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PARENTS, INFANTS, AND SIBLINGS: EMOTION REGULATION IN A TRIADIC INTERACITON CONTEXT

Alison L. Miller, Nancy L. McHlwain, and Brenda L. Volling

Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Arm Arbor, MI 48109-1109

Multiple factors in the early caregiving enviromnent influence the infant’s ability to regulate affect. Research to date in this area has primarily focused on the mother-infant dyad, with little attention to the role of the father in infant emotional regulation. However, fmdings that mothers and fathers may interact differently with their infants (e.g. fathers are more physically playful; Lamb, 1981) call for an e xamination of the impact of each parent’s emotional style on the infant’s ability to regtdate affect. The primary goal of this study was to analyze the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ emotional styles and parenting behaviors on children’s emotion regulation. An additional goal was to examine similarities aud differences between mothers’ and fathers’ emotional displays depending on whether the target child was the older sibling or the iufaut. The effect of older sibling gender on parent and child displays of emotion and emotion regulation was also investigated.

Sixty-two primarily white, maritally-intact family triads (mother or father, 16-month-old infant, and older sibling age 2-6 years) were videotaped in two 3 minute sessions. Parents were instructed to focus on one child (either older sibling or infant) while telling the other to play with another toy for 3 minutes, then to switch and play with the other child. Emotional displays (happiness/joy, anger, sadness, distress/anxiety). child emotion regulation (under-, over-, or well-regulated) (Cole, Barrett, & Zahu-Waxler, 1992). parent behavior (facilitative, controlling, involved, or unresponsive), child distracting behavior and play sophistication were coded in this triadic situation (Teti & Ablard, 1989).

One-way ANOVAs revealed that mothers exhibited significantly higher levels of facilitative and controlling behavior, with both infants and older siblings, when the child showed under-regulated emotion than when the child displayed over-regulated or well-regulated emotion. However, no significant relationships were foundbetween fathers’ parenting behaviors and child emotion regulation levels.

Next, 2(parent) x 2(target status) x 2(older sibling gender) repeatedmeasures MANOVAs were performed. There were no siguificant main effects for older sibling gender on emotion or behavior variables. Mothers displayed signifka.utly more joy with both children than did fathers. Significaut main effects were also found for target status. Parents displayed less joy, and directed more facilitative and more unresponsive parenting behavior toward the older sibling than to the infant Infauts showed significantly more negative affect when the older sibling was the target child. Older siblings showed more sad affect when the infant was the target child, and more positive affect when they were the target child In addition, older siblings displayed more distracting behavior, but higher levels of play sophistication, when they were the non-target child.

One significant older sibling gender by parent interaction for older sibling positive emotion indicated that girls expressed significautly more joy with fathers, and boys more joy with mothers. An older sibling gender by target status interaction revealed that girls displayed significantly more joy when they were the target child, and less joy when they were not the target child, than did boys.

Correlations showed that fathers’ controlling behavior was comparable for older sibling and infant targets. and that mothers’ and fathers’ levels of involvement and displays of joy were also consistent across siblings. Older siblings’ displays of sadness aud anger were consistent during sessions with fathers, aud non-target older siblings showed similar levels of distracting behavior with both mothers and fathers. Older siblings displayed comparable levels of joy across mother and father sessions and when they were the non-target child Infant joy was correlated across target status and parents. and levels of infant negative affect were similar with mothers and with fathers. Finally, non-target infants and older siblings both maintained similar levels of play sophistication with their fathers.

These results suggested that mothers and fathers interact differently with their children when the children are emotionally under-regulated. Mothers directed more facilitative and controlling parenting strategies to the children and exhibited more positive affect than did fathers. Correlation analyses revealed differences in mothers’ and fathers’ behaviors and emotions when interacting with infants aud older siblings, as well as differences in the children’s interactions with each parent. Not surprisingly, infants had more difficulty regulating affect than older siblings, who may possess better emotion regulation strategies. When older siblings were non-targets, they demonstrated more distracting behavior and received more facilitative parenting attention than did infants. The significant effect of target status showed that older children seem to be better equipped than are their younger siblings to face a situation in which they experience differential treatment.