TY - JOUR
T1 - Maternal Emotions During Mother-Toddler Interaction
T2 - Parenting in Affective Context
AU - Martin, Sarah E.
AU - Clements, Mari L.
AU - Crnic, Keith A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the mothers and children who participated in this study. We thank Susan Dickstein for her helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. This research was funded by a grant from the Research and Graduate Studies Office of the College of the Liberal Arts, The Pennsylvania State University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2002, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2002/5/1
Y1 - 2002/5/1
N2 - Objective. This study explored the emotional experiences of mothers in interacting with their 2-year-old children and examined interrelations among maternal emotion, family distress, and observations of parenting sensitivity. Design. Sixty mothers and their 2-year-old children were observed interacting during both enjoyable (free play) and challenging (waiting) interaction tasks, and mothers provided self-report information about their emotional experiences during each task. Mothers also completed self-report measures to assess family distress. Results. Mothers experienced and expressed a range of positive and negative emotions during interactions with their toddlers, however, mothers' expressed (observed) and experienced (self-reported) emotions were generally uncorrelated. Mothers reported experiencing more positive emotion during interactions characterized by less child negativity and less negative emotion during interactions characterized by child expressions of positive emotion. Mothers' self-reported emotional experiences during interactions with their children moderated the associations between family distress (as reported by mothers) and sensitive parenting behaviors (as observed during parent-child interaction). Conclusions. Findings support a conceptualization of parenting as multiply determined by child, parent, and family contextual factors, with emotion serving an integral role. Results are also discussed with regard to parenting emotion as a potential target for intervention in distressed families.
AB - Objective. This study explored the emotional experiences of mothers in interacting with their 2-year-old children and examined interrelations among maternal emotion, family distress, and observations of parenting sensitivity. Design. Sixty mothers and their 2-year-old children were observed interacting during both enjoyable (free play) and challenging (waiting) interaction tasks, and mothers provided self-report information about their emotional experiences during each task. Mothers also completed self-report measures to assess family distress. Results. Mothers experienced and expressed a range of positive and negative emotions during interactions with their toddlers, however, mothers' expressed (observed) and experienced (self-reported) emotions were generally uncorrelated. Mothers reported experiencing more positive emotion during interactions characterized by less child negativity and less negative emotion during interactions characterized by child expressions of positive emotion. Mothers' self-reported emotional experiences during interactions with their children moderated the associations between family distress (as reported by mothers) and sensitive parenting behaviors (as observed during parent-child interaction). Conclusions. Findings support a conceptualization of parenting as multiply determined by child, parent, and family contextual factors, with emotion serving an integral role. Results are also discussed with regard to parenting emotion as a potential target for intervention in distressed families.
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U2 - 10.1207/S15327922PAR0202_02
DO - 10.1207/S15327922PAR0202_02
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:25144494455
SN - 1529-5192
VL - 2
SP - 105
EP - 126
JO - Parenting
JF - Parenting
IS - 2
ER -