Effect of parental emotion regulation ability and parent-child attachment on adolescent’s emotion regulation ability in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction: Many global studies identify the importance of parental emotion regulation (ER) and quality of parent-child attachment on children's ER ability. Such research is rare in Sri Lanka.Objective: To assess the association between parental ER difficulties, quality of parent child attachment and temperament on adolescents' ER difficulties.Method: A cross sectional study was done on 233, 12-14 year old adolescents and 349 parents accessed from a Type AB, Type C and Type 2 school and from a Christian and Buddhist Sunday school within the Colombo Educational zone using the convenient sampling method. Content and consensual validated Difficulties in ER Scale, the Inventory of Parent-Peer-Attachment-Parental subscale, the Abbreviated Dimensions of Temperament Survey-Revised were used along with a demographic questionnaire to collect data. Results: A significant positive relationship was found between mother's, father's and adolescent's ER difficulties (Mother: Pearson r (208) = 0.305, Father: Pearson r (122) =0.377). A significant negative relationship was seen between attachment towards mother and attachment towards father and adolescent's ER ability [(Mother: Spearman r (225) = -0.220, Father: Spearman r (219) = -0.233].Fathers' ER abilities had a greater impact on the adolescents' ER abilities than mother's ER abilities (Father: β=0.32, p<0.01, Mother: β=0.823, p=0.526). Similarly, father's attachment (β=-0.277, p<0.01) was seen to be more important in predicting ER ability in the adolescents than _________________________________________

The role of fathers in children's emotion regulation development: A systematic review

“…While Silva et al (2018) found no association between the paternal use of modelling of cognitive strategies and ER in adolescents, such an association was found in two other studies (Cheung et al, 2020; Gunawardena & Schuck, 2021). These findings corroborate the previous evidence reporting that maternal modelling of emotion dysregulation was significantly associated with adolescents' ER difficulties (Morelen et al, 2016).…”

“…Four of five studies found that the quality of the father–infant attachment was significantly associated with a child's ER (Boldt et al, 2020; Diener et al, 2002; Fernandes et al, 2021; Gunawardena & Schuck, 2021). Of these, three studies examined fathers' attachment in infancy (Diener et al, 2002; Fernandes et al, 2021) and preschool (Boldt et al, 2020), while one study was conducted with adolescent samples (Gunawardena & Schuck, 2021). Volling's (2001) study reported no association between a child's attachment to their father assessed at 12 months and ER strategies in 4‐year‐old children.…”

“…However, results tend to show that father and child ER are associated. Three of four available studies suggest paternal modelling has an effect on ER skills in school‐age children (Li et al, 2019) and adolescent samples (Cheung et al, 2020; Gunawardena & Schuck, 2021), while one study did not find the association between fathers' and their adolescents' ER (Silva et al, 2018). However, a study by Silva et al (2018) has a higher risk of bias than other studies because it did not report a proper explanation of sample recruitment, did not conduct power analysis for sample size calculation, and did not provide information in handling missing data.…”

“…Insecure‐resistant infants were likely to be self‐soothers, whereas insecure‐avoidant ones were likely to apply distraction techniques. Furthermore, the low quality of father–child attachment was affected by higher levels of the adolescent's ER difficulties (Gunawardena & Schuck, 2021). Only one study, by Volling (2001), found no association between the variables.…”

Child emotional and behavioral difficulties and parent stress during COVID-19 lockdown in Sri Lankan families

“…The pandemic’s impact on children’s mental health and parental stress in Sri Lanka is only anecdotal; no studies have explored psychological wellbeing during this period so far. Moreover, during the pandemic and even in pre-pandemic times, children’s psychological well-being on parent stress and vice versa had hardly been explored in the Sri Lankan context [ 10 , 11 ].…”