Emotion regulation in parenthood

“…development of emotion regulation in children (Eisenberg & Morris, 2002), there is an emerging consensus that the family, and parents in particular, shape this critical faculty (Bariola et al., 2012; Bridges et al., 2004; Kopp, 1989; Thompson, 1994; Zeman, Cassano, Perry-Parrish, & Stegall, 2006).”

“pressed mothers behaved differently compared with the children of non-depressed mothers during a mood induction task could be considered indicative of modeling (Morris et al., 2007; Silk et al., 2006), there are also shared genetics between those children and their mothers.”

“Mindfulness, which overlaps to some extent with both executive function and mentalization, is also gaining recognition as a construct relevant to emotion regulation (e.g., Hölzel et al., 2011; Menezes et al., 2013).”

“Difficulties with emotion regulation are thought to be central to a number of clinical disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder (Etkin, Prater, Hoeft, Menon, & Schatzberg, 2010), depression (Gross & Muñoz, 1995), and substance use and abuse (Li & Sinha, 2008).”

“Executive functions include set shifting, inhibitory control, and working memory, and while they may be grouped together in assessments and presumed related, it is also important to recognize their distinctiveness in cognition and behavior (Friedman et al., 2008).”

“Emotion regulation may influence every aspect of functioning, including mental and physical health, and the relationships that are formed and maintained with others (Koole, 2009).”

“…development of emotion regulation in children (Eisenberg & Morris, 2002), there is an emerging consensus that the family, and parents in particular, shape this critical faculty (Bariola et al., 2012; Bridges et al., 2004; Kopp, 1989; Thompson, 1994; Zeman, Cassano, Perry-Parrish, & Stegall, 2006).”

“Maternal sensitivity is believed critical in the development of an infant’s attachment security, which has lasting consequences for the child’s health and wellbeing (Ainsworth, 1979).”

“Working memory reflects a person’s ability to attend to and hold in the mind information relevant for goal-directed activity (D’Esposito, 2007).”

“Parents are believed to socialize their child’s emotion regulation through both direct and indirect methods – which may vary dependent upon the child’s neurobiological, social and cognitive stages of development (Zeman et al., 2006).”

“Minding the Baby (MTB) is one example of a mentalization-based intervention for parents (Slade et al., 2005).”

“…that the childbearing years, as well as the event of childbirth itself, are related to increased incidence of mood disorders, especially for women (Weissman et al., 1993), and that psychiatric disorders are common during pregnancy as well as the postpartum period (Yonkers, Vigod, & Ross, 2011).”

“…genetically-informed designs may also be valuable in understanding how characteristics of the child placed for adoption may evoke certain responses in the adoptive parent, building on the proposed bi-directionality between parent and child in shaping socio-emotional functioning (Patterson, 2002).”

“Similarly, heightened prefrontal, temporal and subcortical (amygdala, striatum) activation to their infant’s cry has been found in mothers who had a vaginal delivery (as opposed to caesarian) and/or who breastfed their infants (as opposed to formula feeding; Kim et al., 2011; Swain et al., 2008).”

“An initial functional imaging study examined the neural response to unfamiliar infant cries and laughter in parents and non-parents (Seifritz et al., 2003).”

“This hormonal change may help sensitize new parents to infant emotion cues; indeed, oxytocin appears to enhance neural responding to infant stimuli among both parents and non-parents (Atzil, Hendler, & Feldman, 2011; Atzil, Hendler, Zagoory-Sharon, Winetraub, & Feldman, 2012; Riem et al., 2011), with oxytocin-related…”

“While there is some evidence to suggest that there is a genetic component to the development of emotion regulation in children (Eisenberg & Morris, 2002), there is an emerging consensus that the family, and parents in particular, shape this critical faculty (Bariola et al., 2012; Bridges et al.,…”

“…of stress – particularly the interpersonal stress associated with changing romantic relationship roles and parenting an infant – mothers lower their chances of depression during the perinatal period and associated costs to infant development (Brummelte & Galea, 2010; Duncan & Bardacke, 2010).”

“, reporting greater parental distress and/or less positive infant-directed feelings – have shown reduced midbrain volume and activation in the amygdala, striatum, and orbitofrontal cortex while viewing their infant’s emotional faces or videos of their own infant (Barrett et al., 2012; Kim et al., 2010; Noriuchi et al.…”

“…to a control group of families receiving care as usual in their community, younger mothers enrolled in MTB had less disrupted interactions with their infant at 4 months, and across all mothers, children of mothers in MTB had higher rates of secure attachment at 24 months (Sadler et al., 2013).”

“…development of emotion regulation in children (Eisenberg & Morris, 2002), there is an emerging consensus that the family, and parents in particular, shape this critical faculty (Bariola et al., 2012; Bridges et al., 2004; Kopp, 1989; Thompson, 1994; Zeman, Cassano, Perry-Parrish, & Stegall, 2006).”

“…that children of depressed mothers behaved differently compared with the children of non-depressed mothers during a mood induction task could be considered indicative of modeling (Morris et al., 2007; Silk et al., 2006), there are also shared genetics between those children and their mothers.”

“In keeping with this distinction, the bulk of evidence for neurobiological growth relates to the onset of motherhood (Rutherford & Mayes, 2011; Swain, 2011).”

“…is suggested by studies relating maternal and paternal observed sensitivity during parent–infant interaction to differential prefrontal and subcortical (nucleus accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus) activation to infant cues (Atzil et al., 2012; Kuo et al., 2012; Musser, Kaiser-Laurent, & Ablow, 2012).”

“Furthermore, the finding that mothers’ neural activation to infant cry predicted their infant’s attachment security (Laurent & Ablow, 2012b) suggests this neurobehavioral tuning process may be decisive for not only the parent’s regulation, but also that of their child.”

“These interventions have shown positive outcomes for the women enrolled (Suchman et al., 2010).”

“…of stress – particularly the interpersonal stress associated with changing romantic relationship roles and parenting an infant – mothers lower their chances of depression during the perinatal period and associated costs to infant development (Brummelte & Galea, 2010; Duncan & Bardacke, 2010).”

“For instance, postpartum depression (Murray & Cooper, 1996; Waxler, Thelen, & Muzik, 2011) and maternal substance use (Cash & Wilke, 2003) are each associated with poorer outcomes in offspring.”

“Similarly, heightened prefrontal, temporal and subcortical (amygdala, striatum) activation to their infant’s cry has been found in mothers who had a vaginal delivery (as opposed to caesarian) and/or who breastfed their infants (as opposed to formula feeding; Kim et al., 2011; Swain et al., 2008).”

“Maliken and Katz (2013) have proposed that there would be value in adopting a transdiagnostic approach to parental psychopathology and the development of parenting interventions, focusing on improving emotion regulation in parental samples.”

“This would be particularly noteworthy where more ecologically valid parent–child tasks could be employed (e.g., Deater-Deckard et al., 2010).”

“…distress and/or less positive infant-directed feelings – have shown reduced midbrain volume and activation in the amygdala, striatum, and orbitofrontal cortex while viewing their infant’s emotional faces or videos of their own infant (Barrett et al., 2012; Kim et al., 2010; Noriuchi et al., 2008).”

“For instance, both mothers and fathers report increased preoccupation in their thoughts relating to their developing child shortly before birth, which remain elevated into the postpartum period and is thought to depend on evolutionarily conserved neurohormonal patterns (see Leckman et al., 2004).”

“…development of emotion regulation in children (Eisenberg & Morris, 2002), there is an emerging consensus that the family, and parents in particular, shape this critical faculty (Bariola et al., 2012; Bridges et al., 2004; Kopp, 1989; Thompson, 1994; Zeman, Cassano, Perry-Parrish, & Stegall, 2006).”

“…reported positive early parental care showed greater gray matter volume and activation to their infant’s cry in prefrontal and temporal areas (Kim et al., 2010), and those with secure attachment representations activated more to their infant’s smiling/crying faces in the striatum and…”

“From a neurobiological perspective, mothers with postpartum depression (Laurent & Ablow, 2012a) as well as substance use (Landi et al., 2011), show an attenuated neural response to infant cues, relative to healthy controls.”

“Although there is some evidence that attachment between mother and child may begin during pregnancy (Condon, 1993; Mikulincer & Florian, 1999), attachment is mainly understood and examined during childhood.”

“…in turn, help to protect against (or at least minimize the negative effects of) parental mood disorder, in line with the finding that mothers with perinatal depression showed lasting deficits in prefrontal, ACC, and striatal responses to their infant’s emotion cues (Laurent & Ablow, 2012a, 2013).”

“…is suggested by studies relating maternal and paternal observed sensitivity during parent–infant interaction to differential prefrontal and subcortical (nucleus accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus) activation to infant cues (Atzil et al., 2012; Kuo et al., 2012; Musser, Kaiser-Laurent, & Ablow, 2012).”

“Furthermore, the finding that mothers’ neural activation to infant cry predicted their infant’s attachment security (Laurent & Ablow, 2012b) suggests this neurobehavioral tuning process may be decisive for not only the parent’s regulation, but also that of their child.”

“One study presented mothers and non-mothers a crying infant manikin that they had to soothe either by deducing that the infant was hungry or by finding the source of the infant’s physical pain (Gustafson & Harris, 1990).”

“For instance, postpartum depression (Murray & Cooper, 1996; Waxler, Thelen, & Muzik, 2011) and maternal substance use (Cash & Wilke, 2003) are each associated with poorer outcomes in offspring.”

“While there is likely normative variability in the detection and emotional responding to infant affective cues, at the extreme ends these differences may underlie distorted or impaired responding to infant cues (Rodrigo et al., 2011).”

“Employing the adoption design, one study assessed adoptive parents’ requests to their children during a cleanup task as a measure of structured parenting (Leve et al., 2009).”

“…environment may have more impact on children of certain genotypes compared with another, and also an evoked interaction in which certain genetically-driven behaviors on the part of the child evoke responses from the parent, or in this case, the adoptive parent (Horwitz & Neiderhiser, 2011).”

“For instance, recent interest has focused on the notion that while there are declines in sensory and cognitive domains, elderly adults seem to report higher levels of well-being than younger adults (Suri & Gross, 2012).”

“Mindfulness, which overlaps to some extent with both executive function and mentalization, is also gaining recognition as a construct relevant to emotion regulation (e.g., Hölzel et al., 2011; Menezes et al., 2013).”

“A similar gene–environment interaction has been reported in which birth mother depression symptoms (genetic risk) moderated the effect of adoptive mother responsiveness to predict the child’s level of fussiness (Natsuaki et al., 2010).”

“…and the emotional climate the child is exposed to, but the role the child plays in shaping parental emotion regulation is also necessary to consider as suggested by evocative gene– environment studies (Elam et al., 2014) and cyclical patterns of behavior across generations (Patterson, 2002).”

“These findings converge with other studies that report heightened sensitivity to infant affect in mothers relative to non-mothers more generally (Nishitani, Doi, Koyama, & Shinohara, 2011; Purhonen et al., 2001).”

“…consider child effects on parents alongside parent effects on children by, for example, investigating how children’s dysregulated or otherwise disruptive and unsettling behaviors have effects on parents’ developing capacity for emotion regulation (Bridgett et al., 2015; Rutherford et al., 2015).”