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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Fam Psychol. 2015 Oct 12;30(2):276–285. doi: 10.1037/fam0000165

Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Toddler Emotion Regulation, and Subsequent Emotion Socialization

Julie E Premo 1, Elizabeth J Kiel 1
PMCID: PMC4767626  NIHMSID: NIHMS725993  PMID: 26461486

Abstract

Although many studies have examined how maternal depressive symptoms relate to parenting outcomes, less work has examined how symptoms affect emotion socialization, a parenting construct linked to a myriad of socioemotional outcomes in early childhood. In line with a transactional perspective on the family, it is also important to understand how children contribute to these emotional processes. The current study examined how toddler emotion regulation strategies moderated the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and emotion socialization responses, including non-supportive responses (e.g., minimizing, responding punitively to children’s negative emotions) and wish-granting, or the degree to which mothers give in to their children’s demands in order to decrease their children’s and their own distress. Mothers (n = 91) and their 24-month-old toddlers participated in laboratory tasks from which toddler emotion regulation behaviors were observed. Mothers reported depressive symptoms and use of maladaptive emotion socialization strategies concurrently and at a 1-year follow-up. The predictive relation between maternal depressive symptoms and emotion socialization was then examined in the context of toddlers’ emotion regulation. Toddlers’ increased use of caregiver-focused regulation interacted with depressive symptoms in predicting increased wish-granting socialization responses at 36 months. At high levels of toddlers’ caregiver-focused regulation, depressive symptoms related to increased wish granting socialization at 36 months. There was no relation for non-supportive socialization responses. Results suggest that toddler emotional characteristics influence how depressive symptoms may put mothers at risk for maladaptive parenting. Family psychologists must strive to understand the role of both parent and toddler characteristics within problematic emotional interactions.

Keywords: emotion socialization, emotion regulation, maternal depressive symptoms, parenting, toddlers

Despite increased emphasis on transactional influences among members of the family, there remains a dearth of work demonstrating the influence that infants and toddlers have on their own parenting, especially in conjunction with parent characteristics. For instance, maternal depressive symptoms have long been hypothesized to result in a variety of maladaptive parenting outcomes, though less is known about their effect on maternal socialization of emotion (Lovejoy, Graczyk, O’Hare, & Neuman, 2000). Although maternal emotion socialization is a formative emotional process that influences socioemotional outcomes in children and the quality of the parent-child relationship beginning in early childhood (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Murphy, 1996), there has been limited work identifying predictors of mothers’ emotion socialization, specifically their responses to their children’s negative emotions (Nelson, O’Brien, Blankson, Calkins, & Keane, 2009; Premo & Kiel, 2014). Mothers who are higher in depressive symptoms, in particular, may respond to their children’s displays of negative emotion in more maladaptive ways. However, this relation may depend on the strategies that toddlers developed over the course of infancy to regulate their own negative emotions. When mothers exhibit higher levels of depressive symptoms, maternal reactions may be particularly dependent on the degree to which their toddlers focus on their mothers to regulate their emotions. Thus, the current study contributes to a growing literature on children’s effects on parenting by examining whether caregiver-focused emotion regulation strategies moderate the effect of maternal depressive symptoms on mothers’ emotion socialization longitudinally across toddlerhood.

Maternal Depressive Symptoms

The cognitive and emotional symptoms of depression, including persistent negative or sad affect, irritability, and hopelessness, often result in an abundance of related negative outcomes, including emotional unavailability and difficulties modulating emotions (Bradley, 2000; Gross & Muñoz, 1995). Depressive symptoms manifesting as a clinical disorder are relatively common, with one in five women, many of whom are mothers, suffering from a depressive episode over the course of their lifetimes (Goodman & Gotlib, 2002). Subclinical depressive symptoms are even more common--17% to 32% of mothers experience at least some depressive symptomatology (Wang, Wu, Anderson, & Florence, 2011).

It is important to consider the full range of depressive symptoms when examining parent behaviors; even mild levels of depressive symptoms have been shown to influence children’s outcomes, including emotion regulatory difficulties as well as internalizing and externalizing problems (Choe, Olson, & Sameroff, 2013; West & Newman, 2003). Depressive symptoms may influence child outcomes indirectly through maladaptive parenting behaviors. These symptoms can increase parents’ negative assessments of their interactions with others and are strongly associated with mothers’ disengagement from their children (Lovejoy et al., 2000; MacLeod & Byrne, 1996). Further, low inductive discipline and maternal warmth mediated the harmful effects of maternal emotional distress on children’s self-regulation (Choe, Olson, & Sameroff, 2013). In another recent study, low maternal warmth was found to mediate the relation between mild to moderate maternal depressive symptoms and toddlers’ internalizing symptoms (citation blinded for review). Maladaptive responses may be more likely from mothers with depressive symptoms because their limited cognitive and emotional capacities render them more easily overwhelmed by distressing parent-child interactions (Keller, Spieker, & Gilchrist, 2005). Thus, it would be expected that mothers with higher levels of depressive symptoms would respond more negatively to toddlers’ displays of negative emotions.

Emotion Socialization

Emotion socialization characterizes how parents express, model, discuss and react to emotion with their children (Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 1998). Emotion socialization has been conceptualized as involving both adaptive and maladaptive reactions to negative emotions such as fear, sadness, and anger (Eisenberg et al., 1998). The current study focuses on maladaptive responses, including punitive/minimization, and wish-granting responses, given their relevance to parents with increased depressive symptoms. Punitive reactions include verbal or physical punishment used by the parents to control children’s display of negative emotions (Fabes, Poulin, Eisenberg, & Madden-Derdich, 2002). Minimization responses involve the parent devaluing or discounting children’s negative emotions (e.g., saying, “get over it”). Further, a lesser studied socialization response, wish-granting, occurs when a parent gives in to children’s immediate desires [toys, candy] when the child expresses anger, fear, or sadness (Spinrad et al., 2007). These responses are putatively enacted to decrease their children’s and their own distress (Eisenberg et al., 1998).

Emotion socialization has gained increasing attention in recent years because of its far-reaching effects on children’s development. When adaptive and supportive, parents’ socialization of positive and negative emotions assist children in utilizing socially acceptable and adaptive responses crucial to future emotional and behavioral outcomes (Morris, Silk, Steinberg, Myers, & Robinson, 2007). Punitive and minimization responses, on the other hand, have been linked to poor emotion regulation and development of social and behavioral problems in infancy and toddlerhood (Barnett, Shanahan, Deng, Haskett, & Cox, 2010; Hughes & Ensor, 2006). Here, we suggest that wish-granting responses are also maladaptive. Not only are wish-granting responses negatively and significantly related to maternal sensitivity and responsiveness, wish-granting responses at 18 months predicted children’s negative affect at age 5 (Spinrad, Eisenberg, Kupfer, Gaertner, & Michalik, 2004; Spinrad, Stifter, Donelan, McCall, & Turner, 2004). Thus, wish-granting may be a specific example of maternal disengagement that reinforces child distress. When parents respond to toddlers’ negative emotions by giving in to what the child wants (perhaps to reduce their own distress), it prevents children from learning to regulate their own emotions. Such responses reinforce children’s maladaptive expressions of distress, increasing the likelihood of this strategy in emotionally challenging (e.g., anger, fear, or disappointment inducing) situations in lieu of more emotionally adaptive responses (Spinrad, Stifter et al., 2004).

Generally, emotion socialization responses are thought to stem from a combination of factors, including parent characteristics such as gender, parenting style, personality, and emotion-related beliefs (Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 1998). Although the effects of depressive symptoms on mothers’ emotion socialization responses have rarely been explicitly studied, there is related evidence that mothers with depressive symptoms may express, model, or react to (socialize) emotion in more maladaptive ways than parents with few or no symptoms. For example, parents’ depressive symptoms are related to higher levels of negative affect such as sadness and anger (Downey & Coyne, 1990), which in turn is related to harsh parenting (Leung & Slep, 2006). Mothers with intense and frequent negative emotions are thought to prevent or impair children from learning about the appropriate expression and response to negative emotional experiences (Denham, Zoller, & Couchoud, 1994). Relatedly, several studies indicate that mothers evaluate harsh parenting responses more positively as their depressive symptoms increase (Field et al., 1985). Thus, mothers with higher versus lower depressive symptoms may be expected to engage in more punitive and minimization responses with their toddlers. In addition, depressive symptoms are positively related to decreased responsivity, decreased attention to children’s needs, and decreased overall involvement with their children (Hops, Biglan, Sherman, & Arthur, 1987; Rutter, 1990). For instance, depressive mothers are motivated to select activities and responses that require low effort (Downey & Coyne, 1990). Thus, these mothers may be maladaptively “giving in” more often to their children than non-symptomatic mothers, as wish-granting responses to children’s negative emotions may require less emotional engagement on the part of the mother. Although many studies have noted the presence of both withdrawn and intrusive parenting behaviors, several studies have found that depressed mothers are predominantly withdrawn (e.g. Field et al., 1985). Thus, we would expect mothers with mild depressive symptoms in our sample to demonstrate maladaptive socialization, but especially wish-granting responses.

Although it has been established that maternal depressive symptoms affect the family system by increasing maladaptive parenting behaviors, it is also likely that toddlers’ emotional characteristics affect the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and parenting behaviors. Nevertheless, few studies have addressed when and how child characteristics influence this relation (Gelfand & Teti, 1990; Dix & Meunier, 2009). It is likely that child emotion regulation plays a role in when maternal depressive symptoms predict maladaptive emotion socialization responses.

Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation (ER) is the initiation, maintenance, and modulation of emotional arousal needed to support individual goals and effectively adapt to one’s social environment (Thompson, 1994). ER emerges in infancy and continues throughout childhood; its development is strongly influenced by both intrinsic factors (e.g., temperament) and extrinsic forces present in early parent and peer relationships (e.g., attachment; Cassidy, 1994; Kopp, 1982). ER behaviors in young children can be characterized as caregiver-focused or independent strategies, both of which are associated with decreased negative affect in observational studies (Cole, Martin, & Dennis, 2004; Rothbart & Bates, 1998). Caregiver-focused or “other-directed” ER is characterized by contact seeking (e.g., reaching for or increasing proximity to their caregivers) and looking to caregivers (e.g., social referencing; Grolnick, Bridges, & Connell, 1996). Independent ER behaviors include “self-focused” soothing behaviors such as self-touching, self-stimulation (e.g., rhythmic, often unconscious touching or rubbing), and fidgeting (e.g., squirming), as well as attention-related behaviors, like gaze aversion and distraction (Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1996). Caregiver-focused ER is crucial for infants, whose limited capacity to cope with stressful events leaves them greatly reliant on caregivers for regulation of negative emotion (Kopp, 1982, 1989; Silk, Steinberg, & Morris, 2003). Cognitive and emotional advances taking place in late infancy allow toddlers to also engage in more independent ER, thus a variety of ER strategies would be expected to be seen in this period (Grolnick, Bridges, & Connell, 1996).

As each member may be expected to influence the others within the family system, it is important to acknowledge and understand child emotional characteristics as active influences on parenting outcomes, particularly for at-risk parenting. Research on child-elicited effects has most commonly focused on temperament, and in the case of maternal depressive symptoms, which are known to predict parenting behaviors, Putnam, Sanson and Rothbart (2002) suggested that child characteristics such as temperament may play an indirect (e.g., a moderating) role in relation to parenting outcomes.

ER behaviors, especially above and beyond children’s reactivity, have received less attention in regards to parenting outcomes (but see Morelen & Suveg, 2012; Premo & Kiel, 2014), but during toddlerhood, they may be particularly influential in the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and emotion socialization. In a review by Lovejoy et al., (2000), mothers of infants and toddlers, in particular, demonstrated increased levels of disengagement compared to mothers of older children. The authors suggested this was due to younger children’s increased dependence on caregivers. Toddlers’ reliance on their mothers to become soothed may become taxing to mothers with depressive symptoms. Thus, above and beyond the level of distress reactivity they display, toddlers’ caregiver-focused ER strategies may overwhelm mothers with higher levels of these symptoms, who would then be more prone to non-supportive, less tolerant, or, most likely, permissive reactions to their children’s expressions of negative emotions (Field et al., 1985; Lovejoy et al., 2000). If young children rely on independent ER behaviors, this may not tax mothers with depressive symptoms to the same extent and so moderation may not be expected for self-focused and attention-related ER behaviors. However, to understand the unique effects of caregiver-focused regulation, it would be important to consider both types simultaneously.

Current Study

Because maladaptive parenting responses associated with maternal depressive symptoms present a substantial socioemotional cost to families, this study sought to clarify the development of maladaptive emotion socialization in early childhood. This study tests the unique moderating roles of specific toddler ER strategies in predicting change in emotion socialization across 1 year of toddlerhood from maternal depressive symptoms. First, given that mothers with depressive symptoms express more negative affect, hostility, and coercion (Gelfand & Teti, 1990; Lovejoy et al., 2000), it was expected that more symptomatic mothers whose toddlers demonstrate a higher frequency of caregiver-focused behaviors at 24 months would report increased non-supportive socialization reactions when toddlers reached 36 months. Second, given that mothers with depressive symptoms tend to be more disengaged and less responsive, and to put less effort into interacting with their children in distressing situations (Lovejoy et al., 2000; Rutter, 1990), it was hypothesized that more symptomatic mothers whose toddlers used a higher frequency of caregiver-focused ER at 24 months would be more likely to respond with increased wish-granting socialization responses at 36 months. Given that increased independent ER strategies do not involve the mother, we expected that independent forms of ER would not moderate the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and either form of maladaptive emotion socialization response, although we refrain from a formal hypothesis in order to avoid hypothesizing the null. We also addressed the need to test child ER behaviors above and beyond child reactivity in order understand the specific moderating role of child ER strategy in predicting the emotion socialization of mothers with depressive symptoms.

Method

Participants

Mother-toddler dyads (n = 117) were recruited from meetings of the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program and from locally published birth announcements. The current sample includes the 91 dyads that completed measures of depressive symptoms and emotion socialization at Time 1 (T1; toddlers’ Mage = 24.74 mos., SDage = 0.70 mo.). Toddlers (40 female) were 84.6% European American, 5.5% African American, 7.7% Asian American, 1% American Indian, 1% biracial, and 1% “other.” Mothers ranged from 11 to 20 years of education, averaging 16.35 years (SD = 2.36). Mothers endorsed their family gross income as falling within one of various intervals, with responses ranging from below $15,000 to above $60,000 per year, and the mean response indicating between $41,000 and $50,000/year. Sixty-seven mothers completed a second questionnaire battery when toddlers were 36-months-old (Time 2 [T2]).

Procedure

Mothers and their toddlers were invited to come to a laboratory visit at T1 after demonstrating interest in the study by signing up at a WIC meeting or sending back a postcard in response to a mailing. Prior to the visit, mothers were sent and asked to complete a packet containing a consent form, as well as demographic and emotion socialization measures. Once present in the laboratory, a primary experimenter (E1) explained to the mother that her toddler would be participating in “episodes” containing a variety of activities and novel stimuli (i.e., a female clown, a puppet show, and a remote-controlled spider toy). Activities and stimuli were modeled after the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB; Buss & Goldsmith, 2000; Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1996) and procedures in other studies within the literature (Buss, 2011; Nachmias, Gunnar, Mangelsdorf, Parritz, & Buss, 1996). Upon completion of the episodes, mothers were given a packet of questionnaires including a self-report depression measure to complete at home and mail back to the laboratory. Packets were returned by 78% of sample mothers, resulting in the final sample size of 91.

Novelty episodes

Toddler ER behaviors were observed during novelty episodes at T1 and included an interaction with a female clown, a puppet show, and a remote-controlled spider. Mothers were told to behave “naturally” during the episodes so toddlers would rely on their natural ER strategies.

During the clown episode, toddlers were invited to play three games with a female research assistant (E2) wearing a clown costume complete with a nose and a wig. Games, including blowing bubbles, playing catch with beach balls, and musical instruments, each lasted about 1 minute. At the end of the episode, the clown asked the child to help clean up the toys.

During the Puppet Show episode, the toddler was invited to watch and interact with lion and elephant puppets, which were controlled by E2 from behind a small wooden stage. Toddlers were invited to play two games with the puppets, the first to play catch with a small ball, followed by a fishing game. Following the games, the toddler received a sticker from the puppets as a prize. E2 came out from behind the stage to show the toddler the puppets. E2 then departed, leaving the puppets in the room for the toddler to examine until E1 returned.

During the Spider episode, toddlers began in their mothers’ laps and, in the opposite corner, sat a large plush spider affixed to a truck hidden by a box lid and controlled by remote from behind a one-way mirror. After E1 departed, the spider approached and retreated from the toddler and mother twice, with 10 second pauses in between each movement. E1 then returned to the room and gave up to three friendly prompts for the toddler to touch the spider.

Measures

Maternal depressive symptoms

Mothers reported on their depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D, Radloff, 1977), a 20-item self-report measure used to assess depression in the general population. Mothers were asked to rate on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 (rarely to none of the time) to 3 (most or all of the time) how often they experienced various depressive symptoms (e.g., “I felt depressed”). The CES-D shows excellent internal consistency (coefficient alpha > .85) and test-retest reliability (r > .50) in community samples (Radloff, 1977). A mean of the 20 items yielded an overall depressive symptom score (α = .80). Although depressive symptom scores at T1 were used as a primary predictor, imputed T2 scores are also provided for descriptive purposes in Table 1. Notably, scores were relatively stable from T1 to T2 (r = .61, p < .001).

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics for Predictor, Covariate, Moderator, and Outcome Variables

Variable M SD Range
Maternal depressive symptoms (CESD) Time 1 9.28 6.02 0.00–27.00
Maternal depressive symptoms (CESD) Time 2 8.60 5.84 0.00–36.00
Caregiver-focused regulation 16.62 8.72 5.00–49.00
Self-soothing regulation 125.78 85.25 6.00–397.00
Attention regulation 6.14 4.85 0.00–23.00
Toddler distress 2.27 0.73 1.00–4.25
24-mo. Non-Supportive socialization (CTNES) 2.52 0.80 1.13–5.33
24-mo. Wish Granting socialization (CTNES) 2.40 0.82 1.00–4.70
36-mo. Non-Supportive socialization (CTNES) 2.59 0.68 1.00–4.10
36-mo. Wish-Granting socialization (CTNES) 2.20 0.75 1.42–4.54
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Note. N = 91. Time 2 variable descriptive statistics were obtained using an aggregate data set consisting of mean variables from 20 imputed data sets. Regulation behaviors are presented here duration in seconds summed across all three novelty episodes. CESD = Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale. CTNES = Coping with Toddlers’ Negative Emotion Scale.

Emotion socialization

Emotion socialization was measured at both T1 and T2 using the Coping with Toddlers’ Negative Emotion Scale (CTNES; Spinrad et al., 2004). The CTNES is a modified version of the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale with vignette content more appropriate for infants and toddlers (Eisenberg et al., 1996; Fabes, Poulin, Eisenberg, & Madden-Derdich, 2002). Parents were asked how they would respond to their toddlers’ negative emotional expressions (fear, anger, or sadness) in 12 imaginary scenarios (e.g., “If my child becomes angry because he wants to play outside and cannot do so because he is sick, I would…”). Parents rated the likelihood of seven responses on a scale from 1 (very unlikely) to 7 (very likely). For the purposes of the this study, we focused solely on parenting responses found to be maladaptive and that are observable by the child, including punitive responses (how parents may punish or threaten their children for displaying negative emotions, e.g., “I would: Tell my child we will not get to do something else fun [i.e., watch T.V., play games] unless he stops behaving like that”), minimization responses (how parents may devalue their children’s negative emotions [e.g., “I would: Tell my child that he is making a big deal out of nothing.”]), and wish-granting responses (when mothers “give in” to their child’s wishes, for instance, “I would: let my child play outside”). A factor analysis conducted by Spinrad et al. (2007) found that minimization and punitive responses (24 items; αT1 = .87, αT2 = .72 in the current study) loaded on to a “non-supportive reactions” composite, whereas wish-granting responses (10 items, α T1 = .76; αT2 = .87 in the current study) did not factor with any other scales; thus, wish-granting is examined separately. The CTNES demonstrates good construct and discriminant validity, in that subscales relate in expected ways to, yet capture parenting unique from observed maternal sensitivity and intrusiveness (Fabes, Leonard, Kupanoff, & Martin, 2001). Further, the scales have satisfactory test-retest reliability (rs = .65 to .81; Spinrad et al., 2004).

Toddler emotion regulation behaviors

Toddler ER behaviors were coded as present versus absent on a second-by-second basis across all segments of the clown, puppet show, and spider novelty episodes recorded at T1 by undergraduate and graduate level research assistants naïve to study hypotheses. Behavioral coding was conducted using the ER coding definitions provided in the Lab-TAB manual. Toddler behaviors were aggregated into broader categories of caregiver-focused, attention, and self-soothing ER, as established in previous studies (Cole, Martin, & Dennis, 2004; Grolnick, Bridges, & Connell, 1996; Rothbart & Bates, 1998). Caregiver-focused behaviors included looking to the mother and contact-seeking (e.g., running to or reaching for the mother). Attention-regulation behaviors consisted of distraction (e.g., looking for several seconds or more at nothing in particular) and gaze aversion (e.g., brief looks away from the episode stimulus). Self-soothing regulation behaviors included fidgeting, when a toddler actively and/or nervously moved (e.g. waving her hands and/or limbs); self-touching, or when a toddler inactively touched herself (e.g. resting their hands on her lap); and self-stimulation, when a toddler touched herself unconsciously and for soothing purposes (e.g. rubbing her hands, sucking her thumb). Coders were trained by a master coder (the second author) for a minimum of 15–20 hours; coders were required to establish minimum reliability (kappa = .80) before coding independently. Further, approximately 20% of cases were double-coded by the master coder to maintain reliability throughout coding. Any coding discrepancies were reconciled after viewing episodes together and determining the appropriate scores (although reliability estimates were computed prior to resolving discrepancies). Percent agreement interrater reliabilities for caregiver-focused ER (looks to caregiver: .95; contact seeking: 1.00), attention ER (.98), and self-soothing ER (.91) were all in the high range. The current study used the frequency of attention and caregiver-focused ER behaviors (as these behaviors tend to occur for short periods of time) and the duration of self-soothing ER behaviors (because these behaviors may continue for longer periods; see Cole et al., 2004; Premo & Kiel, 2014). In order to provide longer periods of observation that are more representative of typical child experiences, frequencies and durations of ER behaviors were summed across all novelty episodes (i.e. Clown, Puppet Show, Spider). To control for varying total length of observations, proportions of ER behavior were created by dividing each toddler’s scores by the length of the total observation time. Though both attention-related and self-soothing behaviors are considered to be more autonomous or “self-focused” forms of ER (Kopp, 1989), we examine them as distinct variables due to differences in how they were observed in the laboratory (frequency versus duration) and based on previous research taking the same approach (Cole et al., 2004).

Toddler distress

Distress was scored so that ER behaviors could be examined above and beyond reactivity. For each of the novelty episodes, toddler distress was coded on a 1 to 5 scale (1 = no distress shown or a very fleeting display, 2 = one or two displays of low intensity distress, 3 = long displays of low intensity distress, 4 = a few intense displays of distress or consistent display of low intensity distress, and 5 = a display of distress that lasted the whole episode, was very intense, or required stopping the episode). One score was provided for each toddler for each episode. Inter-rater reliability between coders and a master coder (second author) was assessed on approximately 20% of cases and was found to be high (ICC = .91). Episode distress scores were averaged across the episodes to create an overall distress score.

Results

Missing Data

Mothers missing T2 measures (n = 24) had higher mean levels of T1 depressive symptoms (t [89] = 2.41, p = .018; M = 0.59, SD = 0.30) than mothers who were not missing the T2 measure (M = 0.42, SD = 0.30). Despite this, data were most consistent with the pattern of missing completely at random according to Little’s MCAR test (χ2= 47.08, p > .05). Given this pattern, missing T2 emotion socialization and depressive symptoms were imputed using multiple imputation, as listwise deletion has been found to reduce power of the analyses and bias results in developmental research (Jeličić, Phelps, & Lerner, 2009). Toddler ER strategies, T1 maternal depressive symptoms, SES, T1 emotion socialization, existing T2 values, and interaction terms were included in the algorithm. A total of 20 imputations were computed as per existing guidelines (Graham, Olchowski, & Gilreath, 2007). We report pooled estimates of statistics, which represent weighted averages of statistics across the 20 imputations.

Preliminary Analyses

Primary study variables were all found to have normal distributions (skew < 2.0). Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. Given no significant relations between either gender or SES and primary variables (all ps > .05), they were not considered further.

Although primary analyses use a mean of CESD item scores as the measure of depressive symptoms, a sum was also computed to compare sample scores with clinical samples. The current sample, on average, was in the subclinical range (M = 9.28, SD = 6.02). One SD above the mean depressive symptom score corresponded to a clinical score of about 15 (“possible depression”) and the maximum score represented (27.00) indicated “probable depression” (Radloff, 1977). Accordingly, mothers approximately at or above one standard deviation above the mean demonstrated at least mild levels of depression symptoms.

Bivariate correlations are presented in Table 2. Maternal depressive symptom scores were positively associated with T1 and T2 non-supportive socialization and T2 wish-granting socialization. Caregiver-focused and attention ER were positively related to toddler distress and T1 and T2 wish-granting socialization. Furthermore, non-supportive socialization was positively associated with wish-granting socialization at both time points.

Table 2.

Bivariate Correlations of Primary Variables

Measure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Maternal depressive symptoms - −.04 .02 .08 .00 .30** .09 .27** .23*
2. Caregiver-focused regulation - .09 .18† .25* .03 .24* −.15 .23*
3. Self-soothing regulation - .16 .17 −.06 −.20† −.07 −.10
4. Attention regulation - .26* .20† .23* .02 .26*
5. Toddler distress - .13 .15 .03 19†
6. 24-month Non-Supportive - .41*** .78*** .25*
7. 24-month Wish-Granting - .23* .77***
8. 36-month Non-Supportive - .24*
9. 36-month Wish-Granting
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Note. N = 91.

†

p < .10,

*

p < .05,

**

p < .01,

***

p < .001

Moderation Analyses

It was hypothesized that the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and maternal socialization behaviors would depend on toddler ER, and that caregiver-focused ER would emerge as a unique moderator above and beyond the others. To test this hypothesis, toddler distress, maternal depressive symptoms, toddler ER behaviors, and the cross product of depressive symptoms with each of the ER behaviors were entered as predictors of a particular emotion socialization strategy in two multiple linear regression models. Moderations testing the outcomes of non-supportive and wish-granting T2 emotion socialization responses, controlling for the appropriate T1 socialization response, were conducted to assess change in these constructs. Each model contained all three ER behaviors and their interactions with maternal depressive symptoms. All moderation analyses described below follow guidelines set forth by Aiken and West (1991); continuous variables were centered at their means prior to creation of interaction terms. All significant interactions were probed for simple effects by re-centering the moderator at standard values (−1 SD, mean, +1 SD), and a region of significance for simple effects was computed. Because the information required for the computation of regions of significance could not be obtained from a multiple imputation file, a dataset consisting of variables computed by averaging the 20 imputations was used. The PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2008) provided the region of significance, which indicates the exact point of the ER behavior moderator at which the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and the emotion socialization outcome became significant.

The first analysis examined ER behaviors as moderators of the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and T2 wish-granting. Specifically, we found that this relation was indeed moderated by toddlers’ caregiver-focused ER (see Table 3). Probing revealed that there was no relation between maternal depressive symptoms and T2 wish-granting responses at low (b = − .016, t [91] = −.830, p = .40, SE = .019, 95% CI [−.053, .022], sr2= .07) or mean levels of caregiver focused ER (b = .017, t [91] =1.23, p = .22, SE =.014, 95% CI [−.010, .044], sr2=.12). However, as predicted, at high levels of caregiver-focused ER, mothers with higher depressive symptoms demonstrated increased wish granting socialization at T2 (b = .050, t [91] = 2.27, p = .006, SE = .022, 95% CI [.006, .093], sr2= .23, see Figure 1). The upper boundary of the region of significance of this interaction revealed that the relation was positive and significant at and above 0.21 SD above the mean. Interactions between depressive symptoms and independent forms of ER were not significant. To address whether depressive symptoms are predicting wish granting specifically and not just higher responding more broadly, we also computed analyses while controlling for T2 non-supportive responses and found highly similar results (significant interaction term, significant simple slope of depressive symptoms at approximately 1 SD above the mean of caregiver-focused ER). Further details are available from the authors by request.

Table 3.

Summary of Regression Models Predicting Emotion Socialization with Child Emotion Regulation as a Moderator

36-month wish-granting 36-month non-supportive
F(9, 81)= 19.95***
R2= .689
 F(9, 81)= 12.31***
R2= .578
Variable B SE t-test B SE t-test
24-month socialization scale 0.645 0.094 6.85*** 0.623 0.100 6.23***
Toddler distress 0.087 0.094 0.933 −0.001 0.089 −0.011
Maternal depressive symptoms (Dep) 0.017 0.014 1.23 0.004 0.013 0.320
Caregiver-focused regulation 3.156 5.201 0.607 −6.821 5.097 −1.34
Self-soothing regulation 0.223 0.503 0.443 0.062 0.618 0.101
Attention regulation 2.479 9.316 0.266 −10.844 9.377 −1.16
Caregiver-focused regulation X Dep 2.150 0.989 2.18* 0.322 0.926 0.348
Self-soothing regulation X Dep .045 0.090 0.506 −0.072 0.115 −0.63
Attention regulation X Dep 1.328 1.431 0.929 1.532 1.590 0.964
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Note. N = 91. Coefficients, standard errors, and t-tests were derived from pooled estimates of parameters (weighted by standard errors) from 20 imputed data sets. Analysis of variance and R2 statistics were estimated from an aggregated data set consisting of the mean of imputed data. Continuous predictors and covariates were centered at their means.

*

p < .05,

***

p <. 001

Figure 1.

Figure 1

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Probing of the interaction between maternal depressive symptoms and caregiver-focused regulation in relation to age 3 wish-granting socialization. Simple slopes were examined at Low (−1 SD), Mean, and High (+1 SD) levels of caregiver-focused regulation. ER= Emotion regulation.

* p < .05

A second analysis examined ER behaviors as moderators of the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and T2 non-supportive responses. Specifically, no interactions between maternal depressive symptoms and any form of toddler ER reached significance in predicting non-supportive responses (see Table 3). No main effects for depressive symptoms or ER behaviors were found to significantly predict non-supportive socialization responses.

Discussion

This study demonstrated that toddlers’ caregiver-focused ER behaviors, above and beyond toddler emotional reactivity, influenced the predictive relation between maternal depressive symptoms and maternal emotion socialization. Our analyses yielded longitudinal evidence that maternal depressive symptoms predicted maternal socialization responses, but only in the context of high toddler caregiver-focused ER, at 1-year follow-up. Evidence has consistently found support that parental characteristics, such as maternal depressive symptoms, inform the parental behaviors and responses that subsequently influence children’s socioemotional development (Eisenberg et al., 1996). Current results add to literature showing that variation in even mild symptoms of maternal depression (e.g. negative mood, apathy) influence mother-toddler relationships (West & Newman, 2003).

Consistent with hypotheses, at the bivariate level, there were significant, positive correlations among maternal depressive symptoms, 24-month caregiver-focused ER, and 36-month wish granting. Within regression analyses, maternal depressive symptoms predicted increased wish-granting responses when toddlers were 36-months old, but only for mothers of toddlers demonstrating increased levels of caregiver-focused ER. Although we cannot conclude causal directions from our data, this is consistent with the idea that depressive symptoms guide mothers to give in to their toddlers’ wishes during displays of negative affect when their toddlers focus on them in order to cope with their distress. Importantly, toddlers may not even have to be extremely high on caregiver-focused regulation (only 0.21 SD above the mean) to prompt mothers with depressive symptoms to engage in wish-granting behaviors. Depressive symptoms are cognitively and emotionally demanding on mothers, and are linked to maternal disengagement with their children (Gelfand & Teti, 1990; Lovejoy et al., 2000). Wish-granting responses, compared to more supportive responses, may require less cognitive and emotional attention and could thus be one manifestation of maternal disengagement, a maladaptive parenting behavior widely associated with negative outcomes in infancy and toddlerhood, such as disturbances in mother-child attachment, and deficits in child ER (Gelfand & Teti, 1990).

Wish-granting as a form of emotion socialization has been seldom studied, but it may be maladaptive because it prevents parents from assisting their child in learning how to effectively cope with emotional challenges, preventing children from independently coping with their negative emotions as they age (Spinrad, Stifter et al., 2004). In support of this, it has been established that wish-granting socialization responses in late infancy predict increased child negative affect in preschool (Spinrad, Stifter et al., 2004). In conjunction with the current results, mothers who respond to their infants’ negative emotions with wish-granting responses may be reinforcing a cycle of negative affect in their young children. Young children experiencing negative affect, who seek out their mothers to soothe them, may receive increased maladaptive wish-granting responses from mothers with higher depressive symptoms, which then encourages children to continue to use their mothers as a source of regulation for longer than is developmentally appropriate, resulting in even more wish-granting and more negative affect. Indeed, Patterson and Maccoby (1980) note that parent deficits in child management skills often result in an increase of maladaptive, coercive interactions between mother and child, especially in the context of child externalizing behavior. Dadds (2002) expanded upon this work by describing how these cycles are present in families of parents with significant anxiety, noting that restriction, control, and avoidant coping strategies are common within these families. Thus, it is pertinent to continue to examine both the predictors and outcomes of wish-granting as early as infancy in order to identify mother-child dyads at-risk for poor socioemotional outcomes. Such work may inform family based interventions designed to disrupt these maladaptive cycles.

We also found that toddlers’ ER strategies did not moderate the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and later non-supportive socialization responses one. Although depressive symptoms were positively related on a bivariate level to non-supportive emotion socialization, in regression analyses, depressive symptoms did not predict change in non-supportive socialization, nor was this relation found to depend on any form of toddler ER strategy. Our findings are not entirely inconsistent with existing literature, given some mixed evidence for a positive relation between depressive symptoms and harsh or intrusive types of parenting (Lovejoy et al., 2000). Multiple studies have found that only approximately 40% of depressed mothers demonstrate intrusive and punitive responses to their young children (Field et al., 2003; Jones et al., 1997). It could be that punitive and minimizing responses to toddlers’ negative emotion expressions develop from mild levels of depressive symptoms less often than more disengaged practices like wish-granting. Alternatively, there may be other child or parent characteristics that act as moderators of this relation. Lovejoy et al. (2000) suggested that the degree to which maternal depression predicted more intrusively negative (e.g., hostile, coercive) behaviors likely depended on depressive symptom severity, timing of the depressive symptoms, and maternal irritability. It is also possible that symptomatic mothers may demonstrate increased non-supportive responses with their older (school-aged) children who demonstrate increased caregiver-focused ER, as these strategies would be even less normative given children’s more advanced stage of socioemotional development. Thus, future studies should investigate this relation with samples of more severely depressed mothers and older children.

Lastly, we informally predicted that the relations between depressive symptoms and both types of maladaptive emotion socialization responses would not differ according to the extent to which toddlers demonstrated independent forms of ER, and this was found to be the case. These findings are consistent with the idea that independent ER strategies would not further cognitively or emotionally tax mothers with depressive symptoms. As a result, these mothers would not demonstrate increased wish-granting or non-supportive responses.

Limitations & Future Directions

There are limitations to the current study that should be acknowledged and addressed in future research. We measured symptoms in a community sample of mothers and used an assessment from a single time point to predict emotion socialization; thus, we do not account for episodic variation often seen with these symptoms (though we did find reasonable stability between two time points of depressive symptoms). Mothers were mild to moderate in depressive symptoms and were not diagnosed using a clinical interview; hence our depressive symptoms scores may be subject to negative self-report bias (Zuroff, Colussy, & Wielgus, 1983). Though the results of the current study are informative in that they may be generalizable to a large proportion of mothers and therefore to the consequences of symptoms to a large number of families, testing these relations in a clinical sample would provide a more robust understanding of how these symptoms relate to wish-granting and non-supportive socialization responses in the context of toddler ER. Examining these relations in a clinical sample would elucidate whether caregiver-focused ER continues to moderate the relation between moderate to severe depressive symptoms and increased wish-granting socialization, and emerges as a moderator for non-supportive responses. As self-reported parenting is often subject to social desirability and resulting biased responses (Morsbach & Prinz, 2006), future studies should also employ measures of parental socialization responses to infants’ and toddlers’ negative emotions as they occur in a laboratory or natural settings, as they may provide a wider range of socialization behaviors, particularly for non-supportive responses. Further, given the high stability of wish granting, effect sizes for our simple effects were relatively small; it will be crucial to replicate these findings across a wider age range. As the current study solely examined ER in fear-eliciting contexts, it will be important to examine how ER observed within the context of anger- and sadness-inducing paradigms relate to wish-granting responses. It will also be valuable to explicitly examine whether wish-granting increases the frequency of caregiver-focused ER to establish bidirectionality between these constructs. Finally, our sample was primarily European American; these relations should be examined in a more ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse sample given the breadth of research noting cultural differences in adaptive and maladaptive parental emotion socialization responses (Friedlmeier, Corapci, & Cole, 2011).

Conclusion

The current study examined the role of toddler emotion regulation behaviors in moderating the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and non-supportive and wish-granting emotion socialization responses. Results indicated that caregiver-focused toddler emotion relation moderated the relation between depressive symptoms and increased wish-granting socialization one year later. This relation was not found for non-supportive socialization, and more independent forms of emotion regulation did not influence the relation between depressive symptoms and either form of maladaptive socialization. Our results contribute to current theories of family processes related to emotion socialization and emotion regulation by hinting at a bidirectional relationship between emotion regulation and emotion socialization, and suggesting that emotion regulation strategies can interact with maternal characteristics to predict mothers’ emotion socialization responses. Findings also contribute to an existing literature documenting the presence and nature of disengaged parenting in mothers with depressive symptoms. Family psychologists must continue to recognize that each member of the family functions within an interdependent system by acknowledging the role of both mother and toddler in maladaptive emotional and behavioral cycles. Parents, especially those vulnerable to depressive symptoms, should be encouraged to actively engage with and support their toddlers during displays of negative emotion in order to prevent these maladaptive cycles.

Acknowledgments

Supported, in part, by a National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant F31 MH077385-01) and a University of Missouri Department of Psychological Sciences Dissertation Grant to Elizabeth Kiel, and a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant R01 MH075750) to Kristin Buss. We express our gratitude to the families and toddlers who participated in this project.

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