Abstract
This study examined whether the mechanism linking changes in Mexican-origin adolescent mothers’ depressive symptoms to children’s subsequent self-regulation and academic readiness was via their emotion scaffolding when their children were 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of age. Data included home interviews with adolescent mothers (N = 204), observations of mother–child interactions during a task that challenged children’s abilities to manage their emotional arousal, and assessments of children’s performance on measures of self-regulation and academic readiness. Adolescent mothers’ higher depressive symptoms at child age 2 years were associated with a greater decline in mothers’ emotion scaffolding from child age 2 to 5 years, which was subsequently linked to children’s lower self-regulation and academic readiness at age 5. Possible implications from this line of work for adolescent mothers and their children are discussed.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2040-2054 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Developmental psychology |
Volume | 56 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- emotion regulation
- parent–child interaction
- scaffolding
- self-regulation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Demography
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Life-span and Life-course Studies