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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2026 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Fam Psychol. 2025 Jan 16;39(3):325–335. doi: 10.1037/fam0001304

Intergenerational Transmission of Emotionally Responsive Parenting Via Parenting-Related Emotion and Cognition

Savannah A Girod 1, Esther M Leerkes 2, Cheryl Buehler 2, Lenka H Shriver 2, Laurie Wideman 2
PMCID: PMC11961316  NIHMSID: NIHMS2057430  PMID: 39818870

Abstract

Childhood experiences shape later parenting behaviors; however, few studies have examined the mechanisms that explain how parenting is transmitted across generations. The current study examined direct and indirect effects of mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood on maternal sensitivity to infant distress via parenting-related emotion, physiology, and cognition. Participants included 299 mothers (Mage = 29.71, SD = 5.48; 47.5% non-Hispanic white) and their infants (48.8% female). Mothers’ self-reported their emotionally responsive parenting in childhood and measures of emotional, physiological, and cognitive responses to videoclips of crying infants were assessed prenatally. Maternal sensitivity was observed during distress-eliciting tasks when infants were 2 and 6 months old. Covariates included maternal age, education, race, and concurrent observed infant distress. Results from the structural equation model demonstrated women’s emotionally responsive parenting in childhood was significantly associated with lower negative emotion in response to infant crying but not with physiological arousal, regulation, or negative cognition about infant crying. Lower negative emotion in response to infant crying was significantly associated with lower negative cognition about infant crying, which was then significantly associated with higher maternal sensitivity to distress. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant serial indirect effect of mothers’ emotionally responsive parenting in childhood on maternal sensitivity to distress via negative emotions and negative cognitions about infant crying. The findings suggest that screening pregnant women based on recalled parenting in childhood and targeting how they emotionally and cognitively respond to infant cry cues may be an effective approach to promote positive parenting during early infancy.

Keywords: maternal sensitivity, intergenerational transmission, emotion, physiology, cognition

Sensitive caregiving early in life is critical for the development of secure attachment, adaptive regulatory processes, and social competence throughout the life course (Bowlby, 1982). Sensitive parents respond quickly, appropriately, and consistently to infant cues in a manner that is well matched to and prioritizes infant needs rather than the parents’ needs (Ainsworth et al., 1974). There is evidence that parental sensitivity can be further differentiated by considering responses to the distinct nature of different types of infant cues or the demands of specific parenting contexts (Leerkes et al., 2012). Specifically, maternal sensitivity to distress is the extent to which mothers contingently and appropriately respond to infant distress cues or respond in contexts that are emotionally arousing and likely to elicit distress (e.g., fear/frustration tasks; Leerkes et al., 2012). There is robust evidence that maternal sensitivity to distress is a unique predictor of children’s socioemotional well-being relative to sensitivity to non-distress (Leerkes et al., 2009; McElwain & Booth-LaForce, 2006); thus, it is important to focus on identifying factors that predict maternal sensitivity to distress. Parents’ own childhood experiences with their caregivers and their parenting-related emotion, physiology, and cognition have been recognized as important predictors of parental sensitivity (Belsky & Jaffee, 2015; Leerkes et al., 2015). The goals of the current study were to examine if mothers’ recollections of emotionally responsive parenting in childhood were directly and/or indirectly associated with maternal sensitivity to infant distress via mothers’ emotional, physiological, and cognitive responses to infant crying.

Direct Effects of Parents’ Childhood Experiences on Parenting Behaviors

Parents own childhood experiences, like the type or quality of parenting received, have long been posited to shape later parenting behaviors. Emotionally responsive parenting is one type of experience which includes warm, supportive, and responsive parenting behaviors, particularly in response to displays of emotion. Several theories have posited how parenting is transmitted across generations (Bandura, 1977; Belsky & Jaffee, 2015; Bowlby, 1982). One explanation is that children observe their parents’ behaviors and internalize them as acceptable responses which they later model when they become parents. Indeed, vast literature employing both retrospective and prospective designs has demonstrated that parents who experienced warm and responsive parenting during childhood showed higher levels of involvement and sensitivity with their own children, compared to parents who experienced less positive and/or more negative parenting in childhood (Belsky et al., 2005; Kovan et al., 2009; Shaffer et al., 2009). Although less frequently studied, these effects may also be a function of indirect mechanisms whereby early parenting influences the development of specific skills, tendencies, or characteristics that in turn support or undermine parenting (Kerr & Capaldi, 2019). In the current study, three social information processing (SIP) factors were examined as potential mechanisms that explain how emotionally responsive parenting is transmitted across generations.

Social Information Processing Factors as Linking Mechanisms

Early life experiences have lasting developmental consequences for individuals’ expectations about themselves and others (Cassidy et al., 2017). Lemerise and Arsenio’s (2000) revised SIP model highlights the centrality of individuals’ emotional (both conscious and unconscious processes) and cognitive responses to social cues in explaining how prior developmental experiences (i.e., the database) influence behavior. Notably, emotion and cognition are distinct constructs that can bidirectionally influence each other and independently shape behavior. This is highly consistent with Belsky’s multiple determinants of parenting model (Belsky & Jaffee, 2015), that emphasizes parents’ developmental history, including their experiences being parented as children, is critical in understanding how parents behave. Integration of these theories is foundational for understanding how the type of parenting experienced in childhood influences subsequent parenting by virtue of the impact on emotional and cognitive responses to child behavior (Leerkes & Augustine, 2019). These theories demonstrate that there are multiple conscious and unconscious pathways that explain how parenting is transmitted across generations. Specifically, emotional, physiological, and cognitive responses to infant crying are three SIP constructs that may function as important mechanisms.

Emotional Responses to Infant Crying

Emotion plays a critical role in explaining how prior developmental experiences shape later behavior (Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000; Leerkes & Augustine, 2019). Parents’ emotion-related socialization behaviors (e.g., supportive reactions to emotion, discussion of emotion) validate children’s experiences and help teach children that expressing negative emotion is appropriate (Eisenberg et al., 1998). As such, children learn to express emotions in socially acceptable ways and believe that it is adaptive and non-threatening for social partners to display negative emotions (Davidov & Grusec, 2006). Indeed, maternal sensitivity and mother-infant synchrony are predictive of higher empathy and lower displays of anger in response to others’ distress (Denham, 1993; Taylor et al., 2013). On the other hand, low levels of responsive parenting or high levels of emotional rejection in childhood are associated with less empathy and more negative emotional reactions to infant distress (Leerkes & Crockenberg, 2006; Leerkes & Siepak, 2006). These findings demonstrate that emotionally responsive parenting in childhood is carried forward into adulthood and shapes emotional responses to infant crying.

Parent-child interactions naturally evoke strong emotions that influence parenting behaviors. Parenting-related emotion can be conceptualized as child-oriented or parent-oriented (Dix, 1991). Child-oriented emotion reflects feelings of empathy or sympathy for the child (e.g., feeling sad for the baby), whereas parent-oriented emotion includes a focus on the parent’s feelings (e.g., feeling annoyed that the baby is demanding attention). Specifically, parent-oriented emotion is related to higher levels of inconsistent and punitive parenting and lower levels of maternal sensitivity to distress (Del Vecchio et al., 2017; Leerkes, 2010). Results from video-recall procedures in response to infant cry or misbehavior, which are particularly important as they provide insight on how parenting-specific emotion rather than trait-like emotion characteristics relate to parenting behavior, have demonstrated that mothers’ experiences of anger while interacting with their child are related to less positive and more asynchronous, restrictive, and punitive parenting behaviors (Bryan & Dix, 2009; Del Vecchio et al., 2017; Leerkes et al., 2012). Mothers’ who experience negative emotion in response to child cues may be preoccupied with their own emotions and less focused on responding sensitively. In sum, these findings are important as emotion in response to infant crying is one mechanism that can explain how responsive parenting is transmitted across generations (Leerkes et al., 2020).

Physiological Responses to Infant Crying

Children’s experiences within the family also largely shape how they experience and regulate emotion at the physiological level. The autonomic nervous system involves coordination between the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) (Koss & Gunnar, 2018). Skin conductance level (SCL) is a measure of SNS functioning that reflects the amount of sweat that arises to the surface of the skin. An increase in SCL, also known as SCL augmentation, reflects an increase in arousal. Respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA) is a measure of PNS functioning and during emotionally arousing contexts, a decrease in RSA (i.e., vagal withdrawal) is an adaptive regulatory response that provides the body with information on how to respond to contextual demands (Porges, 2007).

Emotionally responsive parenting is foundational in the organization of physiological systems, as parents’ reactions to emotion directly affect arousal levels and the capacity to regulate (Eisenberg et al., 1998). Consistent with this view, there is evidence from adult samples that mothers with secure attachment, which reflects (in part) experiencing consistent sensitive care in childhood, show better physiological regulation when watching videos of distressed infants (Ablow et al., 2013) and while interacting with their infant during the Still-Face (Xu & Groh, 2023). Taken together, these findings highlight the salient role of emotionally supportive parenting in helping individuals generate effective coping behaviors that down-regulate arousal particularly during highly emotional contexts. Nonetheless, more research is needed to better understand how parenting experienced in childhood shapes physiological functioning in adulthood, and particularly in response to parenting-related stimuli.

The effects of physiology on parenting are nuanced and depend on what physiological system is considered. Infant crying is a salient cue that signals the need for safety and comfort; however, it is aversive to many adults because of the acoustics which often elicit irritation or anxiety from the perceived need to successfully intervene (Leerkes et al., 2012). Parents might experience increases in arousal and their regulatory abilities might be particularly challenged as there is a need to recognize and respond to infant cues while maintaining a regulated emotional state. Several researchers have utilized cry paradigms to assess if expectant mothers’ physiological arousal and regulation predict later parenting behaviors. SCL in response to videos or audio of crying infants has been found to predict maternal sensitivity in some studies (Leerkes et al., 2015, 2022, 2023) and to be unrelated to parenting behavior in others (Ablow et al., 2013; Emery et al., 2014). It is likely that at times arousal is related to increased awareness of infant distress and subsequently a desire to help or meet child needs (e.g., in response to obvious causes of infant distress). Alternatively, increases in arousal can also result in emotional flooding in which mothers are overwhelmed with emotion and their ability to engage in adaptive parenting behaviors is undermined (Leerkes & Augustine, 2019). Results have been somewhat more consistent in regard to the relation between physiological regulation and sensitivity. Mothers who demonstrated greater physiological regulation while watching videos of crying infants or while interacting with their own infants showed higher maternal sensitivity concurrently and longitudinally (Ablow et al., 2013; Joosen et al., 2013; Leerkes et al., 2022; Moore et al., 2009). The short- and long-term effects on parenting behaviors highlights the importance of being able to regulate one’s own emotions to respond appropriately to infant cues. Taken together, physiological responses to infant crying may be one mechanism for how responsive parenting is transmitted across generations (Leerkes & Augustine, 2019).

Cognitive Responses to Infant Crying

In addition to the importance of emotion, cognitive processes like causal attributions and parenting beliefs about infant crying may serve as mechanisms for the intergenerational transmission of emotionally responsive parenting. It is possible that mothers internalize their own caregiving experiences with their parents as cognitive schema. In turn, when faced with infant distress this schema may inform their overall beliefs about crying and how they interpret and respond in the moment. In adult samples, individuals who reported experiencing low levels of emotionally responsive parenting in childhood made more emotion minimizing (e.g., the baby is hungry) and negative attributions (e.g., the baby is spoiled) about infant fear and mistook infant distress for positive emotions (e.g., amusement; Leerkes & Siepak, 2006; Leerkes et al., 2020). Research on the antecedents of causal attributions has examined both positive and negative childhood experiences as predictors, whereas most research on the development of parenting beliefs has focused on how negative childhood experiences (e.g., child maltreatment) shape beliefs related to discipline. Mothers who were physically abused in childhood reported more positive beliefs about corporal punishment, and in turn engaged in infant spanking (Chung et al., 2009; Clément & Chamberland, 2009). Children often learn to emulate the parenting they received, and it is possible that they are taught that self-oriented and negative beliefs about emotion and behavior are acceptable and normative when they experience maladaptive parenting. Notably, there is a scarcity of research that has examined how responsive parenting in childhood shapes parenting beliefs; however, it is possible that responsive parenting leads to the development of more adaptive or less negative parenting beliefs related to infant cues.

In turn, causal attributions and beliefs about infant cues are predictive of parental sensitivity. Parents who are less sensitive might blame children for various reasons, regardless of if their behaviors are developmentally appropriate or not. Prior research has identified three distinct types of causal attributions about infant crying (Leerkes & Siepak 2006): negative, minimizing, and situational/emotional. Negative attributions reflect the belief that infants cry because of negative, internal infant traits. Whereas minimizing attributions reflect a de-emphasis on emotional reasons for crying in favor of physical reasons that undermine a motivation to comfort infants when distressed. Notably, minimizing and negative attributions have been found to be related to lower maternal sensitivity to distress (Girod et al., 2023; Leerkes et al., 2015, 2022). Conversely, situational/emotional attributions are characterized by the recognition that external situations can cause and maintain distress and have been found to predict higher maternal sensitivity (Bailes & Leerkes, 2021; Leerkes et al., 2015). In addition to causal attributions, beliefs about parenting are established predictors of parenting behavior (Dix, 1991). Parenting-related beliefs, like parenting-related emotion, can be conceptualized as child-oriented or parent-oriented. Child-oriented beliefs about infant crying reflect a focus on the child’s needs (e.g., my baby is trying to communicate) and have been found to predict higher maternal sensitivity to distress (Leerkes, 2010; Leerkes et al., 2004). Whereas parent-oriented beliefs include a focus on the parent’s needs (e.g., I want my child to stop crying because it bothers me) and are associated with lower maternal sensitivity (Leerkes et al., 2015). Parent-oriented beliefs are centered around one’s own concerns rather than prioritizing what the infant is trying to communicate. This maladaptive cognition may lead to lower responsiveness to infant cues and/or more negative behavioral responses such as intrusiveness and hostility.

Serial Indirect Effects of Emotion, Physiology, and Cognition

As reviewed above, emotional, physiological, and cognitive responses to infant crying can serve as separate intermediary mechanisms but they may also operate in tandem such that emotional and physiological responses to stimuli might precede cognitive responses (Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000). That is, emotional and physiological processes can have orienting, organizing, and motivating effects on how events are perceived and evaluated. It is possible that mothers’ emotional and physiological responses to infant crying influence their cognitive responses, which in turn, shape maternal sensitivity to distress. Prior work examining associations among emotional, physiological, and cognitive responses to infant crying has typically examined cognition and emotion as part of broader latent constructs reflecting infant- and mother-oriented cry processing (Leerkes et al., 2015, 2016, 2023). The grouping of emotion and cognition as latent constructs makes it difficult to disentangle if emotion processes precede cognitive processes. To our knowledge, Lorber and O’Leary (2005) are the only scholars to have examined the independent and mediated effects of mothers’ emotional, physiological, and cognitive responses to child cues. Mothers’ negative appraisals of toddler misbehavior mediated the effect of mothers’ reported emotions on overreactive discipline but did not mediate the effects of mothers’ physiological reactivity on overreactive discipline. These findings are noteworthy as they demonstrate partial support for SIP perspectives of emotion preceding cognition and highlight differential effects of conscious (i.e., self-reported emotion) and unconscious (i.e., physiological reactivity) emotional responses on cognitive responses to toddler cues. It is possible that similar effects exist during early infancy and in response to infant crying cues.

The Current Study

In the current study, the extent to which remembered emotionally responsive parenting directly and indirectly predicts maternal sensitivity to distress during the first 6 months was examined. Attachment theory has underscored the importance of sensitive caregiving during the first year (Ainsworth et al., 1978), with the first 6 months being characterized by the most face-to-face interactions between infants and mothers (Lamb et al., 1987). Thus, we focused on maternal sensitivity during the first 6 months with the goal of understanding the physiological, emotional, and cognitive predictors of early sensitive responses. We included indicators of maternal sensitivity to distress from two timepoints, at 2 months and 6 months, as this yields a more robust and stable estimate of how mothers respond to infant distress cues rather than focusing on maternal sensitivity to distress at one time point. Furthermore, mothers’ emotional, physiological, and cognitive responses to infant crying were examined as potential linking mechanisms. We hypothesized that mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood would be associated with higher maternal sensitivity to distress: (1) directly, (2) indirectly via lower negative emotion in response to infant crying, higher physiological arousal in response to infant crying, higher physiological regulation in response to infant crying, and lower negative cognition about infant crying, and (3) via serial indirect effects of lower negative emotion to lower negative cognition, higher physiological arousal to lower negative cognition, and higher physiological regulation to lower negative cognition.

Method

Participants were drawn from a prospective longitudinal study investigating predictors of early infant weight gain (Leerkes et al., 2020). Recruitment occurred between January 2019 and March 2020 and during October 2020 and April 2022. Recruitment was halted in the middle due to a COVID-19 University-mandated suspension of in-person human subject research. All procedures were approved by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Internal Review Board (#18–0198). We report how we determined our sample size and all measures in the study. This study was not preregistered; data are available at https://doi.org/10.15139/S3/CYGPNW.

Participants

Participants were 299 mothers and their infants (48.8% female). At the prenatal visit, expectant mothers ranged in age from 18–47 years old (M = 29.71, SD = 5.48). Mothers self-identified as Non-Hispanic White (52.5%), Black or African American (30.6%), Biracial (5.2%), Asian (2.1%), Multiracial (1.7%), Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (0.7%), American Indian or Alaskan Native (0.3%), or as another racial group (2.1%); 7.8% of mothers reported being Hispanic. There was variability in mothers’ education level; 15.9% had a high school degree or less, 37.4% had some college, and 56.6% had a 4-year college degree or beyond. Income-to-needs ratio ranged from 0 to 16.58 (M = 3.49, SD = 2.96).

Of the original 299 participants, 252 participated in at least one of the postnatal visits included in this manuscript (n = 230 at 2-month, n = 222 at 6-month, and n = 194 at both visits). Participants were not required to complete all visits to be included in our analyses. Reasons for missing data included: inability to re-contact or schedule the visit within the infant age-related time frame, suspension of in-person data collection due to COVID-19, completion of questionnaire only, withdrawal from the study, and ineligibility due to infant mortality or health complication. Mothers who participated in either the 2- or 6-month visit did not differ from non-participating mothers in age, education, race, or remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood. In our analytic approach, we employed full information maximum likelihood estimation to handle missing data, which allowed us to include all women who were recruited even if data were missing for follow-up waves. Thus, our analytic sample was 299.

Procedures

Prenatal Visit

During their third trimester, expectant mothers completed online questionnaires prior to visiting campus for an interview. Skin conductance level and heart rate were measured during a 5-minute resting baseline in which participants were asked to be calm and quiet and while participants viewed four 1-minute video clips of crying infants. Further details on the cry paradigm, including acoustic properties and characteristics of the babies in the clips are described in Leerkes et al. (2015). After viewing each clip, mothers reported their emotions in response to the crying, perceptions of the infant’s behavior, and beliefs about infant crying.

2-Month Visit

Mothers completed questionnaires and mother-infant dyads visited campus and participated in the 6-minute Still-Face procedure (Tronick et al., 1978). During the Still-Face, infants were placed in a car seat and mothers were seated in front of them at eye level. During the two-minute engagement episode, mothers played with their infant as they normally would but without objects. Next, mothers were told to look at their infant with a neutral face for 2 minutes (i.e., the Still-Face episode). Then during the re-engagement episode, mothers were instructed to play with their infant as they normally would for two minutes, once again without objects.

6-Month Visit

Mothers completed questionnaires and mother-infant dyads visited campus and participated in two distress eliciting tasks. The first was a 4-minute arm restraint task designed to elicit infant frustration. The experimenter knelt in front of the infant seat and gently held the infant’s arms immobile. During the first minute, mothers were instructed to remain uninvolved and for the remaining three minutes they could interact with their infant however they pleased. The second distress task was the 6-minute Still-Face task (Tronick et al., 1978).

Measures

Remembered Emotionally Responsive Parenting in Childhood (Prenatal Assessment)

Prior to the campus visit, participants completed a revised version of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI-R; Parker et al., 1979) that includes additional items added by Leerkes and Siepak (2006). Participants rated how likely their mother and father figures displayed certain behaviors during the first 16 years on a scale from 1 (not at all likely) to 4 (very likely). There were 12 items from the original PBI remembered care subscale that reflect warmth and affection (e.g., appeared to understand what I needed or wanted) and additional items to assess remembered emotional responsiveness that reflect empathy, comfort, and sensitivity to distress (9 items; e.g., helped me to calm down) and remembered emotion minimization that reflects punishment, teasing, and rejection in response to distress (8 items; e.g., told me not to cry). The test-retest reliability of the original PBI has been demonstrated in clinical and non-clinical samples over brief intervals (Parker et al., 1979), and up to two decades (Lizardi & Klein, 2005).

For each subscale, items were averaged to yield 6 total scores reflecting care from mother (α = .95) and father (α = .93), emotional responsiveness from mother (α = .94) and father (α = .92), and emotion minimization from mother (α = .89) and father (α = .87). Preliminary correlations suggested the care and emotionally responsive subscales reflected the same construct given their high positive correlation (r = .87, p < .001 for mothers, r = .84, p < .001 for fathers). Thus, the care and emotionally responsive subscales were averaged together to reflect a care and emotionally responsive subscale (α = .92 for mothers, α = .91 for fathers). Then, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine if a single factor reflecting the totality of participants’ remembered parenting from both their mother and father figures would be supported. A single factor emerged with an eigenvalue of 2.47 that accounted for 61.95% of variability; all factor loadings were ≥ |.49|. A composite reflecting total remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood was calculated by first reverse scoring emotion minimization from mother and father, and then averaging all subscales from mother and father (α = .80).

Negative Emotion in Response to Infant Crying (Prenatal Assessment)

Immediately after viewing each video clip during the campus visit, participants completed the 17-item My Emotions Questionnaire (Leerkes & Qu, 2018) by rating how strongly they felt each emotion on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very strongly). Self-oriented nervousness/anxiety reflects feelings of worry that are focused about being evaluated as a parent (4 items, e.g., Felt nervous I wouldn’t know how to respond). Annoyance/frustration at the infant reflects callousness towards the infant for being upset (4 items, e.g., Felt annoyed that the baby was demanding my attention). Subscale scores were calculated for each clip by averaging items; these scores were then averaged across the clips resulting in single scores for self-oriented anxiety and frustration. A composite reflecting negative emotion in response to infant crying was created by averaging total self-oriented anxiety and frustration (α = .90).

Physiological Measures (Prenatal Assessment)

Skin Conductance Level.

Maternal SCL was recorded in microsiemens using a Biolog (UFI, Moro Bay, CA) at a sampling rate of 100Hz. All participants had complete SCL data except for one participant who did not complete the interview. Difference scores were calculated by subtracting average SCL during each video clip from baseline; these were then averaged (α = .92). High scores reflect an increase in arousal from baseline to clips.

Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia.

Maternal heart rate was recorded using a Biolog (UFI, Morro Bay, CA) and electrocardiograms were recorded at a sampling rate of 1kHz. A Biolog data file containing the interbeat intervals (IBI) for the entire period of collection, with separate tasks marked, was transferred to a computer for artifact editing (resulting from movement) and analysis. Artifact editing and RSA estimation were done via CardioEdit software (Brain Body Center, University of Illinois at Chicago) using Porges’ (1985) methods. RSA, in msec2, was calculated in 15-second epochs for the 5-minute baseline and each of the four 1-minute clips. Epoch scores were then averaged within task. Brief epochs such as these have been validated for short duration tasks (Moore et al., 2009). If more than 15% of RSA data within a task required editing, it was treated as missing. Difference scores were calculated by subtracting average RSA during each video clip from baseline; these were then averaged (α = .90). High scores indicate greater RSA withdrawal from baseline to clips and reflect better physiological regulation.

Negative Cognition About Infant Crying (Prenatal Assessment)

After viewing each video clip, participants rated the extent to which they agreed with 18 attribution statements about why the infant was crying on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) (Leerkes & Siepak, 2006). Minimizing attributions reflect endorsing physical rather than emotional reasons for crying (5 items; e.g., the baby is hungry) and negative attributions reflect stable, negative, and internal reasons for crying (7 items; e.g., the baby is trying to make mother’s life difficult). Subscale scores were calculated for each clip by averaging items; these scores were then averaged across the clips resulting in single scores each for minimizing (α = .94) and negative attributions (α = .93).

After watching all clips, participants reported their beliefs about infant crying on the Infant Crying Questionnaire (ICQ; Haltigan et al., 2012). Participants rated how often they would believe certain things about infant crying and would want to achieve specific outcomes when their infant cries. Participants responded on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Minimizing beliefs reflect prioritizing parent needs in response to infant distress (9 items; I want baby to stop because I can’t get anything else done, α = .77) and spoiling beliefs reflect endorsing beliefs that how parents respond can cause children to be dependent on the parent in a negative manner (3 items; e.g., I could spoil baby, α = .73).

Maternal Sensitivity to Distress (2- and 6-month Assessments)

During each distress-eliciting task, trained coders rated four maternal behaviors (maternal sensitivity to distress and non-distress, intrusiveness, detachment) using the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) (NICHD ECCRN, 1999; Mills-Koonce et al., 2011) 7-point sensitivity scale from 1 (very low) to 7 (very high). Sensitive responses reflect mothers noticing and responding promptly and appropriately to infant cues. Maternal intrusiveness reflects mothers imposing their agenda on the infant, despite signals that a different activity or pace is needed. Maternal detachment is characterized by maternal emotional under-involvement or disengagement. A total maternal sensitivity score during each of the three distress-eliciting tasks was calculated as the average of sensitivity to distress and non-distress cues, intrusiveness (reverse scored), and detachment (reverse scored). At 2 months, reliability was calculated on 43 double-rated cases and the intraclass correlation (ICC) for the still-face re-engagement episode was .78. At 6 months, reliability was calculated on 45 double-rated cases and ICC’s were .84 for arm restraint and .77 for still-face re-engagement.

Covariates (Prenatal, 2-month, and 6-month Assessments)

Maternal reported demographics (age, education, race) that frequently correlate with responses to emotions and maternal sensitivity were included (Dunbar et al., 2017; Norcross et al., 2020) as was concurrent infant distress (Leerkes et al., 2015). Infant negative affect during each task was rated using the NICHD SECCYD (NICHD ECCRN, 1999; Mills-Koonce et al., 2011) 7-point scale from 1 (very low) to 7 (very high). Inter-rater reliability was established based on 43 cases at 2 months and 45 cases at 6 months via ICC’s and was excellent for both (.97 and .98, respectively). Approximately 91% of infants became distressed.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

Descriptive statistics and missing data were evaluated in SPSS. Bivariate correlations were examined using Mplus version 8.6 (Muthén & Muthén, 2017) and are presented in Table 1. Remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood was significantly associated with lower negative emotion and cognition in response to infant crying but not with SCL augmentation, RSA withdrawal, or maternal sensitivity to distress. Negative emotion and cognition in response to infant crying were significantly positively correlated. Further, lower negative emotion and cognition, and greater RSA withdrawal in response to infant crying were associated with higher maternal sensitivity to distress; SCL augmentation was not.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics and Intercorrelations among Primary Variables

M SD 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
1. Maternal Age 29.71 5.48 -
2.Maternal Education 4.62 1.85 .49** -
3. Maternal Race 0.48 0.50 −.18** −.38** -
4. Observed Infant Distress 3.67 1.56 −.13* −.07 .04 -
5. Emotionally Responsive Parenting in Childhood 0.67 0.37 .01 .08 −.07 −.08 -
6.Negative Cognition About Infant Crying - - −.28** −.27** .23** .02 −.14* -
7. Negative Emotion in Response to Infant Crying 0.00 0.73 −.13* −.09 .06 .02 −.14* .55** -
8. RSA Withdrawal 0.33 0.68 .04 .10 −.13* −.11 .03 −.10 −.10 -
9.SCL Augmentation 1.35 3.16 −.12* −.12* −.10 −.06 −.11 .07 .00 .07 -
10. Maternal Sensitivity to Distress - - .23* .35** −.27** −.67** .02 −.62** −.27* .28** .03
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Note: Means and standard deviations for emotional risk, observed infant distress, negative cognition about infant crying, and maternal sensitivity to distress are not reported as they are latent variables. RSA = Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia; SCL = Skin Conductance Level; 2m = 2-month.

*

p < .05,

**

p < .01.

Primary Analyses

A structural equation model was conducted and included manifest and latent variables; negative cognition about infant crying and maternal sensitivity to distress were latent variables. Based on modification indices to improve model fit, residual error correlations were added between manifest indicators for negative cognition about infant crying and all non-significant covariate paths were removed. The effects of maternal age, education, and race on negative cognition about infant crying, maternal race on physiological arousal in response to infant crying, and observer-rated infant distress on maternal sensitivity to distress were controlled.

The structural model demonstrated adequate fit; χ2(77) = 160.19, p < .001, RMSEA = .06, CFI = .88, and SRMR = .07. The RMSEA and SRMR were acceptable, the chi-square test was statistically significant, as expected with a larger sample size (Kline, 2020), and the CFI was slightly lower than the “acceptable” threshold of .90. CFI values tend to be lower among models with more estimated parameters and it is suggested to not solely interpret the CFI when the RMSEA of the null model is less than 0.158 (Kenny, 2014); the RMSEA for the null model in the current study was .05. As such, the overall fit indices suggest adequate model fit. Hypotheses related to indirect effects were assessed using bias-corrected bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals with 1,000 draws. Confidence intervals that did not span 0 indicated statistically significant effects. Results are described below and presented in Figure 1; all reported values are the standardized values. Mothers who were older (β = −.31, p < .001) and more educated (β = −.28, p < .001) were observed to be higher in maternal sensitivity to distress. Mothers who identified as non-white reported more negative cognition about infant crying (β = .25, p < .001). Finally, mothers with infants who were lower in negative affect were rated higher on maternal sensitivity to distress (β = −.52, p = .02).

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

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Results of Final Structural Model Predicting Maternal Sensitivity to Distress

Note: Values are standardized coefficients. Statistically significant paths are bolded. 1 = specified on negative cognitions, 2 = specified on negative cognition and physiological arousal, 3 = specified on maternal sensitivity to infant distress

*p < .05, **p < .01.

Contrary to the direct effect hypothesis, mothers’ recollections of emotionally responsive parenting in childhood was not statistically significantly associated with maternal sensitivity to distress (β = .00, p = .99). Consistent with prediction, mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood was uniquely associated with lower prenatal negative emotion in response to infant crying (β = −.14, p = .009). In turn, prenatal negative emotion in response to infant crying was positively associated with negative cognition about infant crying (β = .52, p < .001), and prenatal negative cognition about infant crying was associated with lower maternal sensitivity to distress (β = −.40 p = .03). Thus, the hypothesized serial indirect effect of mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood on maternal sensitivity to distress via negative emotion and negative cognition in response to infant crying was examined. There was a statistically significant indirect effect of mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood on maternal sensitivity to distress via negative emotion and negative cognition in response to infant crying, B = .02, 95% CI [.001, .097]. Specifically, mothers who recalled more emotionally responsive parenting in childhood experienced fewer negative emotion in response to infant crying. In turn, this was associated with lower negative cognition about infant crying, which ultimately predicted higher maternal sensitivity to distress. Considering that it is possible for cognitive processes to precede emotional processes, we tested a model in which negative cognition about infant crying predicted negative emotion and physiological arousal and regulation in response to infant crying. None of these associations were statistically significant.

Contrary to hypotheses, mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood was not uniquely, significantly associated with prenatal negative cognition about infant crying (β = −.05, p = .45), physiological arousal in response to infant crying (β = −.10, p = .11), or physiological regulation in response to infant crying (β = .03, p = .66). Physiological arousal and regulation in response to infant crying were not uniquely, significantly associated with prenatal negative cognition about infant crying (β = .07, p = .28 and β = −.07, p = .19, respectively). Thus, there were no possible indirect effects via physiology to test.

Discussion

This study examined the direct and indirect effects of mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood on maternal sensitivity to distress during infancy. Our findings suggest that the intergenerational transmission of emotionally responsive parenting occurs via lower negative emotion and lower negative cognition in response to infant crying. These findings are consistent with SIP perspectives (Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000) and more specific integrated perspectives on parenting (Leerkes & Augustine, 2019) that highlight the salient roles of emotion and cognition in explaining how childhood experiences are associated with parenting behaviors.

Direct Effects of Early Childhood Experiences on Maternal Sensitivity to Distress

The results demonstrated that remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood was not directly related to maternal sensitivity to distress. These findings contradict prior research that has demonstrated direct effects (Belsky et al., 2005; Kovan et al., 2009); however, there are several possible explanations for this difference. First, there are methodological differences as to when sensitive parenting was assessed. In the current study, maternal sensitivity to distress was assessed during the first 6 months of infancy, whereas the prior studies assessed sensitive parenting when children were 2 and 3 years old (Belsky et al., 2005; Kovan et al., 2009). Sensitive parenting looks different depending on the child’s age (e.g., soothing a crying infant vs. discussing emotions with an upset child) and it is possible that direct effects are not present during the earliest periods of infancy but may emerge over time as children grow older and sensitive behavior is more akin to the items mothers reported on in the PBI-R. Additionally, the lack of direct effects may be due to the use of retrospective reports of emotionally responsive parenting, whereas prior studies included observational measures of parenting across multiple generations (Belsky et al., 2005; Kovan et al., 2009). Furthermore, negative childhood experiences might have a more salient effect on maternal sensitivity to infant distress rather than positive childhood experiences, which is consistent with findings from Leerkes et al. (2020).

Indirect Effects of Remembered Responsive Parenting on Maternal Sensitivity to Distress

The statistically significant pathway predicting maternal sensitivity to distress was a serial indirect effect of mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood via negative emotion and cognition in response to infant crying. This is consistent with SIP perspectives (Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000) that have primarily been applied to the study of peer and partner relationships. Our results expand upon this and demonstrate similar processes exist for parent-child relationships. Mothers’ own experiences of supportiveness and warmth from their caregivers likely serve as important emotion socialization behaviors to communicate that it is acceptable to display various emotions, particularly those that are negative. As such, mothers who recall more supportiveness from their own caregivers may be less likely to feel frustrated or anxious towards infant crying cues because they have greater feelings of concern or empathy for negative expressions of emotion. This is consistent with prior research that has found associations between adult attachment security and lower feelings of anxiety and hostility in response to audio of infant crying (Rousseau et al., 2019). Consequently, that lower negative emotion in response to infant crying was associated with lower negative cognition about infant crying highlights that how mothers emotionally respond to infant crying influences how they perceive the underlying cause of infant crying. This is congruent with findings from Lorber and O’Leary (2005) where mothers’ negative emotions during a video-recall interaction with her child were associated with negative appraisals about child behavior. Our results add to the literature by demonstrating that these effects exist in response to other cognitive responses (i.e., negative attributions and beliefs about infant crying) and are present during early infancy. Further, mothers who are lower in negative cognition are less likely to interpret infant crying in a defensive and negatively biased manner—that is, they are less likely to attribute infant crying to being spoiled and are less likely to want infants to stop crying for their own self-focused reasons. It is plausible that mothers who are lower in negative cognition about infant crying have a greater understanding that infants cry because they are signaling the need for help. This may enable mothers to focus on the needs of their child and respond quickly and effectively to their distress.

The results show emotion and cognition are distinct constructs and are important linking mechanisms for how emotionally responsive parenting is transmitted across generations. Further, the findings identify an important area for interventionists to target addressing how mothers emotionally and cognitively respond to infant cry cues. Infant crying is aversive and may evoke negative emotions that prompt negative cognitions about infant crying. As such, helping mothers develop skills related to controlling their emotional responses may ultimately enhance their sensitivity to distress. Interventions like the Circle of Security-Parenting (Cassidy et al., 2017) and Attachment and BioBehavioral Catch-Up (Dozier et al., 2017) include enhanced regulation of negative affect as part of their curriculum and have found positive effects on parenting and child outcomes (Hajal & Paley, 2020). It might be beneficial to also include a focus on reducing negative parenting-related cognition by providing mothers with information on why infants cry to help them understand that there are underlying contextual and emotional factors.

Contrary to prediction, there were no indirect associations between mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood and maternal sensitivity to distress via physiological arousal or regulation in response to infant crying. Research with adult samples that have found significant associations between childhood experiences and physiological arousal and regulation have employed measures of adult attachment (Ablow et al., 2013; Xu & Groh, 2023). Measures of adult attachment are effective in capturing unconscious processes related to attachment relationships. This may be more relevant for understanding how childhood experiences are related to parenting-related physiology, an unconscious process, rather than self-reports on the parenting experienced in childhood. Further, the non-significant associations between physiological arousal and regulation with negative cognition show that conscious and unconscious emotional responses have differential effects with cognition about infant crying. Prior work has shown that RSA withdrawal and the joint effect of high SCL augmentation paired with low RSA withdrawal are associated with higher mother-oriented cry processing (a latent variable reflecting mothers’ reported emotion and cognition in response to infant crying; Leerkes et al., 2015, 2016). It is possible that the interaction between physiological arousal and regulation is associated with negative cognition about infant crying, a possibility we cannot consider in this model given an interaction term cannot meaningfully serve as a dependent variable. Future research should consider applying person-centered approaches to examine if remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood predicts well-regulated arousal.

The Role of Covariates

In addition to the primary results between focal variables, the role of covariates in the model are notable. Mothers who were younger and reported lower educational attainment were observed to be lower in maternal sensitivity to distress; it is possible that these mothers may particularly benefit from early intervention efforts. Further, mothers who identified as non-white reported more negative cognition about infant crying. This is consistent with prior work showing racial differences in how parents respond to children’s negative emotional cues and that this is an adaptive process by which parents are preparing to protect their children from the effects of systemic racism (Dunbar et al., 2017). Whether parental cognition about crying is differentially associated with parenting in infancy based on race remains an important area for future inquiry.

Strengths and Limitations

The current study makes several significant contributions to the literature. The inclusion of multiple social information processes as intermediary variables, as opposed to as part of larger constructs that obscure the specificity of each (Leerkes et al., 2020), allowed for examination of multiple serial indirect effects which is consistent with SIP perspectives (Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000). Furthermore, the results are a significant contribution as researchers have focused on understanding the continuity or discontinuity of parenting across generations and less have focused on how parenting is transmitted across generations. The findings highlight the important roles of mothers’ emotion and cognition for the intergenerational transmission of responsive parenting. The inclusion of two ecologically valid paradigms (i.e., cry paradigm and Still-Face task) and a well-established coding scheme for maternal sensitivity are methodological strengths enhancing the replicability of the results. Finally, the current study included a prospective longitudinal design with a socioeconomically and racially diverse sample. The longitudinal design underscored the importance of the prenatal period to promote positive parenting during early infancy and our diverse sample enhanced the generalizability of the findings.

Limitations include that the observations of maternal sensitivity to distress were relatively brief (7 minutes). However, these tasks were effective in eliciting infant distress as 91% of infants were distressed in at least one task. Second, mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood, negative emotion in response to infant crying, and negative cognition about infant crying were self-reported and estimates may be inflated due to shared method variance; future research would benefit from multi-method approaches to assess these constructs. Relatedly, maternal negative emotion and cognition about infant crying were assessed concurrently, but there was short-term temporal ordering in that mothers reported on their emotional responses to infant crying prior to reporting their cognition about infant crying. By design, this allowed for us to examine if mothers’ emotions had orienting effects on how infant crying was perceived. Moreover, the alternative model in which cognition about infant crying preceded emotional responses to infant crying had no statistically significant associations, underscoring the robustness of our findings. Finally, mothers’ emotionally responsive parenting in childhood was retrospectively reported. Although there is evidence of convergent validity between retrospective and prospective measures of childhood experiences, external factors may still lead to some recall bias (Nivison et al., 2021).

Conclusion

We examined how mothers’ remembered emotionally responsive parenting in childhood was directly and indirectly associated with maternal sensitivity to distress via parenting-related emotion, physiology, and cognition. Mothers who recalled higher levels of emotionally responsive parenting in childhood reported lower negative emotion in response to infant crying. In turn, this was associated with lower negative cognition about infant crying that was longitudinally associated with higher maternal sensitivity to distress. Our findings expand and integrate prior theory and empirical research and identify the processes by which emotionally responsive parenting is transmitted across generations. The results have important implications for interventions aimed at promoting positive parenting and positive child development.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the participating families for their time and Megan Chandler and project staff for their dedication. The contents of this manuscript are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development.

Funding Statement

This study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development R01HD093662 and T32HD101390.

Footnotes

Conflict of Interest

We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Prior Dissemination of Ideas

Part of the data appearing in this manuscript were presented at the Society for Research in Child Development 2022 biennial meeting as a poster presentation.

Availability of Data

The data and analytic code necessary to reproduce the analyses presented here are available at the following URL: https://doi.org/10.15139/S3/CYGPNW. The analyses presented here were not preregistered.

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Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Data Availability Statement

The data and analytic code necessary to reproduce the analyses presented here are available at the following URL: https://doi.org/10.15139/S3/CYGPNW. The analyses presented here were not preregistered.

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