Parental emotion socialisation and child temperament: Associations with clinic-referred conduct problems in early childhood

Abstract

There is increasing interest in the role of parental emotion socialisation behaviours (ESBs) in the prevention and treatment of early childhood conduct problems; however, the nature of the relation between specific ESBs and severity of conduct problems remains unclear, and research with clinical populations is limited. There is evidence that this relation may be moderated by child temperament, with research demonstrating stronger associations in children who are emotionally reactive. The research on callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g. lack of guilt and empathy) suggests that these temperament-related features may also moderate the relation between ESBs and conduct problem severity, and that CU traits may be directly associated with ESBs. The present study is the first to examine relations between these variables in a clinic-referred early-childhood sample. A sample of 87 clinic-referred toddlers aged 24 to 54 months was utilised. Primary caregivers completed measures of parental reactions to emotions, discipline practices, child temperament and conduct problems. Warmth and positive affect in the parent-child relationship (i.e. mutually responsive orientation; MRO) was coded from observed interactions in a subset of the sample (n = 55). Results revealed that punitive and minimising (‘unsupportive’) reactions to child emotion uniquely predicted conduct problem severity, independent of ineffective discipline, parental depression and the affective quality of the parent-child relationship. Emotional reactivity moderated the relation between unsupportive reactions and conduct problems, such that it was significant only for children high in emotional reactivity. CU traits were not associated with ESBs, and did not moderate the association between ESBs and conduct problem severity. Findings suggest that unsupportive reactions to emotions may be of specific importance in early childhood conduct problems, particularly for children with temperamental vulnerabilities.