Effects of maladaptive family functioning on child emotion regulation: A study among children and mothers who have experienced domestic violence
Item
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Title
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Effects of maladaptive family functioning on child emotion regulation: A study among children and mothers who have experienced domestic violence
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:75e6bef821fa:10689
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identifier
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10760
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Creator
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Upshur, Emily D.,
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Contributor
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Peter Fraenkel
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Date
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2010
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Clinical psychology | Individual & family studies | Child | Emotion Regulation | Family | Homelessness
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Abstract
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This study examined the hypothesis that, in families in which domestic violence and homelessness occurred, families who have better family functioning, including communication, affective expression, and affective involvement, will have children who demonstrate better emotion regulation (ER) skills. Sixty-one families with children between the ages of 4-16 who were living in a domestic violence shelter participated in the study. Mothers completed questionnaires about family functioning and their child's ER) shortly after entry to the shelter. To further explore the relationship of family functioning and child ER, a subgroup of 23 families were given additional mother and child self-report measures on ER, as well as a projective measure.;Bivariate correlational analysis confirmed the study hypothesis that among mothers in a domestic violence shelter who provided data on their family's functioning, significant associations were found between poorer family functioning and mothers' reports of poorer child ER. As hypothesized, each of the family functioning dimensions of communication, affective expression, and affective involvement, were significantly associated with children's ER. In addition, the subgroup study that used children's self-report of ER also provided strong, but not statistically significant associations between mother-reported family functioning and how the children reported their own ER functioning. Children self-reported poorer ER when mothers reported poorer family functioning.;This study demonstrates that dimensions of family functioning are directly tied to children's ER capacity. These findings suggest clinical interventions for families experiencing domestic violence and homelessness should be targeted to more fundamental processes of family communication and emotion coaching between mothers and children. Such interventions to improve child ER as a proximal outcome should have long lasting effects on children's adjustment among children in these families. Further, as this study has shown, a large proportion of families recruited had normative family functioning, and the majority of children had strong ER skills, despite enduring extraordinary stresses. Taken from the perspective of identifying resilience and not only deficit, families who already have stronger family functioning need to be encouraged to continue to keep open lines of communication and helped to process the emotions that both mothers and children experience as they enter a domestic violence shelter.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
