I’m in. (8) When I am feeling negative emotions, I make sure not to express them. (9) When I want to feel less negative emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about
the situation. Scoring (no reversals)
Reappraisal Items: 1, 4, 6, 7, 9; Suppression Items: 2, 5, 8.
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APPENDIX E DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE
Instructions: Thank you for agreeing to participate in this study related to
experiences of mothers of toddlers. The purpose of this questionnaire is to gather
information about you to help the researcher better understand and conceptualize your
responses. Please fill these questions out to the best of your ability.
For the following questions, please choose one answer:
1. Please, tell what is your age? _______
2. Please, tell, do you identify as working or stay-at-home mother?
- working
- stay-at-home
2. Please, tell, what is your race/ethnicity? __________________________
3. Please, tell, what gender do you identify with? _____________________
4. Please tell, are you religious?
- Yes
- No
5. Please, tell, what religion do you identify with?_____________________
4. How many children do you have?
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4 and more
5. What relationship are you currently in with the child’s father or mother?
_______________________________________
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APPENDIX F IRB PROTOCOL
Behavioral/NonMedical Institutional Review
Board
FWA00005790
PO Box 112250
Gainesville FL 32611-2250
Telephone: (352) 392−0433
Facsimile: (352) 392−9234
Email: [email protected]
DATE: 10/9/2017 TO: Alena Prikhidko
PO BOX 117049
GAINESVILLE , Florida 326117049
FROM: Ira Fischler, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus
Chair IRB-02
IRB#: IRB201702505 TITLE: Emotion Regulation Among Mothers of Toddlers in the Context of Intensive
Mothering
Approved as Exempt
You have received IRB approval to conduct the above-listed research project. Approval of this project was granted on 10/9/2017 by IRB-02. This study is approved as exempt
because it poses minimal risk and is approved under the following exempt category/categories:
2. Research involving the use of educational tests (cognitive,
diagnostic, aptitude, achievement), survey or interview
procedures, or the observation of public behavior, so long as
confidentiality is maintained. If both of the following are true,
exempt status can not be granted: (a) Information obtained is recorded in such a manner that the subject can be identified,
directly or through identifiers linked to the subject, and (b)
Subject’s responses, if known outside the research, could
reasonably place the subject at risk of criminal or civil liability or
be damaging to the subject’s financial standing or employability
or reputation.
Special notes to Investigator (if applicable):
In the myIRB system, Exempt approved studies will not have an approval stamp on the consents, flyers, emails, etc. However, the documents reviewed are the
ones that should be used. So, under ATTACHMENTS you should find the document that has been reviewed and approved. If you need to modify the
document(s) in any manner, then you'd need to submit to our office for review and approval prior to implementation.
Principal Investigator Responsibilities:
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The PI is responsible for the conduct of the study. Important
responsibilities described at the above link include:
• Using currently approved consent form to enroll subjects (if
applicable)
• Renewing your study before expiration• Obtaining approval for revisions before implementation
• Reporting Adverse Events
• Retention of Research Records
• Obtaining approval to conduct research at the VA
• Notifying other parties about this project’s approval status
Should the nature of the study change or you need to revise the protocol in any manner
please contact this office prior to implementation.
Study Team:
Jacqueline Swank Co-Investigator
The Foundation for The Gator NationAn Equal Opportunity Institution
Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s),
and may contain legally privileged or confidential information. Any other distribution, copying, or disclosure is strictly
prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and destroy this message immediately.
Unauthorized access to confidential information is subject to federal and state laws and could result in personal liability,
fines, and imprisonment. Thank you.
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APPENDIX G INFORMED CONSENT
IRB # 201702505
Informed Consent
Protocol Title: Emotion Regulation Among Mothers of Toddlers in the Context of
Intensive Mothering
Please read this consent document carefully before you decide to
participate in this study.
Purpose of the research study:
The purpose of the study is to explore your thoughts and feeling about
motherhood, including traditional and contemporary roles of mothers and ways mothers
should take care of their emotions.
What you will be asked to do in the study:
You will be asked to participate in an survey that will take approximately 30-40
minutes. You will also be asked to fill a demographic questionnaire.
Time required:
30-40 minutes.
Risks and Benefits:
There are no known risks of participating in this study. You may benefit from the
study by raising your awareness about motherhood and your own actions. Counselors
may benefit from this study by enhancing their knowledge of mothers’ emotions and
thoughts toward motherhood. This understanding may lead to improvements in
developing new strategies in counseling this population.
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Compensation:
You will receive free webinar on emotion regulation for mothers of toddlers as an
incentive for participating in this study. You will find the link to the webinar at the end of
the survey.
Confidentiality: Your identity will be kept confidential to the extent provided by
law. The responses will be recorded anonymously. The information on the demographic
questionnaire will be compiled with the other participants’ information and will not be
associated with you.
Voluntary participation:
Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. There is no penalty for not
participating.
Right to withdraw from the study:
You have the right to withdraw from the study at anytime without consequence.
Whom to contact if you have questions about the study:
Alena Prikhidko, Doctoral Student University of Florida, School of Human
Development and Organizational Studies in Education, 1215 Norman Hall, PO Box
117046, Gainesville, FL 32611; phone: (352) 575-6129; email: [email protected]
Supervising faculty member: Dr. Jacqueline Swank, Assistant Professor,
University of Florida, School of Human Development and Organizational Studies in
Education, 1215 Norman Hall, PO Box 117046, Gainesville, FL 32611: phone (352)
273-4326; e-mail: [email protected]
Whom to contact about your rights as a research participant in the study:
109
IRB02 Office, Box 112250, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-2250;
phone 392-0433.
Agreement:
I have read the procedure described above. I voluntarily agree to participate in
the procedure.
I agree to participate______
I disagree to participate____
110
APPENDIX H LETTER TO PRINCIPALS
A Letter to the Preschool Principal
Dear Mrs./Mr._________________
I am a doctoral student at the University of Florida. And I am a mother of a child,
who had recently been a toddler. I am sure you know better than me how difficult it is
sometimes for mothers to juggle all their responsibilities and how easy it is to get tired
and upset with your toddler, when he or she throws a tantrum or misbehaves in any
fashion. I am a specialist in emotion regulation and currently I am doing a research on
emotion regulation among mothers of toddlers! I am giving all my study participants free
webinar on emotion regulation, which mothers love and say it helped them a lot! So I
was wondering if you could help me to help mothers asking them to participate in my
study! It will take approximately 15 minutes, but as an incentive they will receive
invaluable knowledge on emotion regulation, which will not only help them, but in the
long run will help their children! As mothers show an example of emotional self-control
and children socialize emotionally through observing their mothers behavior!
I will be waiting for your response.
Let’s help mother together!
Have a Wonderful Day,
Alena Prikhidko
Doctoral Candidate,
Teaching Assistant, College of Education
University of Florida
111
APPENDIX I LETTER TO PARTICIPANTS
Dear____________!
I am a mother of a child, who had recently been a toddler. I am sure you know
better than me how difficult it is sometimes for mothers – us - to juggle all the
responsibilities and how easy it is to get tired and upset with your toddler, when he or
she throws a tantrum or misbehaves in any fashion. I am a specialist in emotion
regulation and currently I am doing a research on emotion regulation among mothers of
toddlers! I am giving all my study participants free webinar on emotion regulation, which
mothers love and say it helped them a lot. So I was wondering if you could help me to
help all of us and participate in my study. It will take approximately 15 minutes, but as
an incentive you will receive invaluable knowledge on emotion regulation, which will not
only help you, but in the long run will help your children. As mothers show an example
of emotional self-control and children socialize emotionally through observing our
behavior.
I will be waiting for your response!
Have a Wonderful Day,
Alena Prikhidko
Doctoral Candidate,
Teaching Assistant, College of Education
University of Florida
112
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Alena Prikhidko is from Moscow, Russia. She graduated with a doctoral degree
in the College of Education at the University of Florida, and specializes in Marriage and
Family Counseling. Her research interests include emotion regulation, emotion
socialization, ethics in counseling, and counselor development. Alena is involved in
leadership within the Florida Counseling Association and actively promotes ethical
counseling practice in her home country of Russia. With the support of her Russian
colleagues, she has launched a social movement against violence towards children and
women.